ENGLAND
Mourinho issues retort
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho on Tuesday fired back at comments from the wife of Real Madrid manager Rafael Benitez, who said her husband is “tidying up” Mourinho “messes” once again. Montserrat Seara told Le Region newspaper that her Spanish husband has had to clean up after Mourinho in three stops where he has followed the Portuguese coach, at Inter and Chelsea, as well as Real Madrid. Mourinho said from Washington that only in the Inter case did Benitez directly follow him into the job of guiding the squad. “The lady is a bit confused,” Mourinho said, drawing laughs from reporters, but saying for himself: “I am not laughing.” Mourinho, now in his second stint guiding Chelsea, said that when Benitez did follow him at Inter, “in six months he destroyed the best team in Europe at the time.” And Mourinho had some advice for Seara. “She needs to occupy her time,” he said. “If she takes care of her husband’s diet, she will not have any time to talk about me.”
ENGLAND
Villa sign defender Crespo
Aston Villa’s overhauling of their defense after flirting with relegation last season continued on Tuesday with the signing of Spanish defender Jose Angel Crespo from relegated La Liga side Cordoba for a fee reported to be £500,000 (US$780,000). The 28-year-old — manager Tim Sherwood’s seventh acquisition of the close season, including defenders Frenchman Jordan Amavi and England international defender Micah Richards — signed a three-year contract. Crespo — who played for Spain at Under-19, 20 and 21 level — has also had a spell in Italy with Bologna, Padova and Hellas Verona. “He is an experienced player who has played in La Liga and Serie A, two of the strongest leagues in Europe,” said Sherwood, who saved Villa from the drop last term and guided them to the FA Cup final after replacing Paul Lambert, who was sacked in February. Aside from Amavi and Richards, Crespo joins other fresh faces at Villa Park in goalkeeper Mark Bunn, Senegal international midfielder Idrissa Gueye, and forwards Scott Sinclair — who like Richards came from Manchester City — and Ghana star Jordan Ayew.
FRANCE
Marseille make Diaby deal
French giants Olympique de Marseille announced on Tuesday that they have “agreed a deal in principle” to bring injury-prone former Arsenal and France midfielder Abou Diaby to the Stade Velodrome. The club gave no details of the deal, which is to bring the 29-year-old, who has been capped 16 times for France, to Marseille, after a bitter-sweet spell with Arsenal, where he had been since 2006. However, after successive injuries of torn cruciate ligaments, another knee problem and then hamstring issues restricted his appearances over the past couple of seasons, he was released last month. His last match for the Gunners dates back to a League Cup tie in September last year — he was injured for the equivalent of almost four years of his time in London.
ITALY
El Kaoutari joins Palermo
Morocco defender Abdelhamid El Kaoutari has agreed a deal to move from Montpellier Herault to Serie A outfit US Citta di Palermo, the French club said on their Web site on Tuesday. On the books when Montpellier won the French title in 2012, El Kaoutari came up through the youth system and has made 170 appearances for the southern club. He has agreed to a four-year deal with Palermo, although the transfer fee was not revealed.
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