■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.
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
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
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
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