SOCCER
No away trips for fans
AS Saint-Etienne fans will be banned from their side’s away games until the end of the year after some Les Verts supporters caused chaos before a Ligue 1 match last weekend, the French League (LFP) said on Wednesday. On Sunday, nine people were injured when Saint-Etienne fans threw seats at home supporters at OGC Nice’s Allianz Riviera stadium, prompting police to clear the away stands. The sanction means Saint-Etienne fans will not be allowed to attend the trips to Stade Rennais and Montpellier Herault in Ligue 1 and Paris Saint-Germain in the League Cup.
SOCCER
Player may leave Qatar
Qatar, the 2022 World Cup host, has finally allowed a French player to leave the country after being stuck there for 17 months because of a pay dispute with his club, France’s ambassador said on Wednesday. Al-Jaish player Zahir Belounis has obtained an exit visa, which is usually controlled by employers in the Gulf state under its controversial kafala, or sponsorship system, ambassador Jean-Christophe Peaucelle said. The French-Algerian player, 33, had been stuck in Qatar since June last year after he filed a complaint against Al-Jaish over a payment dispute. The club insisted he would not be granted the exit permit unless he dropped the case. The global players’ union FIFPro said it would start a four-day visit to Qatar yesterday for talks with Qatari soccer authorities and organizers of the 2022 World Cup. The association said it would “not sit idly by as the rights of the players are being abused.”
CRICKET
Nepal reach Twenty20 finals
Nepal qualified for their maiden ICC World Twenty20 finals with a five-wicket win over Hong Kong at Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. Nepal survived a last-over scare to score the required 13 runs, with 10 coming from the first two deliveries and a last-ball misfield producing the winning runs. Joining Nepal at next year’s tournament in Bangladesh are the United Arab Emirates, who return to the global stage for the first time in 17 years. The UAE qualified courtesy of successfully defending a modest score of 118 to beat the Netherlands by 10 runs.
CRICKET
Veteran Chanderpaul shines
Veteran batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul top-scored for a makeshift West Indies side in a tour match against a New Zealand XI in Lincoln, New Zealand, yesterday, just missing out on a century. Chanderpaul, who notched up 150 Tests in India this month, hit 89 from 106 balls as the tourists took a narrow first-innings lead over the New Zealanders. The West Indies declared on 230-6 after Anurag Verma bowled Chanderpaul, putting them just three runs ahead of the New Zealand XI. Blacks Caps openers Hamish Rutherford (61) and Peter Fulton (32) made a good start in New Zealand’s second innings, cruising to 103 without loss at stumps.
RUGBY UNION
Trio nominated for award
New Zealand’s Ben Smith and Kieran Read and Wales’ Leigh Halfpenny have been nominated for the players’ player of the year award, the International Rugby Players’ Association said on Wednesday. The trio, along with South Africa’s Eben Etzebeth and Italy’s Sergio Parisse, have also been shortlisted for the International Rugby Board’s world player of the year award.
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
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
‘SU-PENKO’: Hsieh and Ostapenko face a rematch against their Australian Open final opponents, the same duo Hsieh played in last year’s Wimbledon semi-finals Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko on Wednesday survived a near upset to the unseeded duo of Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya, setting up a semi-final showdown against last year’s winners. Despite losing a hard-fought opening set 7-6 (7/4) on a tiebreak, the fourth seeds turned up the heat, losing just five games in the final two sets to handily put down Cirstea and Kalinskaya 6-3, 6-2. Nicknamed “Su-Penko,” the pair are next to face top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in a reversal of last
Switzerland’s Riola Xhemaili on Thursday scored a last-gasp goal to salvage a dramatic 1-1 draw with Finland that sent the joyous hosts through to the quarter-finals at Euro 2025, and heartbroken Finland home. Switzerland, who needed only a draw to advance based on goal-difference, finished second in Group A behind Norway to go through to the knockout round for the first time and are to face the winners of Group B, which would be world champions Spain as things stand. “I think we set ourselves a goal on the pitch, to write history, to go into the knockout stages, which we’ve never
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