■PERU
Players quit national team
Peruvian players quit their national team on Saturday, bringing further misery for fans who have already seen their side slump in World Cup qualifying. “We have presented the Peru Football Federation [FPF] a document announcing the players’ resignations because none of the reforms demanded have been carried out,” players’ union president Fernando Revilla said. The petition was signed by more than 600 players based both in Peru and abroad. Manuel Burga, the president of the FPF, said that in the long term “the biggest losers will be the players.” Peru are bottom of the qualifying table for next year’s World Cup.
■ENGLAND
Bolton sign Knight, Ricketts
Premier League side Bolton Wanderers on Saturday completed the signings of Aston Villa defender Zat Knight and Hull City fullback Sam Ricketts on three-year deals. Centerback Knight, who has won two England caps, has struggled for regular first-team soccer since joining Villa in 2007 from Fulham, starting just 13 Premier League games last season. Wales international Ricketts, who can play on the left or the right, started 27 Premier League games in Hull’s first season in the top flight. They are Gary Megson’s third and fourth signings of the summer, with the club having brought in Sean Davis from Portsmouth and defender Paul Robinson from West Bromwich Albion.
■BOLIVIA
Youngest player’s dad fired
The father of a 12-year-old boy who last week became the world’s youngest professional player has been fired as coach of the Bolivian first division side. Former World Cup star Julio Cesar Baldivieso has been forced out by bosses of his club Aurora for refusing to obey orders from club directors to leave the boy out of the squad. Baldivieso also withdrew his son Mauricio, who turned 13 on Wednesday, from the club. “For internal club reasons, we’ve decided to part company with coach [Julio Cesar] Baldivieso,” Aurora president Jose Luis Montano said. It followed the controversy that surrounded Mauricio’s appearance as a substitute for the final 10 minutes of a 1-0 defeat against La Paz.
■NETHERLANDS
Alkmaar win Super Cup
Dutch champions AZ Alkmaar scored three goals in the first half an hour, before settling their first Dutch Super Cup win with a 5-1 thrashing of Heerenveen on Saturday. Australian international Brett Holman opened the scoring for Alkmaar after 15 minutes when he netted a fine cross from Maarten Martens who broke through on the left flank. Last season’s top scorer Mounir El Hamdaoui doubled the lead nine minutes later after a combination by Stijn Schaars and Jeremain Lens, then Martens got the third four minutes later with a 25m shot. Michal Papadopolous pulled one back on the hour, but a Lens brace completed the rout.
■BRAZIL
Ze Carlos dies aged 47
Former international goalkeeper Ze Carlos, who was understudy to Claudio Taffarell at the 1990 World Cup finals, has died at the age of 47 after a long battle with cancer, it was reported on Saturday. Ze Carlos, who played for Flamengo, died on Friday at a hospital in northwest Rio De Janeiro where he had been admitted in May. The goalkeeper won the Brazilian league title with Flamengo in 1987 and the Brazilian Cup in 1990. He also played for Cruzeiro, Vitoria and America, as well as in Portugal with Vitoria Guimaraes.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
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