SOCCER
QPR punish Barton
Joey Barton was stripped of the Queens Park Rangers captaincy and fined six weeks’ wages by the club on Monday, following his sending-off at Manchester City on the final day of last season. The internal punishment follows the imposition last month by a Football Association-appointed independent regulatory commission of a 12-match ban and a £75,000 (US$117,029) fine. The two fines combined means this latest episode of ill-discipline has cost the controversial player about £500,000. His club and the FA took action after Barton elbowed City’s Carlos Tevez and then kicked out at Sergio Aguero as he left the pitch in the match on May 13, before aiming a headbutt in the direction of Vincent Kompany. QPR stopped short of sacking Barton, but warned the player that his contract will be terminated should he “seriously breach the club’s disciplinary procedures again.”
SOCCER
Rangers’ hopes dwindle
Rangers’ hopes of being allowed to play in the Scottish Premier League (SPL) next season appear dead in the water after a sixth club confirmed that they would vote against the proposal. St Johnstone joined Aberdeen, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Dundee United, Hearts and Hibernian in publicly announcing their opposition to a “newco” Rangers being admitted to the SPL. Rangers require an 8-4 majority for the “newco” — the new company formed after the original club went into liquidation earlier this month — to be included in the top flight next season when all SPL clubs vote on the issue at a general meeting on July 4. Rangers themselves are allowed to vote, but they needed seven others to vote in their favor and now require U -turns from at least two clubs for that to happen.
BASEBALL
Byrd out for 50 games
Free-agent outfielder Marlon Byrd has been handed a 50-game suspension by Major League Baseball after testing positive for an illegal performance-enhancing substance, it was announced on Monday. The 34-year-old Byrd began the season with the Chicago Cubs, who traded him to Boston in April, but he was released by the Red Sox on June 12. Byrd will now be put on baseball’s restricted list for the duration of his suspension. He blames the failed test on a past medication he took for an undisclosed surgery. “I made an inexcusable mistake,” Byrd said in a statement released by the players’ association. “I absolutely did not use [the medication] for performance enhancement reasons.”
CRICKET
India kicks against tech
India’s powerful cricket board has maintained its opposition to mandatory video technology, despite backing for the system from the sport’s world bosses meeting in Kuala Lumpur. Indian officials said their stance on the Decision Review System (DRS) was “unchanged” despite a recommendation for the technology to be compulsory in all Tests and one-day internationals, costs allowing. “The BCCI continues to believe that the system is not foolproof,” the Board of Control for Cricket in India said in a statement released on Monday. “The board also sticks to its view that the decision on whether or not to use the DRS for a particular series should be left to the boards involved in that series.” The comments set the stage for more controversy over DRS, which uses ball-tracking and thermal imaging to verify umpires’ decisions. It was made optional last year, rather than compulsory, at India’s insistence.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later