Japan’s soccer team were held up for four hours by a baggage and immigration inspection at a Pyongyang airport on the eve of their World Cup qualifier against North Korea, reports said yesterday.
The Blue Samurai touched down in the capital of the secretive state at about 3pm on Monday, but were not able to leave the airport until after 7pm, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun, Kyodo News and other major media.
BAD BANANAS
Dour local officials warned players when they laughed and confiscated items including bananas, chewing gum and instant noodles, the Nikkan Sports and Sports Nippon newspapers reported.
The airport experienced three power outages during the lengthy process.
The team began their official practice at about 8pm — three hours later than intended — wearing hats and gloves in a bitterly cold Kim Il-sung Stadium, reports said.
Asian champions Japan have already secured their passage to the fourth and final qualifying stage of the tournament, but North Korea cannot progress.
Speaking after the training session on Monday, Japan coach Alberto Zaccheroni said the first match for Japan on North Korean turf in 22 years was just a regular game.
“I am not planning on asking the players to do anything differently in this match. I am just going to tell them to enjoy themselves, grow together and play for the sake of the national team,” he said.
QUIETER CHEERS
Just 150 tickets were allocated for traveling Japanese fans for last night’s game, with supporters warned to tone down their usual spirited support to avoid potential conflict with the authorities.
Japan does not have diplomatic relations with North Korea, which still demands reparations from its former colonial rulers for wartime atrocities.
The communist regime is widely despised in Japan, where feelings run high over the unresolved abductions in the 1970s and 1980s of young Japanese citizens who were used to train Pyongyang’s spies in the Japanese language and customs.
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