MOTORSPORT
F1 eyes 24 races
Formula One is planning to expand to 24 races in the near future, with some rotation of circuits, Formula One chief executive officer Chase Carey said on Thursday. The sport has penciled in a record 23 races for next year, dependent on developments in the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced organizers to rewrite this season’s schedule and limit races to Europe and the Middle East. Carey, who is handing over to former Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali in January while remaining as non-executive chairman of the Liberty Media-owned sport, was speaking to investors. “We expect to move to a 24-race calendar in the next few years and will probably rotate a few races so we will be able to accommodate a few new partners, but they will be limited as long-term partnerships continue to be our priority,” he said.
BASEBALL
MLB minimum salary rises
The minimum salary in Major League Baseball is to rise to US$570,500 next season, a hike of US$7,000. Under the league’s collective bargaining agreement with its players’ association, the minimum was US$535,000 in 2017, US$545,000 in 2018 and US$555,000 last year. In the final two seasons of the five-year deal, the increase is calculated as the rise from October to October in the consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers. Last month’s figure was announced on Nov. 12 by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the MLB rise was confirmed by the commissioner’s office on Thursday after it conferred with the players’ association. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, MLB and the players’ association agreed to prorated salaries for this year, which reduced the major league minimum from US$563,500 to US$208,704.
SOCCER
Ramos to miss Inter game
Real Madrid are to be without captain Sergio Ramos for their Champions League trip to play Inter after they confirmed on Thursday that he sustained a hamstring injury on international duty with Spain. Ramos was substituted in the first half of the team’s 6-0 thrashing of Germany on Tuesday. “After undergoing tests under the supervision of Real Madrid’s medical team, Sergio Ramos has picked up a hamstring problem,” Real said in a statement. Local media reported that Ramos would miss the visit to high-flying Villarreal in La Liga action today and the Champions League match next week.
MIXED MARTIAL ARTS
McGregor return announced
Conor McGregor has agreed to return to the UFC for a rematch with Dustin Poirier on Jan. 23 at UFC257. UFC president Dana White on Thursday told reporters that McGregor has ended his latest retirement from mixed martial arts by signing an agreement for a 155 pound fight with Poirier. White has not decided whether UFC257 is to be held in Las Vegas or in the UFC’s COVID-19 bubble in Abu Dhabi. “But if the world continues in the direction it looks like it’s headed, it will 100 percent be Fight Island,” White said, meaning the United Arab Emirates. McGregor (22-4) has fought in the UFC cage just twice since November 2016, but he dramatically stopped Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in 40 seconds at UFC246 in January last year.
Former world No. 2 Paula Badosa has withdrawn from this week’s Wuhan Open, organizers said on Tuesday, amid a racism row over an online photograph. Tournament organizers said the Spaniard had pulled out of the WTA 1000 tournament, citing a gastrointestinal illness, hours before her first-round match against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic. News outlets including Britain’s the Telegraph earlier reported that Badosa had posted a photo on Instagram in which she appeared to imitate a Chinese face by placing chopsticks on the corners of her eyes. The photo was taken last week in a restaurant in Beijing, where she reached the semi-finals of the
Shin Oebori coaches the Fukagawa Hawks youth baseball team in Tokyo, and he is very aware how Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani touches his players. “With Ohtani, the kids think everything is possible,” Oebori said, wrapping up practice yesterday on an all-dirt field set alongside a local Buddhist temple, below an elevated highway, and in the shadow of tall apartment blocks in central Tokyo. “Nothing is impossible with him. A dream is not a dream,” Oebori said, stepping out of the fenced practice field that keeps balls from landing on the temple grounds. None of the players hitting sponge-soft baseball has reached
Italian defender Marco Curto has been banned for 10 matches for racially abusing South Korean forward Hwang Hee-chan while playing for Como 1907 against Wolverhampton Wanderers in a pre-season friendly in July. Curto, who is on loan from Como to Serie B club Cesena, would serve half of the punishment immediately with the other half suspended for two years. “The player Marco Curto was found responsible for discriminatory behavior and sanctioned with a 10-match suspension,” a FIFA spokesperson said. “The player is ordered to render community services and undergo training and education with an organization approved by FIFA.” Wolves said the club would
CRICKET Azhar’s 59 leads Stallions Aashir Azhar’s blazing half-century guided the Taipei Stallions to victory over Taipei Super 11 in the Taiwan Premier League’s Group A at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei yesterday. The Stallions were 102-3 and into the 12th over of 20 when Azhar came to the crease. He hit seven sixes and two fours in the 25 deliveries he faced to push his side to 171-5. Gokul Kumar was the star with the ball for Super 11, taking 3-17. In the reply, Deepak Vishnu outscored Azhar with 77 from 50 balls, but nobody else got past 20 as
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