■ France
Player shoots but misses
An amateur soccer player fired two shots from a handgun after being sent off, police said on Sunday, although there were no reports of injuries. After the player from the Saint-Maur-des-Fosses team was shown a red card, he returned to the changing rooms and then came back to the pitch with a pistol and fired two shots. The other players took cover in the changing rooms while waiting for the police, who found two empty cartridges at the scene. The unnamed player was then arrested and taken to the Saint-Maur-des-Fosses police station, east of Paris.
■ England
City suffer double loss
Manchester City players returned to the changing room on Sunday after losing to Sheffield United in the fourth round of the FA Cup to discover thieves had stolen their cash. "A number of staff and players have had a quantity of cash stolen during the match," City spokesman Paul Tyrrell said. "We are liaising closely with the police here at the stadium and with officials at Sheffield United who are conducting inquiries now. I'm not aware that the dressing room was locked," said Tyrrell, who declined to say which players and officials had been affected. "I'd rather not name names but it was a number of players and the backroom staff."
■ Honduras
Star's brother may be dead
Kidnappers were paid a ransom for the 16-year-old brother of an English Premier League player but the boy is still missing and may be dead, a police official said on Sunday. There has been no word from kidnap victim Edwin Rene Palacios, the brother of Wigan midfielder Wilson Palacios, or his kidnappers following the ransom payment. "The case has become complicated," said Francisco Murillo, the director of criminal investigations for Honduran police. "His family paid the ransom, but the kidnappers still have him. A special team continues to work on the case, but the Palacios family has lost contact with the kidnappers ... and that worries us. The boy may possibly be dead. That is a theory that is floating around in some circles. But that has not been confirmed," Murillo said. "We are continuing to look for clues to bring these criminals to justice." Wigan signed Palacios from Honduran club Olimpia on Jan. 11. The 23-year-old midfielder rejoined Wigan manager Steve Bruce, who signed him on loan when he coached Birmingham earlier this season.
■ England
Hunger blamed for bust-up
Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor's heated on-field confrontation with teammate Nicklas Bendtner during the Gunners' 5-1 loss at Tottenham was the result of the players' hunger for titles. The two tall strikers began arguing and pushing each other during the League Cup semi-final loss at White Hart Lane on Tuesday and had to be pulled apart by teammates. "It was just a little thing," Adebayor said on Saturday. "I tried to motivate him and he took it in the wrong way." Adebayor said the incident had been forgotten by the two strikers. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said the incident had been dealt with internally and he would not reveal what, if any, action had been taken. "What happened is already behind us. It is finished," Adebayor said. "I do not want to look what happened yesterday. I want to look at tomorrow. We are all passionate about this club, we want to win something together as teammates and as friends.
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
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