SOCCER
Thailand boss resigns
The president of Thailand’s soccer association yesterday announced his resignation following political pressure over brawling between the kingdom’s national team and Indonesia during the men’s final at the Southeast Asian Games. Indonesia defeated Thailand 5-2 in the final last month that saw players and coaches on both sides clash on two occasions with four red cards issued. The Thailand Football Association later apologized and handed out lengthy bans to two players, two officials and a coach. In a statement on Facebook, association president Somyot Poompanmoung said that Thai Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon, who heads the country’s national Olympic committee, had ordered him to stand down as president at a meeting on Friday. “As President of the Football Association of Thailand ... I am ready to follow the order of General Prawit,” Somyot said.
SOCCER
Cardiff ordered to pay
FIFA has ordered Cardiff City to pay French club Nantes the remaining installments for the transfer fee of Emiliano Sala, who died in a plane crash in 2019 before he could join the Welsh team. Sala died when the light aircraft he was traveling in from France crashed into the English Channel in January 2019, two days after Cardiff had announced the signing of the 28-year-old Argentine forward from Nantes. Cardiff had already been ordered by FIFA to pay the first installment of the ￡15 million (US$19 million) transfer fee, a decision that was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in August last year. Soccer’s world governing body on Friday ordered Cardiff to pay the last two installments as well.
ICE HOCKEY
Women’s league planned
Organizers on Friday announced plans to launch a new women’s professional ice hockey league in January next year that they hope would provide a stable, economically sustainable home for the sport’s top players. The North American league is expected to start with six teams — three in the US and three in Canada — a person with knowledge of the league’s plans said. “I don’t think there’s a more significant moment for the game since women’s ice hockey became an Olympic sport in 1998,” Professional Hockey Federation commissioner Reagan Carey said. “I think it will forever change the landscape of our sport — and certainly for the better.”
TENNIS
WTA eyes Saudi Arabia
Women’s tennis is looking into the possibility of getting into business with Saudi Arabia. WTA chairman and CEO Steve Simon on Friday said that he visited that country with players in February as part of the evaluation process. “It’s a very difficult and very challenging topic that’s being, obviously, measured by many, many different groups right now,” Simon said at an event in London to mark the 50th anniversary of the meeting that led to the founding of the WTA. He said that there “are still tons of issues in Saudi Arabia” with regard to women’s rights, but added: “The Saudis are talking to a lot of people and a lot of different sports right now. I think everybody’s evaluating what this means and: How do you move forward with that?”
Rangers on Wednesday bowed out of the UEFA Champions League playoffs with a humiliating 6-0 defeat at the hands of Club Brugge which piles further pressure on head coach Russell Martin, while SL Benfica secured a place in the competition proper at the expense of Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce. The Glasgow giants traveled to Belgium right up against it after losing 3-1 at home in last week’s first leg, when they conceded three times in the opening 20 minutes. They never looked like turning the tie around as Club Brugge took the lead inside five minutes at the Jan Breydelstadion through Nicolo Tresoldi
Australian Alex de Minaur reached the second week of the US Open for the third year in a row with little fanfare on Saturday and said he intended to keep winning until the tournament organizers were forced to give him better billing. Despite being the eighth seed and a quarter-finalist last year at Flushing Meadows, De Minaur’s third-round match against German Daniel Altmaier was scheduled for Court 17 — the smallest of the four stadium venues in the precinct. “It is a little bit of a headscratcher for me. I’m not gonna lie,” he told reporters after progressing 6-7 (9/7), 6-3, 6-4,
Noah Lyles on Thursday warmed up for the upcoming athletics world championships by chasing down Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo to win the 200m at the Diamond League final. Lyles trailed Tebogo at the start, but gradually erased the deficit over the final 100m and pipped the Botswana sprinter to the line by centimeters. Lyles, the Olympic 100m champion and reigning world champion in both the 100m and 200m, clocked 19.74 seconds in a slight headwind. Tebogo was 0.02 seconds behind. It was Lyles’ sixth Diamond League title, a record for track athletes. “Six, that’s a big number,” Lyles said. “Shoot, that’s another record on
Brentford striker Yoane Wissa says he wants to leave the English Premier League club and that it is “unduly standing in my way.” A day before the end of soccer’s summer transfer period, Wissa posted a lengthy statement on social media yesterday criticizing Brentford for rejecting an apparent offer from another Premier League club despite his willingness to switch between the teams. Wissa, a reported target for Newcastle, is yet to play for Brentford this season and had already removed any association with the club from his Instagram account. Yesterday, the 28-year-old DR Congo international took it a step further on the social
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