TURKEY
Turkey right choice: Sneijder
Galatasaray midfielder Wesley Sneijder has said that his decision to leave Inter for the Turkish champions has been vindicated by their run to the Champions League quarter-finals. The Dutch international left the Serie A side in January to move to Istanbul. “I wanted to make a step forward, not back, after Inter and look where I am now: playing Real Madrid in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, so I think I made the right choice,” he told a press conference on Tuesday. Sneijder also said it would be a special experience to play against his old manager, Jose Mourinho. The two won the Champions League at the Santiago Bernabeu in 2010 with Inter, but he insists friendships would be set aside for one night at least. “Tomorrow [Wednesday] we are enemies, we are not friends any longer,” he said.
ITALY
Italy face Argentina for pope
The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) on Tuesday announced plans for an August friendly in Rome with Argentina in honor of Pope Francis, who was elected head of the Catholic Church last month. “The FIGC today [Tuesday] officially invited the Argentine [Football] Federation,” it said in a statement. The idea to arrange a friendly between the two nations as a tribute to the Argentinia-born pope came from Italy manager Cesare Prandelli, who is Catholic. “It would be good to have an audience and to then go to the stadium in the same bus, the two teams together,” Prandelli said. The pope is a long-time supporter of Buenos-Aires based outfit San Lorenzo.
FRANCE
Stade Brestois 29 fire coach
Landry Chauvin on Tuesday told reporters he had been sacked as manager of relegation-threatened Ligue 1 outfit Stade Brestois 29. The 44-year-old — who had never coached a Ligue 1 side until he was hired by Brest last year — was sacked a couple of days after the 2-1 home defeat by LOSC Lille Metropole left them third from bottom, two points adrift of safety, but with eight games remaining. It is the second successive season that Brest have sacked their manager while battling against relegation.
INDONESIA
Confused police arrest fans
Police arrested 17 local supporters of France’s national soccer team in the east of the country, mistaking their hoisted French flag for a bold separatist statement, police said yesterday. The men, illegal gold miners on Pulau Buru in the Muluku Islands Chain, raised the French flag in a street ahead of a World Cup qualifier between France and Spain last week. Police confused the French tricolor flag with the similar outlawed flag of the Republic of South Maluku (RMS) separatist movement. “The RMS flag looks exactly like the French flag, but it has an extra green stripe,” Buru Island police spokesman Istanto told reporters.
AUSTRALIA
Liverpool to go Down Under
Premier League club Liverpool will play their first match in Australia on July 24 when they meet Melbourne Victory in a pre-season friendly at the 100,000 capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground, the A-League team said yesterday. Liverpool have a huge following in Australia and a bumper crowd is expected for the match. “Liverpool is one of the most famous clubs on the planet and the fact that they’ve opted to play Melbourne Victory on their first ever tour to Australia is great recognition for our club and the progress we’ve made in our short history,” said Anthony di Pietro, chairman of the eight-year-old club.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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