LA LIGA
Suarez had post-bite blues
Uruguay striker Luis Suarez on Tuesday said he was “very depressed” after the FIFA World Cup biting incident that saw him banned from all soccer activities for four months. Following an appeal hearing last week, Suarez can now train with new club Barcelona and play friendlies, before making his competitive return at the end of October. “I prefer not to look backward,” the former Liverpool man said as he was presented to media at the Camp Nou. “I didn’t want to do anything and I was very depressed,” Suarez said of his state of mind after the biting incident involving Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini. “I decided that all I could do was accept reality and say sorry.” Suarez, who was banned for seven matches in 2010 after biting a PSV Eindhoven player while at Ajax, has talked to specialists about his behavior. “I say to fans, don’t worry, because I won’t do that anymore,” he vowed.
PRIMEIRA LIGA
Sporting swap Rojo for Nani
Sporting have agreed to sell Argentina leftback Marcos Rojo to Manchester United, while Nani will move the other way to join the Portuguese side on loan. Sporting said in a statement to Portugal’s Market Securities Commission that the Premier League side would pay 20 million euros (US$26.64 million) for the 24-year-old and the Lisbon club would not pay anything for the one-year loan of Nani. If Rojo is sold on in the future for more than 23 million euros, Sporting will get 20 percent of that fee, it added. Rojo had an excellent FIFA World Cup in Brazil, part of an Argentina defense that conceded only four goals in seven games. Nani, 27, will return to the club he left seven years ago to join United. He had a disappointing last season with United and also underperformed for Portugal at the World Cup.
CUP OF NATIONS
Guinea to play in Morocco
Guinea are to play their home Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Togo in Morocco, after they were forced to move the tie to a neutral venue following the Ebola outbreak in west Africa. The Group E qualifier will be played in Casablanca on Sept. 5, the Confederation of African Football said on Tuesday. The federation banned Guinea and Sierra Leone from hosting international matches until the middle of next month and the latter are still looking for a venue for their home qualifiers. Sierra Leone’s request to use Accra, the capital of Ghana, has yet to be granted, leaving them in limbo as they prepare for the start of the qualifying group phase for next January’s finals in Morocco. Sierra Leone play their first Group D qualifier away in the Ivory Coast, but then host the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Sept. 10.
SERIE A
‘Region racism’ rules eased
Derogatory chanting against regions of Italy will be treated less severely than racial discrimination this season, the Italian Football Federation decided on Monday. The federation’s executive committee voted to change the disciplinary code and exclude so-called “territorial discrimination” from the list of offenses punishable with partial or full stadium closures for a first violation. Instead, it has been listed alongside offenses punishable with fines. Under pressure from FIFA and UEFA, Italy last season imposed tougher sanctions for racially insulting behavior by fans. However, the rule’s inclusion of territorial discrimination sparked a rebellion by fans. Last year, Inter supporters started a campaign inciting all fans to break rules simultaneously so there would be an entire weekend of games played behind closed doors.
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