SOCCER
Alves a victim of ‘racism’
Brazil right back Daniel Alves has been the victim of racism throughout his time in Spain with Barcelona, he said in an interview published on Tuesday. The 27-year-old described how he had been called a “monkey” by fans of Barca’s rivals at many grounds in Spain. “Sadly, I’ve learnt to live with it,” he told the Brazilian daily Folha de Sao Paulo while preparing for Brazil’s friendly against France in Paris yesterday. “I live with it in all the matches, but I don’t feel offended. They insult me, they call me monkey,” said Alves, who has established himself as one of Barcelona’s key players since joining them from Sevilla in 2008. “The fans do it, the players are against it ... My family are unhappy, they complain, but I try to distance myself from it. I consider those people uneducated and don’t give them importance.” Alves, from a poor background in northeastern Brazil, said that despite the efforts of La Liga to sanction fans for racist behavior, racism “is uncontrollable. It will never stop.”
SOCCER
Suspension angers Diego
Wolfsburg’s Brazilian midfielder Diego said he was disappointed to receive a one-match suspension after disobeying the coach’s order and missing a penalty kick. Diego took the penalty even though then-coach Steve McClaren wanted another player to take it. The former Brazil playmaker hit the crossbar. Diego said in a statement on Tuesday that now “there is nothing else to do but accept the decision and cheer on the team in the next match.” Wolfsburg fired McClaren on Monday after it won only one of its last 11 league matches. He left the 2009 German champion battling relegation.
RUGBY
Tonga PM pans rugby rules
Tonga’s prime minister said this year’s Rugby World Cup would not be a real competition because “unfair” eligibility rules prevent Pacific nations from fielding some of their best players. Lord Tu’ivakano said in Nuku’alofa that International Rugby Board (IRB) rules barring a player who has represented one country from ever taking the field for another protected the game’s traditional powers from being challenged. The law is a sore point for Pacific nations, whose best players are often lured to New Zealand or Australia as youngsters, but cannot represent their homeland even after their careers with their adopted countries are over. “If they’re going to have a real World Cup, then they need to give the other countries the chance to have their own players,” he said in an interview Tuesday. Tu’ivakano said Tonga had players in top international competitions who could not represent their country at the World Cup, which runs from Sept. 9 to Oct .23 in New Zealand, robbing the team of valuable experience.
CRICKET
NZC denies misconduct
New Zealand Cricket (NZC) have denied local media reports that pace bowler Tim Southee was involved in an incident on a flight to Dubai as the team were en route to the World Cup. Local media reported that a passenger on the flight had alerted team management about an incident between a player and a female passenger. However, team manager Dave Currie said that after conducting an investigation he had determined the player, who he identified as Southee, had not been involved in anything inappropriate. “Tim met a female passenger on board the plane and spent some time with her,” Carrie said.
BASEBALL
US stars enter diplomacy
Two veteran US baseball stars will travel to South Korea and meet North Korean defectors as part of US efforts to use sport as a tool of diplomacy. Former Hall of Fame nominee Barry Larkin and former Montreal Expos pitcher Joe Logan will visit Seoul, Gwangju and Jeju Island from Sunday until Feb. 19. The US State Department said on Tuesday the pair will hold baseball clinics, meet defectors and speak to local students. They will also hold discussions with non-governmental and minority groups on the importance of diversity. Former short-stop Larkin was a member of the Cincinnati Reds’ 1990 World Series championship team. He and Logan have made two previous trips overseas as sports diplomacy envoys.
CYCLING
Family doping ring faces ban
Italian cyclist Lorenzo Bernucci, a former teammate of ace sprinter Alessandro Petacchi, was slapped with a five year ban on Tuesday by the Italian Olympic Committee, while four members of his family also received bans for their involvement in a doping ring. Bernucci — who was fired by former team T--Mobile in 2007 after testing positive for sibutramine, a banned substance, although he did not serve a ban — came under suspicion when Italian federal police investigators sequestered pharmaceutical products from both Petacchi and Bernucci’s homes in April last year. According to Italian media reports on Tuesday, banned products such as albumine and sibutramine were among the items discovered by the police during the raid. Along with Bernucci, his wife Valentina Borgioli, mother Antonella Rossi and his father-in-law Fabrizio Borgioli were banned for four years “from frequenting sporting establishments and spaces reserved for athletes and related personnel in Italy,” anti-doping prosecutors said. “As well as [prevented from] taking part in sporting events on Italian soil or those organized by Italian sporting authorities.” His brother Alessio received a three-year ban.
CYCLING
RFEC justifies decision
Spain’s cycling federation justified its decision to seek a one-year ban for Alberto Contador, rather than the usual two years, by saying his responsibility appeared to be minimal, a Spanish newspaper said on Tuesday. “The negligence of the cyclist was not significant ... as the simple presence of the substance in his body does not imply a violation of fair play,” the federation, RFEC, said in a report, according to the sports daily Marca. The paper said the federation used this argument to seek a one-year suspension, rather than a two-year ban that would normally be imposed for a doping violation. The presence of the banned substance clenbuterol was detected over four consecutive days during last year’s Tour de France, the RFEC said in its report, although only one of those tests, on July 21, was retained.
SOCCER
Guardiola signs extension
Barcelona said on Tuesday it has reached an agreement with coach Pep Guardiola for a one-year contract extension. Barcelona did not reveal the terms of a deal that will keep the 40-year-old former Barcelona player at the helm of the Catalan club until the end of the 2011 to 2012 season. Barcelona said the deal will be signed “in the coming days.” Barcelona is enjoying perhaps the most successful spell in its 112-year history under Guardiola, who took over from Frank Rijkaard in 2008. Guardiola had said he preferred to sign one-year extensions over a long-term deal to maintain his motivation.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier