FOOTBALL
Favre fined US$50,000
Brett Favre has been fined US$50,000 by the NFL for not cooperating with an investigation into allegations he sent lewd messages to a female employee of the New York Jets when he played with the club in 2008, the league said on Wednesday. The 41-year-old Minnesota Vikings quarterback had been the subject of an NFL investigation since October to determine whether he violated the league’s personal conduct policy through his alleged correspondence with the Jets employee. “Commissioner [Roger] Goodell … determined that Favre was not candid in several respects during the investigation, resulting in a longer review and additional negative public attention,” the NFL said in a statement. The fine was handed down days before the Vikings’ final game of the season, which Favre has said would be his last after a 20-season career.
SOCCER
Fans remember Cohen
Thousands of Israelis paid tribute to local soccer icon and former Liverpool player Avi Cohen at Tel Aviv’s Ramat Gan national stadium, filing past a flag-draped coffin on Wednesday. Cohen, a former national team captain and the first Israeli to play in England, was declared brain dead and taken off life support on Tuesday, eight days after going into a coma with head injuries from a motorbike accident.
SOCCER
Players influence children
Children are growing up thinking that marriages are not meant to last because so many soccer and pop stars have high-profile affairs and bust-ups, an expert warned on Wednesday. Alleged infidelities by England internationals like Wayne Rooney, John Terry and Ashley Cole all hit the headlines this year and received acres of prominent coverage in newspapers. Reg Bailey, who is leading a government review of the sexualization of childhood, is expected to consider the issue in a report he is preparing for the British Department for Education. Bailey told the Daily Telegraph newspaper that athletes had a clear influence on children’s behavior and ideas of what was acceptable. “The sexualization of children is clearly a concern. Many people simply associate that with girls. I don’t think it is. It impacts both boys and girls and the review will take account of that,” he said. The Telegraph also quoted Jamie Murdoch of the relationships support charity Relate as saying: “Actions have consequences and young people are growing up in a media-influenced culture where they perceive that having an affair is normal and a marriage that lasts is something which even many successful people can’t aspire to.”
Former world No. 2 Paula Badosa has withdrawn from this week’s Wuhan Open, organizers said on Tuesday, amid a racism row over an online photograph. Tournament organizers said the Spaniard had pulled out of the WTA 1000 tournament, citing a gastrointestinal illness, hours before her first-round match against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic. News outlets including Britain’s the Telegraph earlier reported that Badosa had posted a photo on Instagram in which she appeared to imitate a Chinese face by placing chopsticks on the corners of her eyes. The photo was taken last week in a restaurant in Beijing, where she reached the semi-finals of the
Shin Oebori coaches the Fukagawa Hawks youth baseball team in Tokyo, and he is very aware how Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani touches his players. “With Ohtani, the kids think everything is possible,” Oebori said, wrapping up practice yesterday on an all-dirt field set alongside a local Buddhist temple, below an elevated highway, and in the shadow of tall apartment blocks in central Tokyo. “Nothing is impossible with him. A dream is not a dream,” Oebori said, stepping out of the fenced practice field that keeps balls from landing on the temple grounds. None of the players hitting sponge-soft baseball has reached
Italian defender Marco Curto has been banned for 10 matches for racially abusing South Korean forward Hwang Hee-chan while playing for Como 1907 against Wolverhampton Wanderers in a pre-season friendly in July. Curto, who is on loan from Como to Serie B club Cesena, would serve half of the punishment immediately with the other half suspended for two years. “The player Marco Curto was found responsible for discriminatory behavior and sanctioned with a 10-match suspension,” a FIFA spokesperson said. “The player is ordered to render community services and undergo training and education with an organization approved by FIFA.” Wolves said the club would
CRICKET Azhar’s 59 leads Stallions Aashir Azhar’s blazing half-century guided the Taipei Stallions to victory over Taipei Super 11 in the Taiwan Premier League’s Group A at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei yesterday. The Stallions were 102-3 and into the 12th over of 20 when Azhar came to the crease. He hit seven sixes and two fours in the 25 deliveries he faced to push his side to 171-5. Gokul Kumar was the star with the ball for Super 11, taking 3-17. In the reply, Deepak Vishnu outscored Azhar with 77 from 50 balls, but nobody else got past 20 as
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