FRANCE
Bastia striker jailed
SC Bastia’s Brazilian striker Brandao was on Thursday jailed for a month and fined 20,000 euros (US$25,000) for headbutting Paris Saint-Germain’s Thiago Motta. The three judges went beyond the prosecutor’s request for an eight-month suspended term and 15,000 euros fine. However, President of the Paris court Yves Madre implied the 34-year-old could benefit from a reduced sentence and might eventually avoid prison. Madre also regretted Brandao’s failure to appear in court, which prevented the judges from considering alternative sentences such as community service.
SPAIN
Vermaelen facing layoff
Barcelona defender Thomas Vermaelen, who has yet to play a match for the Spanish giants since his summer move from Arsenal, is set to undergo thigh surgery which might sideline him for up to five months. The 29-year-old Belgian international’s only action since his switch to the Camp Nou for a reported fee of 19 million euros was in a friendly game for Barcelona’s reserves against an Indonesian under-19 team in September. “Thomas Vermaelen will undergo surgery on the right semi-tendinous muscle [hamstring] in his right leg next Tuesday in Finland. The estimated recovery time is 4 to 5 months,” a Barcelona statement said.
ENGLAND
Whelan charged by FA
Wigan Athletic chairman Dave Whelan was charged by the Football Association (FA) on Thursday after allegedly making racially insensitive remarks in an interview with a British newspaper. In an interview with the Guardian, Whelan defended his appointment of manager Malky Mackay, who is being investigated over claims he sent racist and anti-Semitic text messages to a colleague during his time at Cardiff City. Referring to remarks allegedly made by Mackay, Whelan was quoted as saying it was “nothing” to call a Chinese person a “chink” and also said: “Jewish people do chase money more than everybody else.” He subsequently apologized for any offense caused and declared that he was not a racist, but has vowed that he would “immediately resign” as chairman of second-tier Wigan if found guilty by the FA.
TURKEY
Galatasaray sack manager
A senior official said Galatasaray have sacked manager Cesare Prandelli following the side’s elimination from European competition. Galatasaray deputy president Abdurrahim Albayrak told Turkey’s state-run Anadolu agency on Thursday that the club decided to part ways with Prandelli a day after the club’s 2-0 loss to RSC Anderlecht that eliminated the team from the Champions League. Galatasaray also failed to qualify for the Europa League. Over the weekend, Galatasaray lost the lead in the Turkish league after a 3-0 home defeat to Trabzonspor.
UEFA
Basel, Anderlecht probed
UEFA have opened disciplinary proceedings against Basel and RSC Anderlecht for crowd trouble at their European Champions League games in midweek. Swiss club Basel are in the spotlight following a pitch invasion by their fans during a 1-0 home loss to Real Madrid on Wednesday. Anderlecht are being investigated for insufficient organization in a 2-0 home win against Turkish side Galatasaray, during which objects were thrown onto the pitch. Both cases are set to be examined by European soccer’s governing body on Dec. 11.
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