SPAIN
Malaga, Valencia draw 0-0
Malaga and Valencia failed to start the second half of their La Liga seasons with a victory, playing to a 0-0 draw on Friday in Malaga. The teams took a total of 28 shots, including a combined 10 on goal, but could not score at La Rosaleda Stadium. Malaga nearly broke through in the 66th minute, but goalkeeper Diego Alves was quick to deny Roque Santa Cruz’s volleyed shot. Moments later, Valencia saw Tina Costa’s effort ruled offside, before only Diego Alves’ quick reaction kept Pablo Perez’s low shot out in the 76th. Valencia stayed eighth, while Malaga moved five points clear of the relegation zone.
UNITED STATES
Beckham closes on team bid
David Beckham could have a Major League Soccer expansion team in Miami within 30 days. MLS commissioner Don Garber said an announcement is expected in the next month regarding Beckham’s bid for a Miami club, what would be the 22nd team in the North American league. That is the most encouraging sign in the ongoing story of the retired English star midfielder’s bid to obtain a team in Miami, which has been stalled as talks for the building of a new stadium have continued with city officials. Beckham was given the opportunity to purchase an expansion team at a discount, reportedly US$25 million, as part of the 2007 deal that lured him to play for the MLS Los Angeles Galaxy.
UNITED KINGDOM
‘Quenelle’ threatens deal
West Bromwich Albion’s shirt sponsors are threatening to withdraw from a multimillion-pound deal because of Nicolas Anelka’s quenelle goal celebration, according to a report in Marketing Week published on Friday. The magazine said Zoopla, a property portal co-owned by Jewish businessman Alex Chesterman, could pull out of the two-year contract as soon as next week should former France striker Anelka play against Everton tomorrow because it does not wish to be associated with a gesture some people say is anti-Semitic. Anelka, 34, sparked a media storm last month when he celebrated the first of his two goals in West Brom’s 3-3 Premier League draw at West Ham United by putting one arm across his chest and straightening the other. The gesture, popularized by French comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala, has been described by critics in France as an anti-Semitic “inverted Nazi salute,” but Anelka has insisted that it was merely “a dedication” to the comic. Anelka faces a minimum five-match ban if the FA decides he is guilty of discrimination.
UNITED KINGDOM
Player charged with fixing
A third player has been charged as part of an ongoing investigation into match-fixing in English non-league soccer, Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) announced on Friday. Moses Swaibu, 24, a former Conference South soccer player from the Croydon area, south of London, was charged with conspiracy to defraud. He has been bailed to appear before magistrates in Cannock, England, on Tuesday. Swaibu is the fifth person and third soccer player to be charged in connection with an NCA investigation into an alleged international illegal betting syndicate. Last month, soccer players Michael Boateng and Hakeem Adelakun, both 22, and alleged co-conspirators Chann Sankaran, 33, and Krishna Sanjey Ganeshan, 43, appeared in a court in Birmingham, England, for a brief preliminary hearing.
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