SOCCER
Olympiakos entry cleared
UEFA said Olympiakos will enter the Champions League groups draw tomorrow, despite match-fixing allegations after sport’s highest court rejected an appeal by Panathinaikos. UEFA said the “provisional admission” of Greek champion Olympiakos was confirmed on Monday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Panathinaikos, league runners-up last season, challenged a UEFA appeals body decision in June to admit Olympiakos, whose president Vangelis Marinakis is implicated in an alleged criminal conspiracy to fix domestic matches. UEFA rules bar clubs from its competitions and can disqualify them mid-season if any match-fixing allegation since 2007 is proven. UEFA says neither the Greek federation “nor the criminal courts in Athens have rendered any final decision against Mr Marinakis or the club.” Panathinaikos were eliminated from the Champions League qualifying rounds this month.
SOCCER
Balotelli to sign Milan deal
Liverpool misfit Mario Balotelli will return to AC Milan on a season-long loan deal thrashed out by the clubs on Monday, reports in Italy said.Italy international Balotelli’s career has hit the skids since he joined the English Premier League club following last year’s World Cup and he has not played for Italy since. However, with the European Championships in France next summer, the 25-year-old striker is now set for a dramatic return to the club he left just over a year ago. A report on Gazzetta dello Sport’s Web site said Balotelli was to undergo a medical at Milan’s Milanello training ground yesterday. If all goes well, he could be available for Milan’s opening home game of the season against Empoli. The report added there was no clause in the deal that would allow Milan to buy Balotelli outright at the end of the season.
RUGBY UNION
Kevin Mealamu to retire
Hooker Keven Mealamu has announced he will retire after this year’s Rugby World Cup, joining a number of senior All Blacks who are to make the tournament their international swansong. The 36-year-old Mealamu has played 126 Tests for New Zealand since his debut is 2002 — a record for an All Blacks hooker — and a franchise-record 135 Super Rugby matches for the Auckland-based Blues. Mealamu announced his retirement at a news conference yesterday, saying he will take up a role as a rugby ambassador for the New Zealand Rugby Union. “I have loved my time as a rugby player here in New Zealand and loved being part of all the teams I have represented, particularly the All Blacks,” Mealamu said.
FOOTBALL
Hayne puts hand up for spot
Former Australian rugby league star Jarryd Hayne has taken a giant stride toward securing a place on the San Francisco 49ers roster after another dazzling performance in a pre-season game for the NFL giants. Few observers had expected Hayne to force his way onto the 49ers 53-man final roster in his first year, but after a series of impressive pre-season displays, he is now looking increasingly likely to make the cut. On Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys the speedster caught the eye with a 27-yard punt return before notching a 34-yard return. He then contributed another 23-yard run in the first quarter alone. “Obviously the guy’s doing really well. He’s making a great case for himself absolutely,” San Francisco coach Jim Tomsula said.
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
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
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
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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