SOCCER
BBC sorry for Man U blunder
The BBC has apologized to viewers after the headline “Manchester United are rubbish” appeared on its ticker during a television news broadcast on Tuesday. The headline appeared on the bottom of the screen during a report on the French Open tennis championship. TV critic and broadcaster Scott Bryan, who works for the BBC, noticed the gaffe and posted a clip on Twitter, which immediately went viral. BBC presenter Annita McVeigh later issued the apology on air and explained that the headline was written when someone was learning how to use the ticker. “I hope that Manchester United fans weren’t offended by it,” she said. “Let me just explain what was happening: Behind the scenes someone was training to learn how to use the ticker and to put text on the ticker. So they were just writing random things, not in earnest, and that comment appeared.”
SOCCER
Zlatan’s nose auctioned
Angry Swedish soccer fans are auctioning replicas of the sawn-off nose of a Zlatan Ibrahimovic statue to protest the commercialization of the sport and what they perceive as the star’s betrayal. Bids on eBay reached US$610 on Tuesday. A life-size bronze statue of the Swedish superstar, erected in his hometown of Malmo in 2019, has been the target of numerous attacks since he invested in Stockholm-based Hammarby Fotboll in November 2019, angering supporters of Malmo FF, the club where he began his professional career. The statue’s nose was sawn off in December 2019, with the feet going the following month. The three replicas of the original nose — which is still missing — had been put up for auction, “because choosing money over love can cost you dearly,” Malmo FF fans wrote on the specially created Web site www.vararnasan.se, Swedish for “where is the nose.” “Football ... has increasingly turned into a hyper-commercialized mass industry, where fans are seen as consumers and players and clubs are treated like merchandise,” they wrote. They said they would use the auction profits to combat “modern and commercial football and promote a sport where the focus is on love for the clubs and the game.”
CRICKET
Miller takes Titans to final
Skipper Hardik Pandya on Tuesday hailed “match-winner” David Miller after the South African batsman led newcomers Gujarat Titans to the IPL final with a seven-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals. Chasing 189 for victory in the first qualifier, Gujarat rode an unbeaten 106-run fourth-wicket stand between Pandya (40) and Miller (68) to achieve the target with three balls to spare in Kolkata. With 16 needed off the final over, the left-handed Miller smashed each of Prasidh Krishna’s first three balls for six to bring the house down at a full capacity Eden Gardens in the first qualifier. Known as “Killer” Miller for his big hitting, the left-handed batsman smashed three fours and five sixes in his 38-ball knock. “A lot of people counted David Miller out, but for us he was always a match-winner from the time we brought him in the auction,” Pandya said. “What he did today, we always expected him to do that.” Afghanistan spin wizard Rashid Khan set up the win with figures of 0-15 that kept Rajasthan to 188-6 despite Jos Buttler’s 56-ball 89.
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
Taiwan’s top table tennis player Lin Yun-ju made his debut in the US professional table tennis scene by taking on a new role as a team’s co-owner. On Wednesday, Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), founded in September last year, announced on its official Web site that Lin had become part of the ownership group of the Princeton Revolution, one of the league’s eight teams. MLTT chief executive officer Flint Lane described Lin’s investment as “another great milestone for table tennis in America,” saying that the league’s “commitment to growth and innovation is drawing attention from the best in the sport, and we’re
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For