ENGLAND
Lewington to join Hodgson
England manager Roy Hodgson will be joined by Fulham coach Ray Lewington for the European Championship in Poland and Ukraine, the Football Association confirmed on Friday. Lewington had been tipped to join former Craven Cottage boss Hodgson during the summer and now Fulham and the FA have agreed a deal for them to renew a working relationship they had at club level. A statement issued by the FA read: “The FA and Fulham Football Club can confirm that Ray Lewington will join Roy Hodgson’s England coaching staff at the end of the Premier League season to work with the team during the European Championship.” Hodgson said: “I’m delighted that Fulham have agreed to Ray joining the England coaching staff for the summer. I know Ray well and enjoyed working with him at Craven Cottage. He’s a very good coach and the players will I’m sure enjoy working with him. We’re currently finalizing the rest of the coaching staff, but it’s great to have Ray confirmed.”
PORTUGAL
Uniao Leiria hit by walkout
Portuguese club Uniao Leiria on Friday confirmed that they will fulfill their weekend fixture against Benfica in Lisbon, despite 13 players resigning in protest at delays in receiving their wages. Club president Joao Bartolomeu said that they will send a team comprised of youth players for the game at the Estadio da Luz and insisted that they will complete their top-flight fixtures. Earlier, local media quoted a statement from the club’s management saying that the resignation en masse “could lead irreversibly to relegation,” which would force the club to “give up” top flight football. Bosses accused the players of “unjustified absences from training and, worse, not turning up for the 28th match of the season” against Feirense at home last Sunday. Leiria, based in central Portugal, managed to put out an eight-man team against Feirense, but lost 4-0.
SCOTLAND
Papac confirms Rangers exit
Bosnian defender Sasa Papac has confirmed he will leave crisis-hit Scottish giants Rangers when his contract expires at the end of the season. The left-back has yet to find a new club but has confirmed he will quit Ibrox after six years. He told the club’s official website: “After six seasons of playing for Rangers, the time has come for me to leave my place for someone younger who will be able to contribute to new successes at the club with passion and zest.” Rangers entered administration in February and are currently the subject of a possible takeover by US businessman Bill Miller, who on Thursday was named as the preferred bidder by the club’s administrators. Tow-truck tycoon Miller was battling a rival bid by the Blue Knights consortium, but is now in pole position to secure a takeover after the decision by administrators Duff and Phelps.
CHINA
Guangzhou suspend Conca
Reigning Chinese Super League champions Guangzhou Evergrande have suspended Argentine star Dario Conca for nine matches and fined him 1 million yuan (US$159,000) after an outburst at his coach. The announcement late on Friday of the fine and suspension came after an angry outburst from Conca when he was substituted during Guangzhou’s 3-1 AFC Champions League defeat to Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors on Tuesday. Conca scored his side’s only goal with a penalty kick in the early stages, but was unhappy when Lee Jang-soo replaced him in the second half.
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