FOOTBALL
Eagles’ stadium going green
The Philadelphia Eagles will add solar panels and wind turbines at their home stadium, saying on Thursday it will be the world’s first stadium with self-generating renewable energy. The US football club’s joint venture with Solar Blue, a Florida firm that will invest US$30 million in the project over the next year, will also include a duel-fuel co-generation plant at Lincoln Financial Field. The plan, scheduled to be finished in time for the September’s start of next year’s National Football League season, will see 80 spiral-shaped wind turbines attached atop the stadium and 2,500 solar panels installed. Nature gas and bio-diesel fuel will power the co-generation plant.
SOCCER
Work on UK center to begin
Building work on England’s much-delayed National Football Center will begin in January, the Football Association (FA) said on Thursday. The £105 million (US$167 million) project, which was first suggested in 2001, has been repeatedly put back because of doubts over funding. The site will be in Burton-upon-Trent, central England. The center, widely expected to be an English version of France’s Clairefontaine academy, is due to be completed in mid 2012 after the FA board agreed to underwrite the project. “St George’s Park will be a world-class facility providing top-class education for future generations of English football coaches,” David Sheepshanks, FA board member and chairman of the National Football Centre board, said in a statement. The center will act as a hub to 1,400 coaches whose job it will be to train a further 250,000 coaches to work in clubs and communities by 2018.
SOCCER
Emenalo moves to Chelsea
Chelsea have named Nigerian Michael Emenalo as their assistant manager, the Premier League leaders said on Thursday. The 45-year-old replaces Ray Wilkins as Carlo Ancelotti’s right-hand man. Wilkins left Stamford Bridge last week for undisclosed reasons. Emenalo joined Chelsea in 2007 and has been working as the club’s Head Opposition Scout. He represented Nigeria as a defender at the 1994 World Cup and played for clubs including Molenbeek in Belgium, England’s Notts County and San Jose Clash in the US.
RUGBY UNION
All Black Simpson dies
Johnny Simpson, a rugged prop who played 33 matches including nine tests for New Zealand in the late 1940s, has died aged 88, family members said. Simpson was a member of the famous New Zealand Army rugby team which toured Britain immediately after World War II, playing in 18 of its 33 matches including those against England, Wales and Scotland which it won. He first played for the All Blacks on their 1947 tour to Australia and toured South Africa with the 1949 team, playing in all four tests. Although the All Blacks lost the series 4-0, Simpson established an acclaimed front row partnership with hooker Has Catley and prop Kevin Skinner. He was an athletic prop who became know as the “Iron Man” for his strength and resilience.
SKELETON
World champ Staehli dies
Switzerland’s Gregor Staehli, the reigning world skeleton champion, announced his retirement from the sport on Thursday. Staehli, 42, was forced to pull out of this year’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver due to a thigh injury. As well as three world titles, in 1994, 2007 and last year, the Swiss also has two Olympic bronze medals from 2002 and 2006.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB