SOCCER
Platini cleared of charges
Banned former UEFA president and FIFA vice president Michel Platini said he is to return to soccer after Swiss federal prosecutors confirmed he was not being charged in an investigation into possible financial wrongdoing. It is “the end of a long nightmare for my family and those close to me,” Platini said in a statement. Since September 2015, the former France midfielder had the status of “between a witness and an accused person” in criminal proceedings against then-FIFA president Sepp Blatter. No criminal case was ever opened against Platini. The evidence related to Blatter authorizing FIFA to pay Platini US$2 million in uncontracted back salary in 2011.
WORLD CUP
Brazil fans crash training
Disgruntled fans broke into a Brazil training session on Friday and some booed the national team over a lack of contact with local supporters. A few dozen even mockingly chanted “It was 7-1! It was 7-1!” in a reference to the team’s humiliation against Germany four years ago. The open training in Teresopolis was the only chance local fans had to be with Brazil players since the beginning of preparations tomorrow. Brazil gave up on their traditional pre-Cup friendly on home soil before the tournament and are to only play again on June 3 in Liverpool against Croatia. About 200 people were initially allowed inside the Granja Comary training ground, but many others broke into the venue after being stopped by police for hours at the gates. No one was injured, but the frustration was evident.
SOCCER
FIFA exec calls out sexism
FIFA secretary-general Fatma Samoura said she encountered sexism and racism when she took over the job, with some in soccer opposed to a black woman taking a senior post. The 55-year-old Senegalese was the first woman to hold a senior role at FIFA when she took over from Jerome Valcke, who was sacked in January 2016 as part of the corruption scandal fallout. She had “broken the glass ceiling” in a “male-dominated organization, [but] they are used to me now,” Samoura told the BBC. “There are people who don’t think that a black woman should be leading the administration of FIFA. It’s sometimes as simple as that. It is something we are fighting on a daily basis on the pitch,” she said. “Nobody asks a man when he takes a position if he’s competent to do the job. They just assume that he can do the job. For a woman to make her way up to the top, you need to prove every single day that you are the best fit for that position.”
CRICKET
Film to expose corruption
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has launched an investigation into corruption allegations made in a documentary to be aired by al-Jazeera today. The documentary allegedly uncovers a groundsman agreeing to doctor pitches for Test matches involving some of the world’s top teams. “The ICC is aware of an investigation into corruption in cricket by a news organization and as you would expect we will take the contents of the program and any allegations it may make very seriously,” it said in a statement on its Web site. The Australian yesterday reported that the documentary would allege that spot-fixers bribed the groundsman at Galle to doctor the pitch used for the 2016 second Test between hosts Sri Lanka and Australia. Last year’s Test between Sri Lanka and India at Galle was also under suspicion, while match-fixers had also targeted England’s Test at the same venue in November last year, the Australian said.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
The San Francisco Giants signed 18-year-old Taiwanese pitcher Yang Nien-hsi (陽念希) to a contract worth a total of US$500,000 (NT $16.39 million). At a press event in Taipei on Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Giants’ Pacific Rim Area scout Evan Hsueh (薛奕煌) presented Yang with a Giants jersey to celebrate the signing. The deal consisted of a contract worth US$450,000 plus a US$50,000 scholarship bonus. Yang, who stands at 188 centimeters tall and weighs 85 kilograms, is of Indigenous Amis descent. With his fastest pitch clocking in at 150 kilometers per hour, Yang had been on Hsueh’s radar since playing in the HuaNan Cup
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
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