SOCCER
Vissel Kobe fire manager
Andres Iniesta’s floundering J-League side Vissel Kobe yesterday fired manager Miguel Angel Lotina after less than three months in charge, with reports blaming his treatment of the former Barcelona legend. Iniesta is in danger of being relegated for the first time in his glittering career, with big-spending Vissel rooted to the bottom of the Japan top flight more than halfway through the season with only 11 points from 18 matches. Japanese media reports said the veteran manager clashed with club officials over how best to use 38-year-old Iniesta. The 2010 FIFA World Cup-winning midfielder has started Vissel’s last seven league games, but Lotina has shifted the team’s playing style away from a Barcelona-style “tiki-taka” passing game to a more counterattacking approach. Lotina also reportedly disagreed with the club over how much time Iniesta should spend on the pitch. Reports say club officials are worried that Iniesta might leave if Vissel are relegated. Lotina has been replaced as manager by Takayuki Yoshida, who begins his third stint in charge of the club.
CRICKET
England captain retires
Eoin Morgan said extending his England career would have made him feel “an imposter,” as the ICC Cricket World Cup-winning captain retired from international cricket on Tuesday. Morgan plans to continue playing domestic cricket. The 35-year-old batsman oversaw England’s transformation from a side that suffered a woeful first-round exit at the 2015 World Cup to one-day kings four years later. Dublin-born Morgan bows out as England’s all-time leading run-scorer in one-day international (ODI) and Twenty20 cricket with 6,957 and 2,458 runs respectively. His tally of 225 one-day international appearances and 115 in T20 internationals are also England records. However, he has made just two 50s from his past 28 international innings across the two white-ball formats and was twice out for nought during England’s recent ODI series away to the Netherlands. “I’m very happy with my decision,” Morgan said. “The day it hit me I was emotional, it was a difficult day, but since then I’ve been very content. I’d reached the end of the road.”
FORMULA ONE
Piquet race slur in spotlight
Lewis Hamilton called for action to change “archaic mindsets” after a racist remark about him by Brazilian triple champion Nelson Piquet emerged on social media, triggering widespread condemnation. In a Brazilian interview on YouTube in November last year, Piquet, 69, used a racial slur in Portuguese when commenting on Hamilton’s British Grand Prix crash with Max Verstappen, and said Hamilton had “played dirty” in the incident. Piquet’s daughter, Kelly, is Verstappen’s partner, and the comments resurfaced as the drivers prepare to return to Silverstone this weekend. Hamilton was recently awarded honorary Brazilian citizenship and is the sport’s only black driver. “It’s more than language. These archaic mindsets need to change and have no place in our sport,” the Mercedes driver wrote on Twitter. “I’ve been surrounded by these attitudes and targeted my whole life. There has been plenty of time to learn. Time has come for action.” Motor racing’s governing body the FIA, Formula One and Mercedes all issued statements condemning racism, but without mentioning Piquet by name.
Brazil has four teams, more than any other country, in the expanded Club World Cup that kicked off yesterday in the US, but for SE Palmeiras, the competition holds a special meaning: winning it would provide some redemption. Under coach Abel Ferreira since 2020, Palmeiras lifted two Copa Libertadores titles, plus Brazilian league, cup and state championships. Even before Ferreira, it boasted another South American crown and 11 league titles. The only major trophy missing is a world champions’ title. Other Brazilian clubs like Fluminense FC and Botafogo FR, also in the tournament, have never won it either, but the problem for Palmeiras
Badminton world No. 3 Anders Antonsen clinched his first Indonesia Open title yesterday after beating Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen, while South Korea’s An Se-young won her second championship in Jakarta. The 28-year-old Dane sank world No. 7 Chou at the Indonesian capital’s Istora Senayan arena, winning 22-20, 21-14 in a 60-minute match to secure the prestigious Super 1000 event. Antonsen came out on top in a tightly contested first game before cruising to victory in the second. In a more closely fought women’s singles final, South Korean ace and world No. 1 An fought back from one game down to beat China’s
‘STILL’: In front of a packed New Jersey arena attended by Donald Trump and Mike Tyson, UFC 316 delivered high drama as Merab Dvalishvili retained his title Georgia’s Merab Dvalishvili scored a second-round submission win over Sean O’Malley to retain his bantamweight title at Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 316 on Saturday, with Kayla Harrison also winning by submission in the co-main event, tapping out Juliana Pena to claim the women’s bantamweight crown. In front of a packed crowd at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, which included US President Donald Trump and retired heavyweight great Mike Tyson, Dvalishvili, a 34-year-old from the country of Georgia, won the belt in a convincing, although not aesthetically pleasing, unanimous decision. Dvalishvili (19-4) sat on top of the cage and shouted
Manchester City on Monday completed the signing of left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri from Wolverhampton Wanderers for a reported ￡31 million (US$41.8 million). The 24-year-old Algeria international has signed a five-year contract and will be available for the FIFA Club World Cup, which begins later this week. Ait-Nouri is expected to be just one of a trio of new City faces for that tournament with deals close to completion for AC Milan midfielder Tijjani Reijnders and Olympique Lyonnais playmaker Rayan Cherki. After missing out on a major trophy in the recently completed season for the first time since 2016-2017, City are hoping
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