SOCCER
Milan, Juve want Balotelli
Manchester City’s volatile striker Mario Balotelli could soon be on his way back to his native Italy, with sources familiar with the talks saying AC Milan and Juventus are interested in a deal. The English champions have been talking to the Serie A clubs in the past 24 hours, with Milan widely reported to have offered about 20 million euros (US$26.92 million) plus add-ons for the 22-year-old, but this has fallen short of City’s price tag. City have not been actively trying to sell Balotelli, who has never been far from the headlines with a series of on and off-field antics, but if he were to leave the club in this month’s transfer window, it would not be on a loan deal. Balotelli joined Man City from Inter in 2010 for about 22 million euros and has had a sometimes troubled time at the club, including clashes with manager and compatriot Roberto Mancini and disciplinary issues.
ICE HOCKEY
Subban to rejoin Canadiens
Montreal defenseman P.K. Subban ended his contract holdout on Monday, when the restricted free agent agreed to rejoin the Canadiens. The 23-year-old Canadian will receive a two-year contract worth US$5.75 million, according to local reports, and will report to the team today after missing the first four games of the season. “I think it was the right decision to come to an agreement,” Subban told reporters. “The longer this thing held over our team, the bigger distraction it becomes.” Subban was the Canadiens leader in ice time last season as he tallied seven goals and 29 assists in 81 games. Montreal (3-1-0) has coped well in Subban’s absence since the lockout-reduced season opened earlier this month, but his return will come as a welcome boost for the Canadiens.
SOCCER
West Ham sign Pogatetz
West Ham on Monday signed Austria defender Emanuel Pogatetz on loan from Wolfsburg until the end of the season. Pogatetz, 30, already has experience in the Premier League after his spell with Middlesbrough between 2005 and 2010 and he said he was looking forward to returning to English soccer. “I feel very good to be here and I am very excited about playing for West Ham,” he told West Ham’s Web site. “I am looking forward to the opportunity to play for the club and help it get good results. I will be doing my best to play well and hope I can play a part in the club achieving the targets for this season.”
SOCCER
Security tight in Jerusalem
Jerusalem police deployed hundreds of forces yesterday to secure a flashpoint soccer match between an Arab-Israeli team and Beitar Jerusalem, a club known for its hard core of anti-Arab fans. Beitar had initially sought to have its clash with Umm al-Fahm played before an empty stadium to avoid potential clashes between its supporters and fans of the Arab-Israeli side, who are based in a Galilee town of the same name. The match between Beitar and Maccabi Umm al-Fahm comes after the Jerusalem club was plunged into turmoil by reports its owner was planning to sign two Muslim Chechen players. The news enraged some of the club’s fans, who chanted racist anti-Arab slogans. After the match, police arrested three Beitar fans for incitement to racism. In March last year, 16 Beitar supporters were arrested after they surged into Jerusalem’s main shopping mall screaming: “Death to Arabs,” following a match. Footage of the incident showed the fans spitting on Arab women in the mall and then assaulting Arab men who tried to intervene.
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