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.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
RSS