URUGUAY
Executive board resigns
The executive board of the Uruguayan Football Association (AUF) resigned en masse on Monday, deepening the crisis the sport in the country is going through following the decision by Uruguayan President Jose Mujica to withdraw police from matches. “Recent events demonstrate the need to move aside and allow other political views to make football governable,” a statement issued by the AUF board said. Mujica ordered police to withdraw their presence from the Centenario and Parque Central stadiums in Montevideo after incidents marred Nacional’s meeting with Argentine side Newell’s Old Boys in the Copa Libertadores. On Sunday, the game between Penarol and Miramar Misiones was called off at the players’ request amid security concerns at the Centenario. Former AUF vice president Miguel Sejas told Uruguayan radio that there were differences of opinion between leading clubs and the AUF regarding the scheduling of matches, as well as issues with negotiations for television rights.
PERU
Champions’ stadium closed
Champions Universitario de Deportes had their Monumental Stadium closed for 30 days on Monday after a teenager was shot dead amid clashes between rival groups of fans. The youth died instantly after being shot in the chest on Sunday, a local district police spokesman said. “We are investigating... The accusations and accounts we have are that [the fighting] was over control of tickets,” the spokesman for the Lima district of Ate said. He was referring to free tickets clubs give their hardcore fans, who are in many cases divided into factions. The incident occurred before Universitario lost a first-division match 3-1 to Sport Huancayo. “While there are no guarantees to avoid violent acts, we won’t give [the club] a license to operate,” Ate District Mayor Oscar Benavides said.
ENGLAND
Guardiola jokes about ‘offer’
Pep Guardiola has joked that he could have been offered the chance to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson as Manchester United manager, but would not have understood due to the Scot’s accent. Ferguson stepped down as United manager last year and chose David Moyes to succeed him, while Guardiola joined European champions Bayern Munich after a year’s sabbatical. While Guardiola has already led Bayern to a successful title defense, Moyes has endured a wretched debut campaign at United. United and Bayern were due to meet in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals yesterday and Guardiola was asked ahead of the game if Ferguson had offered him the United job when they met in New York following the Catalan’s departure from Barcelona in 2012. “He invited me to a super restaurant,” Guardiola said at a press conference. “We spent a very good time. My English is not so good and when Sir Alex speaks quickly, I had sometimes problems to understand. That’s why maybe I didn’t understand if I received an offer or not.”
SPAIN
Two late goals sink Betis
Malaga scored twice in the final eight minutes for a 2-1 victory at last-placed Real Betis Balompie, whose hopes of avoiding relegation took a another blow. Betis had a chance to salvage a point in stoppage-time, but Ruben Castro sent his penalty-kick off the crossbar to leave Betis 11 points from salvation with seven matches remaining. Juanmi Jimenez canceled out Lolo Reyes’ first-half opener in the 82nd minute, before Sergi Darder notched the winner with two minutes left. In Monday’s other match, Levante UD beat Granada 2-0.
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