SOCCER
Qatar to finish by Dec. 18
FIFA president Sepp Blatter on Friday said that the 2022 World Cup final would not be held two days before Christmas, but also ruled out paying compensation to European clubs for the winter tournament. The governing body’s hints that the final of the Qatar tournament could be played on Dec. 23, 2022, caused a backlash, particularly from British soccer leaders. However, the FIFA president, speaking in Belfast ahead of a meeting of the International Football Association Board, said the 2022 World Cup would finish no later than Dec. 18. “Not until the 23rd, definitely not. We have to stop at the 18th,” Blatter said. A FIFA task force on World Cup dates said the Qatar tournament had to be held in November-December, because of the baking summer temperatures in the Persian Gulf state. FIFA’s executive committee is expected to take a final decision on the dates at a meeting in Zurich on March 19-20. The FIFA leader acknowledged the anger of European leagues over the decision to hold a winter World Cup. However, he said clubs and leagues would have to prepare. Blatter said no compensation would be paid to clubs, despite demands by the European Clubs’ Association. Blatter said he had spoken with European Club Association acting chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge “to see how a solution can be found.”
OLYMPICS
No decision on flames
The biggest mystery at the opening ceremony of most Olympic Games is who lights the cauldron that holds the flame. Next year’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro are offering a second unknown: Will there be one flame, or two? On Friday, on the sidelines of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board meetings, Carlos Nuzman, head of the organizing committee, said a decision has not been made. “Nothing has been decided,” Nuzman said. “I think we need to open the question, discuss the points and then make a decision.” Under normal conditions, the Olympic cauldron would burn only at the Maracana Stadium, the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies. However, Rio is using another stadium in the city for track and field, and that might also require the presence of the symbolic flame. Leonardo Caetano, head of ceremonies for the Rio Olympics, raised the question earlier in the week in an interview. IOC officials have been in Rio this week monitoring progress on the Games, and also holding an executive board meeting.
CYCLING
Astana might lose license
The Astana team of Tour de France champion Vincenzo Nibali appears set to lose their license to compete this year, at the request of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). An audit by the Institute of Sport Sciences at the University of Lausanne into Astana’s management of anti-doping measures found “a big difference” between what the team were doing and what they promised to do, world cycling’s governing body said on Friday. The UCI said there were “compelling grounds” to refer the issue to the licensing commission, and request that Kazakhstan government-backed Astana be stripped of their Pro Team license, which guarantees entry to top stage races and classics. Astana were awarded a license in December last year, but only on probation after five senior and development squad riders, including brothers Maxim and Valentin Iglinskiy, were caught doping with erythropoietin and steroids since August last year. Astana said in a statement it “will consult with its attorneys to prepare documents and testimony” to present to the independent commission.
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