SOUTH AMERICA
CONMEBOL to back Blatter
The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) will support Sepp Blatter’s re-election bid as FIFA president in May, a CONMEBOL source said on Tuesday. Blatter, who has headed FIFA since 1998, flew into Asuncion on Tuesday to attend CONMEBOL’s congress that will hand its president, Paraguayan Juan Angel Napout, another four-year term. The source, who asked not to be named, was at CONMEBOL’s executive committee meeting on Tuesday where South America gave Blatter its support as he seeks a fifth term in office. The Swiss is running against Michael van Praag of the Netherlands, former Portugal great Luis Figo and FIFA vice president Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, who are all expected at the congress.
GERMANY
Ticket allocation announced
About one-third of the 70,500 tickets for this year’s UEFA Champions League final in Berlin will be reserved for soccer officials, sponsors and corporate hospitality, UEFA said on Tuesday. European soccer’s governing body said 20,000 tickets would be allocated to supporters of each of the two finalists, with another 6,000 going on sale to neutral fans via UEFA’s Web site. “As usual, fans and the general public are being allocated the majority of the tickets for the final,” UEFA said in a statement. “The remaining tickets are allocated to the local organizing committee, UEFA and national associations, commercial partners and broadcasters, and to serve the corporate hospitality program.” UEFA said prices for the match at the Olympiastadion on June 6 would range from 70 euros (US$78) for category four tickets to 390 euros for category one.
ENGLAND
Terry gets extended deal
Chelsea captain John Terry is to be awarded a contract extension to keep him at the club beyond the end of this season, manager Jose Mourinho said on Tuesday. Terry’s current deal is due to expire at the end of the campaign, but Mourinho said the 34-year-old centerback’s form this season has persuaded the club to offer him a new deal. “What I can guarantee is he will be a Chelsea player next season,” Mourinho told a press conference on Tuesday. “No doubts he’s going to get his contract.” Terry, a graduate of the Chelsea academy, was named man of the match after scoring the opening goal in his side’s 2-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur in Sunday’s League Cup final at Wembley in London.
SPAIN
Pique fined for abuse
Barcelona defender Gerard Pique was fined 10,500 euros (US$11,740) by a judge on Tuesday for abusing police after the car he was traveling in was given a parking ticket. Pique wrote an apology to the court hearing in Barcelona for the public order offense that took place on Oct. 13 last year. Judge Maria Asuncion Gonzalez fined Pique for “disrespectful behavior and being verbally aggressive.” The centerback’s brother was given a ticket for leaving his car in a bus lane.
ENGLAND
Ref East back in action
Referee Roger East returned to action in the Premier League on Tuesday, a day after the Football Association ruled he mistakenly dismissed Sunderland defender Wes Brown at Old Trafford in Manchester on Saturday. East was the fourth official when Southampton hosted Crystal Palace, having come in for heavy criticism for sending off Brown at his former club at the weekend for a foul on Radamel Falcao. Replays showed it was John O’Shea who committed the foul.
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