SOCCER
Ex-China official pleads guilty
Former head of the Chinese Football Association Chen Xuyuan yesterday pleaded guilty to bribery, Beijing’s state media said, as an anti-corruption drive sweeps up once-major players in the sport. Chen — who as boss of the association once promised to turn a page on the corruption scandals that have plagued the sport — was placed under investigation in February last year for “serious violations of discipline and the law.” The prosecution accused him of taking more than 81 million yuan (US$11.3 million) in bribes in exchange for helping with “project contracting, investment and operation,” among other matters. Chen pleaded guilty and “expressed remorse,” state-run Xinhua news agency said.
SOCCER
Egypt exits Africa Cup
The injured Mohamed Salah would not get the chance to return to the Africa Cup of Nations after his Egypt side were knocked out of the competition on Sunday in a dramatic penalty shoot-out against the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), while Guinea progressed to the last eight. Record-seven time champions Egypt lost 8-7 on penalties against the Congolese after their last-16 tie ended 1-1 at the end of extra time. The DR Congo on Friday are to play their quarter-final in Abidjan against Guinea, who beat Equatorial Guinea 1-0 earlier with a dramatic winner by Mohamed Bayo in the eighth minute of injury-time.
ICE HOCKEY
Player turns himself in
Former NHL player Alex Formenton on Sunday turned himself in to police in connection with an investigation into an alleged sexual assault by several members of Canada’s 2018 world junior team. Formenton’s legal team confirmed that police in London, Ontario, have charged Formenton and several other players. Lawyer Daniel Brown did not say what charge or charges Formenton was facing. Five players from Canada’s 2018 gold medal-winning world junior team have taken a leave of absence over the past week from their current clubs amid a report that five members of that team had been asked to surrender to London police to face sexual assault charges. That included Formenton, a former Ottawa Senators player who is now in Europe. NHL players Michael McLeod and Cal Foote of the New Jersey Devils, Carter Hart of the Philadelphia Flyers and Dillon Dube of the Calgary Flames also went on leave in the past few days.
SOCCER
Ten Hag to ‘deal’ with player
Erik ten Hag said he would deal with Marcus Rashford’s absence after the Manchester United star missed Sunday’s 4-2 victory at Newport in the FA Cup. Ten Hag said Rashford was absent from the fourth-round clash in south Wales after saying he was ill on Friday. However, reports over the weekend suggested that the England forward had spent Thursday evening at a Belfast nightclub before missing training with United the next day. “He reported ill,” United boss Ten Hag said after the team blew a two-goal lead before surviving their trip to fourth tier Newport. “The rest is an internal matter. I deal with it, we will deal with it.” Rashford was also dropped for a Premier League match against the Wolverhampton Wanderers last season after turning up late to a team meeting when he overslept.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
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