No soccer players had been implicated in the Spanish police investigation Operation Puerto, despite allusions from an International Cycling Union official that soccer and tennis players were being targeted along with cyclists, FIFA said.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter said Spanish authorities had confirmed in writing that no soccer players were part of the doping investigation.
"We're adamant that no footballers were involved," he said.
Leading cyclists Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich were excluded from the Tour de France last week after their names turned up on a dozens-strong list compiled by Spanish investigators who led arrests and raids last month, seizing drugs and frozen blood thought to have been prepared for banned performance-enhancing transfusions.
Basso and Ullrich say they're innocent.
Jiri Dvorak, who heads FIFA's medical committee, said that he doubted blood doping was useful for soccer players at the World Cup because of the short turnaround between matches and because the risks far outweighed any minimal benefit.
Dvorak said there had been no positive doping cases from more than 200 tests so far at the World Cup.
Alexandre Guimaraes has resigned as Costa Rica's coach, saying he faced insults and physical threats since the "Ticos" lost all three of their games in the World Cup.
Guimaraes had signed a four-year contract extension before the World Cup, where his team was eliminated in the first round with three losses.
"I'm giving up that contract without any monetary benefit in return," Guimaraes said.
The Brazilian-born coach took responsibility for the bad World Cup campaign but said he will not tolerate personal attacks by some in the media who insist on "tarnishing my professional career."
"The criticism has become violent to the point that I've felt physically threatened, and if that violence is fueled by some in the media, it's even worse. This should not happen in Costa Rica," he added.
Irritate an Italian -- order a pizza. That was one German newspaper's recipe to upset Germany's World Cup semi-final rivals at kickoff time on Tuesday. The Taz daily printed a list of pizza emporiums spread across the country under the headline: "This is how we will annoy the Italians tonight: order pizza at 9pm."
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Lin Yun-ju on Thursday handed Taiwan two key victories as they advanced to the semi-finals of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London. The Taiwan men’s table tennis team beat Sweden 3-2 in five singles matches. The 24-year-old Lin, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7 and nicknamed the “Silent Assassin,” opened the tie by defeating world No. 2 Truls Moregard 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 13-11) before clinching the deciding fifth match with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-5) win over Anton Kallberg to hand his team the overall victory. Kuo Guan-hong put Taiwan up 2-0 with a 3-2 (4-11, 11-8, 8-11,
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
RSS