ENGLAND
Irons win penalty shootout
West Ham United, reduced to 10 men after defender James Tomkins was sent off in the first half, won 5-3 in a penalty shootout against Maltese Cup winners Birkirkara to scrape into the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round on Thursday. The English Premier League side, who entered the competition via the Fair Play League, lost 1-0 on Thursday leaving the tie at 1-1 on aggregate with extra-time failing to break the deadlock after Birkirkara were also reduced to 10 men. West Ham scored all five of their penalties in the shootout, with substitute Diego Poyet netting the winner for Slaven Bilic’s side in the heat of Malta. Tomkins, who scored a last-gasp winner in the first leg at Upton Park in London last week, was sent off for throwing Nikola Vukanac to the ground before halftime at the Ta’ Qali National Stadium in Valletta. West Ham next face Astra Giurgiu of Romania, who beat Scottish side Inverness Caledonian Thistle 1-0 on aggregate after a 0-0 draw on Thursday.
ENGLAND
Blues sign Serbian Pantic
Chelsea signed Partizan Belgrade midfielder Danilo Pantic on Thursday and immediately sent the highly rated Serbian teenager out on loan, the English Premier League champions confirmed. Pantic was originally linked with Chelsea in January and the 18-year-old’s move to Stamford Bridge has now been completed. He is to spend the coming season on loan at Dutch club Vitesse, who have a partnership deal with Chelsea. “I am very happy to sign for Chelsea, the champions of the English Premier League, and I hope I can show my value at Vitesse in the coming season. I am honored at the faith both clubs have shown in me,” Pantic told Chelsea’s Web site.
EURO 2016
Croatia have point deducted
Croatia on Thursday were deducted one point from their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign after a swastika was scrawled on the pitch ahead of their 1-1 draw against Italy in last month, UEFA confirmed. After the penalty Croatia are on 13 points at the top of Group H, with Italy second, one point behind. UEFA also ruled that Croatia’s next two home matches are to be played behind closed doors and have banned the team from playing qualifiers at the Split stadium where the incident occurred. They were also hit with a 100,000 euros (US$110,000) fine, but escaped a ban. Croatia have three days to appeal the ruling. The swastika on the pitch at Split was removed by groundsmen at halftime of the draw between Croatia and Italy on June 12. The Croatian Football Federation apologized for the incident, which it said “brought prejudice against football and the Croatian state, and labeled it an act of sabotage.”
PARAGUAY
US sends extradition request
The US has sent an extradition request for Nicolas Leoz, the former president of South America’s soccer confederation, who was arrested on suspicion of racketeering in a corruption probe, the Paraguayan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday. Leoz, 86, has been under house arrest since June 1 after he and 13 other international soccer officials and sports media and marketing executives, including several from soccer’s governing body FIFA, were hit with US charges involving more than US$150 million in bribes. “We have received the documentation from the US embassy and have forwarded it to the Supreme Court,” ministry spokesperson Juana Nunez said.
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