■ SOCCER
Milner signs for City
England midfielder James Milner completed his reported £26 million (US$40 million) transfer from Aston Villa to English Premier League rivals Manchester City on Wednesday. Former Republic of Ireland midfielder Stephen Ireland moved in the other direction as part of the deal which saw Villa manager Martin O’Neill resign over a week ago as he was dissatisfied with the club selling their best players. City had bought another of their midfield stars, English international Gareth Barry, in the close season last year. City manager Roberto Mancini was delighted to have secured his sixth big money signing since the end of last season. “I am very happy to have James with us, everybody knows we have admired him for some time,” said Mancini, who replaced Mark Hughes last season and guided City to fifth in the league.
■ SOCCER
Anelka derides FFF ban
Nicolas Anelka has described the French Football Federation (FFF) as a “bunch of clowns” after they handed the striker an 18-game international ban for his role in the national team’s World Cup revolt in South Africa. The 31-year-old was handed the suspension by an FFF disciplinary commission on Tuesday, a decision derided by Anelka, who said he never intended to play for France again anyway. “For me, that commission thing is absolute nonsense, an aberration, a farce, an attempt not to lose face,” Anelka was quoted as saying by daily France Soir on Wednesday.
■ SOCCER
Boateng loaned to AC Milan
Ghana international Kevin-Prince Boateng joined Genoa from Championship (second division) club Portsmouth on Wednesday, before immediately signing for AC Milan on loan. The German-born midfielder, whose impressive displays helped Ghana reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup, will spend the season at Milan, who have already agreed a deal with Serie A rivals Genoa to make the move permanent. “Kevin-Prince Boateng is from today a Milan player, arriving on loan from Genoa, but with a buy-out clause in favor of Milan,” read a statement on the club’s Web site. The 23-year-old has been training with Genoa in recent days.
■ SOCCER
Tourney may be rescheduled
The next East Asian Championship may be pushed back a year to 2013 to prevent it from becoming a warm-up for the 2012 London Olympics, Japan’s soccer chief said yesterday. “If we stage it in the summer of 2013, a year before the World Cup, it will help each country prepare for the World Cup,” Japan Football Association president Junji Ogura told reporters. Ogura said there were fears that the tournament, currently scheduled for 2012 in South Korea, would become a warm-up event for Olympic squads. The delay will be discussed at meetings of the East Asian Football Federation on Tuesday.
■ TENNIS
Henin out for season
Former world No. 1 Justine Henin has ruled herself out for the rest of the season with an elbow ligament injury. The 28-year-old Belgian has been out of action since hurting her right elbow at Wimbledon, but had initially hoped to be back in September. However, yesterday, Henin wrote on her official Web site that she would not even begin practice until October. “I took several medical examinations in recent days and [things] are going in the right direction, it is encouraging news. It is still a slow recovery, so I need to be patient again until the end of 2010.”
INJURY TURMOIL: Despite stunning French Open champions Paolini and Errani to advance, Chan was forced to pull out after her partner’s tearful women’s singles defeat Last year’s mixed doubles champions Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Poland’s Jan Zielinski on Monday crashed out of the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, leaving the Taiwanese star focused on pursuing a fifth women’s doubles title in London, while a partner injury forced compatriot Chan Hao-ching to give up on her doubles campaign. Hsieh and Zielinksi, who last year also won the Australia Open title, narrowly lost their opening set 7-6 (9/7), before Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani stunned the former champions 6-3 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The Taiwanese-Polish duo had been dominant in the first two
HSIEH ADVANCES: In the women’s doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei was to play in the second round last night, but Taiwan’s Ray Ho exited in the men’s doubles It is more than 10 years since Grigor Dimitrov reached his sole Wimbledon semi-final and back then it still seemed a reasonable bet that the Bulgarian once dubbed “Baby Federer” would win a Grand Slam title. There were semi-final runs at the US Open and Australian Open after that, but it has never quite happened and despite him still being ranked No. 21, it most likely never will. Dimitrov, 34, remains one of the most stylish players on the circuit though, with his elegant single-handed backhand and smooth all-court game a rare reminder of how tennis was before the power merchants turned
Real Madrid’s FIFA Club World Cup quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund had taken three crazy turns during nine minutes of second-half stoppage time when Marcel Sabitzer chested the ball and sent a right-footed volley toward Thibaut Courtois’ post. Courtois leapt to his right, extended the long arm on his 2m frame and just managed to get his gloved fingertips on the ball, knocking it down. Courtois hit the ground as the ball bounded up. He looked skyward, planted his right hand to regain his balance, grabbed the ball with both hands on the second bounce and fell onto it with his chest. Sabitzer turned
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has overturned French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus’ four-year suspension for doping, ruling that her positive test for a banned substance was caused by kissing her then-boyfriend, American fencer Race Imboden. Thibus, a silver medalist in team foil at the Tokyo Games, had tested positive for ostarine, a prohibited muscle-building substance, during a competition in Paris in January last year. However, CAS concluded there was no intentional wrongdoing, finding it scientifically plausible that repeated kissing over several days with Olympic medalist Imboden — who was taking ostarine at the time — led to accidental contamination. The court
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