UKRAINE
Metalist face UEFA probe
Champions League participants Metalist Kharkiv are to face a disciplinary hearing, UEFA said on Tuesday, four days after the Ukrainian side lost an appeal over a match-fixing case. European soccer’s governing body said Metalist, who are already playing in the third qualifying round of this season’s competition, would face a hearing on Tuesday next week. Metalist, runners-up in last season’s Ukrainian Premier League, won 2-0 at PAOK in the first leg of their third-round qualifying tie last week and were to host the return yesterday. On Friday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld a Ukraine Football Federation decision to fine Metalist Kharkiv and Karpaty US$25,000 each over the manipulation of a match played in April 2008. It also upheld the federation’s decision to strip Metalist of their third-place finish that season. The court also confirmed a five-year ban on one Metalist player involved in the game and three-year bans on another five, while Metalist director Yevhen Krasnikov was banned from any soccer-related activity for five years.
FRANCE
Trio on UEFA award shortlist
Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Franck Ribery will contest the title of Best Player in Europe when journalists across the continent cast their vote on Aug. 29 in Monaco, UEFA said on Tuesday. The three emerged on the shortlist after a second preliminary vote whittled down an interim 10-strong list. UEFA president Michel Platini began the initiative two years ago in partnership with the European Sports Media group, with Messi and his Barcelona teammate Andres Iniesta winning the first two editions.
SWEDEN
United draw AIK in friendly
Manchester United were far from their best on Tuesday as they drew 1-1 with Swedish outfit AIK in a friendly in Solna, Sweden. The Premier League champions are still 11 days away from the start of their title defense and were made to look mediocre at times by opponents who are flying high in their domestic league midway through their season. Missing Wayne Rooney, who is at the center of ongoing transfer speculation, but was left out due to a shoulder injury, David Moyes’ side needed two good saves from Anders Lindegaard to deny Kennedy Igboananike and keep them on level terms in the first half. AIK did take the lead shortly after the restart at the Friends Arena thanks to a superb strike by Robin Quaison, but United had Angelo Henriquez to thank for netting the goal that earned them a draw midway through the second period.
FRANCE
Gomis could stay at Lyon
Olympique Lyonnais president Jean-Michel Aulas has not ruled out Bafetimbi Gomis staying at the club after the striker’s proposed move to Premier League side Newcastle United was thrown into doubt on Tuesday. The two sides agreed a reported 8 million euro (US$10.6 million) fee for the 27-year-old last week, but the move apparently hit a hitch over solidarity payments and agents’ fees. “My biggest wish is for us to qualify for the Champions League and to settle the case of Bafetimbi Gomis,” Aulas told OLTV following the club’s 1-0 win at Swiss side Grasshoppers Club Zurich on Tuesday that cemented a spot in the Champions League play-off round. “If he doesn’t want to leave, he should re-sign and not pass us off as people who aren’t capable of solving human problems,” Aulas said, adding that he was “very pessimistic” that a deal with Newcastle would go through.
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