Thu, Jan 16, 2020 page16

• SPORTS BRIEFS

  • Agencies
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  BASEBALL

  Red Sox dismiss Alex Cora

  The Boston Red Sox on Tuesday said that they were parting ways with manager Alex Cora in the wake of a sign-stealing scandal involving the Houston Astros, where Cora had been the bench coach, during their World Series-winning 2017 season. In its judgement on Monday, the league said that Cora had arranged for the installation of a monitor showing centerfield camera shots, giving players the ability to decipher the signs and alert batters. The Red Sox said that it would not be possible for Cora to remain with the team given the league’s findings. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said that Cora “implicitly condoned” the Astros players’ conduct. The MLB would withhold any disciplinary action against him until the completion of a separate investigation of allegations the Red Sox engaged in sign-stealing in 2018, when they won the World Series in Cora’s first year as manager, he added.

  GOLF

  Slow players face more fines

  PGA Tour players guilty of slow play are to face tougher fines and more frequent stroke penalties under tough new rules due to take effect in April, tour officials said on Tuesday. Maximum fines for slow play would be increased 10-fold from their current level, while players taking too long to play shots would be placed on an observation list, the tour said in a statement. Under the new slow-play policy, data from the PGA Tour’s Shotlink database would be analyzed to identify players guilty of slow play. Players would be placed on the tour’s observation list and subjected to warnings if they exceed 60 seconds to play a shot. A second breach of the time limit in a tournament would result in a one-stroke penalty. However, the list would not be made public. Players are to be notified if they are on the list on a week-to-week basis. Any player in a tournament — even if they are not on the observation list — would also be penalized if they are found to take longer than 120 seconds to play a single shot without good reason. Players will face a one-shot penalty for the second time breach in a tournament — rather than a round — while the maximum fine for cumulative bad times over a season has been raised from US$5,000 to US$50,000.

  SOCCER

  Inquiry launched into union

  The Professional Footballers’ Association, the trade union for players in England and Wales, is facing a statutory inquiry into serious concerns about how the charity is run. The Charity Commission for England and Wales described the inquiry as the “most serious intervention” it can take, and would focus on the management of the union charity by its trustees, who include association chief executive Gordon Taylor. The inquiry is to focus on the charity’s relationship and transactions with other bodies and whether they are in the best interests of the charity, and whether its activities have been exclusively charitable and for the public benefit. “The public rightly expect charities to operate to the highest standards — across all they do,” said Stephen Grenfell, the commission’s head of investigations, monitoring and enforcement. “Serious concerns have been raised about the way the Professional Footballers’ Association charity is run. We will now examine what has happened at the charity through a full statutory inquiry and ensure, where necessary, action is taken.”
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