SOCCER
Players charged for brawl
England under-21 players Steven Caulker and Thomas Ince have reportedly been charged by Serbian police for their role in an on-field brawl at the end of a match marred by racial abuse from the crowd. Serbian state news agency Tanjug identified the two after police in the town of Krusevac, where the Serbia-England match was played on Oct. 16, charged 12 unidentified people on Tuesday for committing “an act of violence during a sports event.” The agency said England assistant manager Steve Wingley was also charged, along with four players and an assistant manager for Serbia plus several fans. Tanjug said Serbian prosecutors will hand over the case involving the Englishmen to British judicial authorities. Players and officials from both teams clashed on the pitch following the final whistle amid accusations of racist abuse from fans toward England defender Danny Rose, who was sent off for kicking a ball into the stands.
SOCCER
Chelsea files ref complaint
Chelsea announced on Wednesday that they have lodged a formal complaint with the Football Association (FA) over allegations referee Mark Clattenburg used “inappropriate language” toward John Obi Mikel. Chelsea allege that Clattenburg abused Nigerian midfielder Mikel during the European champions’ stormy 3-2 loss to Manchester United in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. Reports in the British media have suggested that Chelsea believe the language used by Clattenburg towards Mikel was of a racial nature. The club’s initial complaint claimed Clattenburg had used inappropriate language towards two players, but the allegation regarding the other player — thought to be Spanish midfielder Juan Mata — has been dropped. The FA announced on Monday that they have launched an investigation into the incident, while the Metropolitan Police on Tuesday said they will also conduct a probe.
SOCCER
Rangers out of League Cup
Fallen giants Rangers were knocked out of the Scottish League Cup after Inverness Caledonian Thistle dished out a comprehensive 3-0 defeat in their quarter-final tie at Ibrox on Wednesday. Rangers had made a mockery of their Third Division status with a dominant display in a 2-0 win against Motherwell in the previous round and hopes were high around Ibrox that the Glasgow giants could claim another Premier League scalp. However, it proved to be a step too far for Ally McCoist’s side as Inverness progressed to the semi-finals of the League Cup for the first time in their history thanks to goals from Andrew Shinnie, Gary Warren and a Graeme Shinnie penalty. Rangers had been desperate to give their fans a lift on the day the old club was liquidated.
WATERPOLO
Kuwaiti players crash
More than a dozen members of the Kuwaiti men’s waterpolo team were injured in a road accident, one of them seriously, near the Greek city of Thessaloniki, police said yesterday. Fourteen of the athletes and the team’s Greek driver were hospitalized in Thessaloniki overnight, though none are in immediate danger. Four were still in hospital yesterday, including 31-year-old Adnan Khan, who has multiple fractures. The accident occurred on Wednesday on a rural road outside the city when the team’s minivan glanced off an incoming car and overturned. The car’s Georgian driver was later arrested after being confirmed drunk, police said. The Kuwaiti team was in Thessaloniki for a friendly against the national squad.
BASEBALL
Soriano to leave Yankees
Rafael Soriano, who saved 42 games in 46 chances this year as a relief pitcher for the New York Yankees, has opted out of his contract with the Major League Baseball club, the team said on Wednesday. The 32-year-old Dominican right-hander was due US$14 million next year, but will instead take a US$1.5 million buyout as he seeks a new deal with another club. The Yankees are expected to make a qualifying offer of more than US$13 million to Soriano in order to receive some sort of compensation should he sign with another club. Soriano went 2-1 with a 2.26 earned-run average this past season as the Yankees won the American League East division title, but were swept by Detroit in the league championship series.
CYCLING
White sacked for doping
The Orica-GreenEDGE team has sacked sports director Matt White after he admitted to doping while riding with Lance Armstrong’s US Postal cycling team. White voluntarily stood down from the position last month pending an inquiry when he admitted doping after being named in the US Anti-Doping Agency’s dossier on Armstrong. The 38-year-old was also sacked from his position as elite men’s road coordinator at Cycling Australia last month for the same reason. “Orica-GreenEDGE is a clean team and our commitment to being clean has been a foundation principle of the team since the day of its inception,” team owner Gerry Ryan said in a statement. “Professional cycling is at a crossroads. The future of the sport is being determined by what we do today. [We] will not step back from taking any necessary decision to protect the integrity of the sport and the team, and to restore the confidence of cycling fans around the world.”
RUGBY UNION
England’s Ashton banned
Chris Ashton will miss England’s opening autumn Test match against Fiji after a Rugby Football Union disciplinary panel announced on Wednesday that they have banned him for a dangerous tackle. The Saracens wing has been suspended for a week after being cited for a dangerous tackle on Northampton’s Vasily Artemyev in a Premiership match on Saturday. The citing’s level 1 status was the equivalent of an off-pitch yellow card, increasing Ashton’s tally for the season to three and yielding an automatic disciplinary hearing. The suspension has been timed to run from Sunday, specifically to prevent Ashton from playing against the Fijians six days later, as England have not released him to play for his club this weekend.
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