UNITED KINGDOM
Cameron to target racism
Prime Minister David Cameron was to meet with soccer chiefs and anti-racism campaigners late yesterday to address the recent spate of racist incidents that have blighted the national game. Representatives from the Football Association, the Premier League, the Football League, The Professional Footballers’ Association and the League Managers’ Association were expected to attend. Cameron’s intervention comes following high-profile incidents. Controversy was stirred when Liverpool striker Luis Suarez refused to shake hands with Manchester United’s Patrice Evra before their clubs’ match at Old Trafford earlier this month. Suarez has only recently returned for Liverpool after serving an eight-match ban for racially abusing Evra during a game in October. Meanwhile Chelsea’s John Terry has been stripped of the England captaincy while he awaits a criminal trial on charges of racially abusing Queens Park Ranger’s Anton Ferdinand.
ROMANIA
FRF reports illegal deal offer
The Romanian Football Federation (FRF) made an official complaint on Tuesday after being offered money to appoint a different referee for next week’s friendly against Uruguay. FRF media officer Paul Zaharia said the federation had reported the matter to world soccer’s governing body FIFA and Europe’s ruling authority UEFA after receiving an approach to replace Hungarian Viktor Kassai. “We received a phone call from abroad and it was followed by an email from the same person,” Zaharia told Reuters. “He asked us to release Viktor Kassai to officiate another friendly and in exchange he offered us a donation of US$20,000 and also to provide FIFA referees for the game against Uruguay free of charge.” The FRF, which said it did not want to disclose the name of the person or the federation while the investigation was ongoing, said the other federation had asked for an official invitation to change referees.
INDIA
No fields, no play for PLS
The inaugural edition of India’s Premier League Soccer (PLS), featuring World Cup winner Fabio Cannavaro and former France international Robert Pires, has been postponed because of a lack of venues, organizers in New Delhi told reporters yesterday. “Discussion is on with the state government, but even if it is sorted out by the end of this week, we would need time to prepare the fields,” Dharamdutt Pandey, CEO of the event management company that conceived the PLS idea, said by telephone. “These are minor issues and PLS is very much on. We are now targeting a mid-April start for the league,” he said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Leon McKenzie sent to jail
A former Premier League soccer player has been jailed for six months for sending fake letters to the police to avoid a driving ban. Leon McKenzie, who played for Norwich in England’s top division in the 2004-2005 season, sent letters claiming to be from a fictional garage that said his car was off the road. The 33-year-old -McKenzie was sentenced at a court in Northampton, England, on Tuesday after pleading guilty to six charges of perverting the course of justice between February 2008 and December 2009. McKenzie released a statement on Twitter, saying his behavior was “totally unacceptable and very naive” during a time in which he “fell deep into depression, which led me to try and take my life.” He retired from soccer in December.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set