PERU
Striker flies 900km for game
Peruvian striker Jahirsino Baylon was forced to travel 900km to help his former club Club Universitario de Deportes play out the remaining eight minutes of a previously abandoned first-division match against Melgar on Wednesday. Baylon traveled from the north of Peru, where he now plays for Union Comercio, just so the same two lineups could resume the match abandoned on July 21 as ordered by the Peruvian Football Federation. The original match was abandoned in the 82nd minute with the score at 2-2 when match officials were attacked by Melgar players and coaching staff after they disallowed a potential winner for offside. Baylon did not touch the ball because Universitario agreed he should be immediately substituted so as to avoid the risk of an injury. There were no further goals on Wednesday so the teams shared the points.
AUSTRIA
Salzburg’s UEFA bid denied
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected an application from Red Bull Salzburg for provisional measures to allow the Austrian club back into the Champions League after being eliminated by a Fenerbahce side who had been banned over match-fixing then provisionally reprieved, UEFA said in a statement on Wednesday. After being re-admitted pending their final hearing, Fenerbahce beat Salzburg 4-2 on aggregate in the third qualifying round of the competition. Salzburg lodged a protest at UEFA which was dismissed on Aug. 9, followed by an appeal, also at European soccer’s governing body, which was also rejected one week later. CAS has said it will announce the decision next week. Salzburg have not qualified for the Champions League group stage since 2005, despite winning the Austrian Bundesliga four times in that period.
THE NETHERLANDS
FIFPro warns of stingy clubs
International soccer players’ union FIFPro is advising players not to sign for most clubs in Cyprus, Greece and Turkey because of unpaid wages and bonuses. FIFPro said it cautions players “about the bad behavior of clubs” in those countries which have not qualified for UEFA competitions. Clubs entering the Champions League and Europa League face UEFA sanctions for unpaid wages. The warning was issued on Wednesday as the summer transfer window approaches its hectic final days. FIFPro said the Dutch players’ union estimates that at least half of its members moving to Cyprus, Greece or Turkey will have “serious problems” with non-payment.
BRAZIL
Valcke urges World Cup vote
Countries hoping to stage the World Cup finals should first get parliamentary approval in light of the difficulties FIFA has experienced with Brazil’s authorities, FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke said on Wednesday. Valcke told reporters he was expressing a personal opinion which had not yet been discussed with FIFA president Sepp Blatter. He said it was a lesson he has learned during the complicated organization of next year’s tournament in Brazil. Brasilia and FIFA have been at loggerheads over several issues and soccer’s world governing body was also targeted in mass anti-government protests across the country in June over the huge costs of staging the tournament. “Before Brazil’s proposal [to stage the finals] was sent to FIFA, they could have voted [on it] in congress and that might be done in the future,” Valcke said. He added that if this were introduced it would only come into effect in 2026 since Russia has been awarded the 2018 finals and Qatar those in 2022.
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