LA LIGA
Kickoff change angers teams
Valencia and Real Betis Balompie on Tuesday reacted angrily after the Spanish Football League (LFP) announced changes to the kickoff times of their respective March 2 games. Valencia’s match at Rayo Vallecano de Madrid was moved from midday to 9pm, while Betis’ game at Villarreal was switched from 9pm to midday, prompting accusations that the LFP was showing a lack of consideration and respect for the clubs and fans. The league said the games were switched to accommodate a ceremony at Villarreal to pay homage to the home fans for how they reacted to Saturday’s tear gas attack at El Madrigal. “As a result of this change, a large majority of the hundreds of Valencianistas who had previously been able to attend the game at Vallecas [in Madrid] have had to cancel their plans,” eighth-placed Valencia said on their Web site. Unlike most major European leagues, where kickoff times are set months in advance, the LFP typically finalizes them couple of weeks before matches. Bottom club Betis said they were especially angry as their Europa League last-32 second leg with Rubin Kazan in Russia is on Thursday next week and they had planned the return assuming they would not be playing at Villarreal until Sunday night. “Bringing forward the time will damage Betis in both sporting and economic terms as the travel plans were finalized days ago,” the club said on their Web site.
PREMIER LEAGUE
Fulham sack five, hire two
Only weeks after appointing them, Fulham have officially dismissed manager Rene Meulensteen, assistant coach Ray Wilkins and technical director Alan Curbishle, the Premier League’s basement club said on Tuesday. The London side’s revolving door continued to spin, with first team coaches Mick Priest and Jonathan Hill joining the exodus of backroom staff following the appointment of Felix Magath as manager on Friday. Fulham also announced the fired staff’s immediate replacements, with Tomas Oral named as first team coach and Werner Leuthard responsible for conditioning. The 60-year-old Magath was named manager despite Meulensteen only being given the job in December last year after Martin Jol’s sacking, with the Dutchman initially having joined in mid-November to work alongside his compatriot. Meulensteen has described the appointment of former Bayern Munich coach Magath as a sign Fulham were hitting “the panic button.” German Magath has extensive coaching experience in the Bundesliga, but has never worked abroad before.
Fulham, who have been in the top flight since 2001, are four points from the safety zone with 12 games to go.
WORLD CUP
FIFA keeps Curitiba venue
Contrite officials in Curitiba, Brazil, conceded that they underestimated the demands of hosting FIFA World Cup matches as the Arena da Baixada’s venue status was confirmed on Tuesday after world soccer’s governing body had considered ditching the city over stadium construction delays. FIFA backed down on the threat to remove Curitiba from the event program, saying they were satisfied enough had been done to ensure the stadium’s completion by mid-May — one month before the tournament starts. Reginaldo Cordeiro, the city official in charge of World Cup preparations, and Parana State World Cup coordinator Mario Celso Cunha said FIFA’s threat led to an overhaul of the work schedule and a new financing model for the stadium. “It was good that [FIFA general secretary] Jerome Valcke came and tugged at our ears. It was good for us to wake up,” Cordeiro said.
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