ARGENTINA
Name change report queried
FIFA questioned the Argentine Football Association (AFA) over reports the country’s championship could be renamed after the General Belgrano battleship sunk during the Falklands War in 1982. AFA were warned the potential name change for the Clausura championship, which began last weekend, could breach FIFA statutes. “FIFA contacted AFA with regards to a potential change of name of the Liga de Primera Division.” According to media reports, the league was set to be named after “Crucero General Belgrano,” FIFA said in a statement. “FIFA has requested the AFA to provide further information on this matter, and reminded the AFA of article three of the FIFA statutes which prohibits any kind of discrimination against a country, private person or group of people on account of ethnic origin, gender, language, religion, politics or any other reason.” Local media said the name change would have to be approved first by the AFA’s executive committee, which meets weekly, usually on Tuesdays.
BRAZIL
Ronaldinho may play Bosnia
The national team could field Ronaldinho, Neymar and Paulo Henrique Ganso, a key trio in their 2014 World Cup ambitions, when they meet Bosnia in a friendly in Switzerland on Feb. 28. Flamengo captain Ronaldinho and the Santos pair, striker Neymar and playmaker Ganso, were included in a 23-man squad named on Tuesday by coach Mano Menezes. Menezes first fielded the trio against Ghana in September last year when Ronaldinho, 31, made his Brazil comeback, but midfielder Ganso only played for a few minutes before being injured in the 1-0 win in London. Ronaldinho, part of Brazil’s 2002 World Cup-winning team, but overlooked in 2010, was recalled by Menezes in September after a 10-month absence during which he missed the Copa America in Argentina in July.
ARGENTINA
Roma’s Lamela called up
AS Roma teenager Erik Lamela and 31-year-old Napoli defender Hugo Campagnaro have earned their first national team call-ups for a friendly against Switzerland in Berne on Feb. 29. Liverpool winger Maxi Rodriguez also earned a recall in the 18-man squad of foreign-based players named by coach Alejandro Sabella on Tuesday, while Real Madrid’s Angel Di Maria returns from injury. The squad will be increased in the leadup to the match with the inclusion of players from the local league, the AFA said on their Web site. The gifted Lamela has been in good form for Roma since his transfer from relegated Argentine giants River Plate in middle of last year. Rodriguez, who played for Argentina at the 2006 World Cup, last turned out for his country in the 4-0 quarter-final defeat by Germany in Cape Town in July 2010.
ENGLAND
Mertesacker out for a while
Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker could be sidelined for a month with an ankle injury, manager Arsene Wenger said on the eve of yesterday’s Champions League game at AC Milan. The Germany international was injured in Saturday’s Premier League win at Sunderland and is poised to miss both legs of the last-16 tie with Milan as well as the north London derby against Tottenham Hotspur and his national team’s friendly with France. “He had reconstruction of his ankle in Germany before he joined us and the scan did not look too positive yesterday. Last night he went back to Germany to speak to the specialist and see where we go from there,” Wenger told reporters on Tuesday. “Certainly in the next month he will not be with us.”
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
RSS