■ Soccer
Critical director resigns
A Liverpool club director who criticized the leadership and transfer dealings of manager Rafa Benitez resigned from the club's board on Tuesday. Liverpool said Noel White resigned with immediate effect after 21 years on the board. He quit after admitting he was the anonymous director who had made criticisms of Benitez to a British newspaper last week. "The board considers that the statements made do not reflect its own views and that this is not the Liverpool way of doing business," Liverpool chairman David Moores said. "The proper place for debate is around the boardroom table."
■ Soccer
Lippi turns down Qaddafi
Italy's World Cup winning coach Marcello Lippi turned down an offer from Lybian leader Muammar Qaddafi to manage the Libyan national team, and says he only wants a club job, excluding him from any interest by Mexico as well. "He [Qaddafi] wanted me, it's true," Lippi was quoted as saying on Tuesday by online newspaper quotidiano.net. "I received 10 or so offers after the World Cup from very important federations, but I declined the various proposals," he said.
■ Baseball
Agent accused of smuggling
A sports agent was indicted by the federal government on Tuesday in a scheme that allegedly involved smuggling elite Cuban baseball players to the US. Gus Dominguez, of Los Angeles-based Total Sports International, was indicted along with four others with organizing and financing the smuggling ring. Geoffrey Rodrigues, Robert Yosvany Hernandez, Ramon Batista, and Guillermo Valdez were charged along with Dominguez. Law enforcement officials accuse Total Sports of sneaking several baseball players off the communist island in August 2004. Some of the players are playing for minor league clubs. Federal prosecutors allege Dominguez and the others used speed boats to transport the players and civilians to Florida.
■ Soccer
Club linked to cocaine cartel
Colombian second-division soccer club Cortulua is a front company for one of the South American country's four most wanted cocaine kingpins, US officials assert. They are freezing any US assets that belong to the team. In a news release, the US Treasury Department identified Cortulua among 10 companies and seven individuals who allegedly operate on behalf of Carlos Alberto Renteria Mantilla, one of the four leaders of the Norte del Valle cartel, the country's biggest. The team is based in Tulua near the southern city of Cali, long a hotbed of Colombia's narcotics trade. Cortulua qualified for the Copa Libertadores in 2002, has played in the Colombian first division as recently as last year and appears ready to return to the top flight next season.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Marcus Rashford’s first goals for Aston Villa on Sunday inspired a 3-0 win against Preston North End that sent his side into the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in 10 years. Rashford struck twice in the second half at Deepdale to end Preston’s stubborn resistance before Jacob Ramsey wrapped up Villa’s long-awaited return to the last four. Villa are to face Crystal Palace — 3-0 winners at Fulham on Saturday — in the semi-finals at Wembley Stadium in London. Revitalized since joining Villa on loan from Manchester United during the January transfer window, Rashford is beginning to show the form that
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