SOCCER
Fifth-tier match ends 19-5
Italian fifth-division side Cavese 1919 lived up to their name by powering to a 19-5 win over depleted ASD Licata 1931 in a bizarre match without coaches. Licata could only field nine players — all from the youth team — because of a dispute between the senior players and the club, and their coach was also missing, media said. Cavese coach Francesco Chietti and his staff resigned hours before Sunday’s Serie D, Group I match “in response to a request from some fans in the hours before the game to impose two Cavese players on the starting lineup,” the club said on Facebook. Cavese’s Claudio de Rosa had nine of the goals to finish as the group’s top scorer with a tally of 30. Sunday’s game added to a litany of wild matches in Italy’s lower leagues, including one in February in which eighth-tier side Bagheria scored eight own-goals in the last 10 minutes of their tie against Borgata Terrenove to lose 14-3 and a third-tier clash between Nocerina and Salernitana last year that was called off when Nocerina made the three allowed substitutions in the first two minutes and five players went off injured in the next 20. Nocerina players did not want to play after receiving threats from their fans, who were banned from the game and wanted it canceled in protest.
RUGBY LEAGUE
NRL probes Hurrell sex tape
Australia’s National Rugby League (NRL) yesterday said it is probing the apparent leak of a sex tape involving the New Zealand Warriors’ Konrad Hurrell and Kiwi actress Teuila Blakely. Embarrassingly for the league, the scandal comes as it celebrates “Women in League” week ahead of Mother’s Day on Sunday. The video reportedly shows Hurrell, 22, and Blakely engaged in a sex act while the player was driving a car. Radio New Zealand said the footage appeared to have been filmed on a cellphone and circulated on social messaging service Instagram before being deleted. Blakely confirmed to the New Zealand Herald that it was her in the video and said it was shot about two months ago, but that neither she nor Hurrell knew who put it online. “Yeah it was me, but it was a private video between me and Koni and it wasn’t meant to have been leaked,” the 39-year-old told the paper. “I accept what I do in my life, and neither of us are bothered about it. It was a tape between two people who have a lot of fun together. It’s not like I’m Kim Kardashian.” NRL chief operating officer Jim Doyle said the league was investigating because of the impact the scandal could have on its reputation. Heading to a function to launch “Women in League” on Monday, Doyle told Fairfax Media that it could deter mothers from allowing their children to play rugby league.
FOOTBALL
Eagles sign army captain
Alejandro Villanueva, a US Army captain who grew up in Spain and began playing football when his family moved to Belgium, has signed with the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles announced on Monday that they signed Villanueva, who spent the past four years in the US Army and served three tours in Afghanistan, as a free agent defensive end. The 2.05m, 125kg soldier’s awards included the Bronze Star Medal for valor for moving forward under enemy fire to pull wounded soldiers from isolated positions. The Eagles scouted Villanueva at a tryout camp last month in Detroit. Villanueva, 25, was born in Mississippi and played football for the army while at the US Military Academy as an offensive and defensive lineman, as well as a receiver in 2009, when he led the Black Knights with 34 catches, 522 yards and five touchdowns.
BOXING
Ali urges Floyd-Manny fight
Boxing legend Muhammad Ali is happy that Floyd Mayweather Jr remains unbeaten, but the sporting icon wants to see him face Philippine superstar Manny Pacquiao. The former world heavyweight champion posted a message on Twitter hailing Mayweather’s majority-decision win on Saturday over Argentina’s Marcos Maidana, but slipped in a jab of his own about Mayweather having yet to face Pacquiao. “Congratulations FloydMayweather. Maybe after you rest up we can see you rumble with MannyPacquiao!” Ali tweeted. Mayweather, 37, and Pacquiao, 35, talked about a showdown years ago as fans pushed for the superstars to meet in the ring, but money and blood testing issues scuttled the talks. Since then, Mayweather (46-0 with 26 knockouts) has said he will never work with Pacquiao’s long-time promoter, Top Rank founder and chief executive Bob Arum, and Pacquiao (56-5 with two drawn and 38 knockouts) is reportedly in talks for a new deal with Arum that would likely take him to the end of his career. Mayweather did not address Ali’s Twitter remark.
FOOTBALL
James Hardy attacks police
Former NFL player James Hardy was arrested after a disturbance that left two Los Angeles police officers injured, a spokesman said on Monday. The 28-year-old, who played for the Buffalo Bills and the Baltimore Ravens, was detained after the altercation on Sunday in downtown Los Angeles, said Richard French of the Los Angeles Police Department. Hardy was booked for a felony offense following the scuffle, which occurred after officers were sent to a reported disturbance. He allegedly attacked multiple officers, who used a Taser to detain him. Hardy was arrested on suspicion of obstruction of justice and taken to hospital, according to the TMZ celebrity news Web site. Two officers suffered minor injuries. Hardy was being held on Monday in lieu of US$20,000 bail, French said.
CRICKET
NZ to criminalize fixing
New Zealand on Monday said it would make match-fixing a specific crime for the first time to ensure sport remains corruption-free as the country prepares to co-host next year’s Cricket World Cup. Minister of Sports Murray McCully said that in recent years some sporting codes had been targeted by international criminal syndicates “seeking to gain unfair advantage to illegally profit from sports betting.” “These activities compromise athletes and tarnish sport,” he said, announcing the creation of a new crime of match-fixing, with a maximum penalty of seven years behind bars.
BOXING
Fight reveals tax evaders
Argentina’s tax agency says it used Saturday’s fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr and Argentina’s Marcos Maidana in Las Vegas, Nevada, to identify 17 tax evaders. The agency released a statement on Monday titled “A Knockout for Taxpayers.” It said it is investigating people who claimed to have small incomes, while paying up to US$7,500 each to travel to Nevada to watch the fight. The agency says those 17 people have since been removed from a list of low-income Argentines and must now pay taxes consistent with their large expenses. It says one also has a US$150,000 Porsche. The agency says it will now enforce stricter controls on Argentines attending sporting events abroad, including the soccer World Cup in Brazil that starts on June 12.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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