NETHERLANDS
Ajax slip up, PSV retain title
PSV Eindhoven retained the title after their archrivals Ajax blew their chance when they failed to beat second-bottom De Graafschap in a dramatic final round of matches. PSV won 3-1 at PEC Zwolle to move to 84 points from 34 games, lifting the title by two points from Ajax, who were held to a 1-1 draw when victory would have made them champions on goal-difference. Luuk de Jong netted twice for PSV to take his season’s tally to 26 goals, one behind AZ’s Vincent Janssen at the top of the charts, after Juergen Locadia had given them an early lead. While PSV manager Phillip Cocu and his men celebrated, it was a painful day for Ajax, who had led the league for most of the season only to falter against De Graafschap, a team they had beaten in every match for the past 16 years.
SCOTLAND
Celtic clinch their 47th title
Celtic manager Ronny Deila says this year’s title is every bit as special as the rest after his side clinched their 47th top-flight championship with a 3-2 win over nearest challengers Aberdeen. A double from Patrick Roberts and a Mikael Lustig strike seemingly put Celtic in an insurmountable position, before goals from Jonny Hayes and Andrew Considine made for a nervy finish. The win moved Celtic 12 points clear of the Dons with two games remaining and sealed a fifth consecutive league title for only the third time in the club’s history. However, Celtic have come in for criticism this season with cup semi-final defeats to rivals Rangers and Ross County, allied to poor European form, resulting in Deila announcing his decision to leave the club in the summer. However, the outgoing boss said his side’s title win deserves to be valued as highly as previous victories. “Of course it should be. It is a title. You have to fight against the teams in the league and you can’t say this is not more worthy than the others,” the Norwegian manager said.
GERMANY
RB Leipzig win promotion
Just seven years after being founded, RB Leipzig, sponsored by energy drinks giant Red Bull, will play in the Bundesliga next season after their second-division promotion was confirmed on Sunday. Goals by Sweden’s Emil Forsberg and Marcel Halstenberg sealed a 2-0 win at home to Karlsruhe in front of 42,559 fans, meaning they will join second-division champions SC Freiburg in the top flight next season, but RB Leipzig will not receive a warm welcome in the Bundesliga from many fans. Rasenballsport Leipzig were founded in 2009 when Red Bull bought the license from lower-league side SSV Markranstaedt. They changed their name, but league rules meant they were not allowed to copy the likes of Red Bull New York and Red Bull Salzburg in using the company’s name in the title. They can expect a cold reception in the Bundesliga, especially against traditional clubs such as Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04. During RB Leipzig’s rise through the leagues, opposition fans have rioted during matches, organized protests and staged boycotts, while the team’s players have been spat at.
FRANCE
PSG’s Ibrahimovic wins vote
Paris Saint-Germain striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic was voted Ligue 1 Player of the Year for a record third time on Sunday. Ibrahimovic won the award, voted for by his peers, ahead of PSG teammate Angel di Maria, OGC Nice forward Hatem Ben Arfa and Olympique de Marseille midfielder Lassana Diarra after scoring 35 goals in the capital club’s romp to a fourth straight league title.
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