■ BANGLADESH
Players booted out
Seven Cameroonian players arriving to play in the country's professional league were kicked into touch by airport officials yesterday. Immigration officers said the players were refused entry and sent home because they had not presented valid documents on their arrival from Dubai. "They had no visa granted by any Bangladesh embassy abroad and also could not show invitations from any Dhaka soccer club in order to attain their arrival visa," said an airport official. A number of African players have been plying their trade in Bangladesh since the country launched a professional league last year.
■ ITALY
Court overturns penalty
Serie A strugglers Cagliari are off the bottom of the table after the federal court of justice overturned a three-point penalty imposed on the Sardinians. Cagliari had been docked points following a dispute with the Italian Football Federation (IFF) after the club took legal action against former player Gianluca Grassadonia, who in a newspaper interview accused Cagliari of doping violations and of having ties to groups of violent supporters. Under IFF rules, however, clubs are obliged to either take their complaints before a sports tribunal or seek IFF clearance before taking such legal action. The Federal court's decision means that in-form Cagliari are now only goal difference away from escaping the bottom three. Empoli now prop up the table with 26 points, behind Reggina on 27 and Cagliari and Livorno on 28.
■ CHINA
Coach fired by e-mail
The Frenchwoman charged with leading China's women's team to the Beijing Olympics has been fired by e-mail, local media reported yesterday. Elisabeth Loisel, who took over as coach in October, had a brief and troubled reign marked by poor results and disputes with Chinese Football Association (CFA) staff. The coach told the China Daily from France that she had received an e-mail from the CFA saying her services were no longer required and had cancelled her planned return to China. "I had doubts when I received the e-mail, so I decided to go to China according to the schedule," she told the paper. "But I knew the truth at the last moment that the e-mail had actually been sent by the CFA. So I think it would not make any difference if I went to China." Shang Ruihua, 64, will return to the post he last held in the early 1990s and oversee preparations for August's Beijing Olympics, the paper said.
■ BOLIVIA
Amateur club signs Morales
President Evo Morales has signed with a minor league soccer club in La Paz. The 47-year-old Morales is listed as a reserve player for Litoral, an amateur second-division squad organized by the Bolivian National Police, La Paz Soccer Association official Renato Arellano said on Wednesday. Litoral can earn promotion to Bolivia's top professional league if they manage to win a long series of qualifying tournaments this year. As a young man, Morales' soccer skills helped drive his rise to the presidency of Bolivia's largest coca-growers' union, a post that launched his political career. Since his 2005 election as Bolivia's first indigenous president he has regularly played in practice matches with his palace staffers and retired Bolivian stars. Morales has been an outspoken critic of FIFA's ban on high-altitude games, which prevent Bolivia from playing internationals in La Paz.
BUMRAH WATCH: Captain Jasprit Bumrah left the SCG for scans for back spasms and although he returned to the ground, there was no word on if he would play Rishabh Pant’s blistering counterattack yesterday capped a chaotic second day of the fifth and final Test between Australia and India, with 15 wickets falling and the star bowler of the series leaving the Sydney Cricket Ground with an ambulance escort. Yet the Border-Gavaskar trophy still remains very much in the balance as India reached 141-6, holding a 145-run lead over Australia with three days remaining. “Low-scoring games like this, it just heightens the pressure within it, so long way still to go,” Australia coach Andrew McDonald said. “There’s gonna be plenty of cricket, so we’ll see what happens.” Australia were bowled out for
Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan yesterday dumped defending champions Germany out of the United Cup with world No. 2 Alexander Zverev sidelined by an arm injury barely a week away from the Australian Open. The upset in Perth sent the Kazakhs into the semi-finals of the 18-nation tournament. In Sydney, women’s world No. 2 Iga Swiatek led Poland into the last eight by winning a rematch of her 2023 French Open final against Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic. Britain also progressed to the quarter-finals with Katie Boulter’s dominant 6-2, 6-1 victory over Australia’s Olivia Gadecki enough to guarantee they won their group. The US and
HAT-TRICK PREP: World No. 1 Sabalenka clinched her first win of the season, as she aims to become the first woman in 20 years to win three Australian Opens in succession Coco Gauff, Jasmine Paolini and Taylor Fritz yesterday all clocked impressive wins as tennis powerhouses Italy and the US surged into the quarter-finals of the mixed-team United Cup. World No. 3 Gauff swept past Croatia’s Donna Vekic 6-4, 6-2 to avenge a loss at the Paris Olympics, while Fritz took care of Borna Coric 6-3, 6-2 in searing Perth heat. That was enough to put the Americans — last year’s winners — into a last-eight clash with China today, while Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan today are to meet defending champions Germany, led by Alexander Zverev, in the other Perth quarter-final. In Sydney, the in-form
Five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek yesterday beat Elena Rybakina in straight sets to take Poland into the final of the mixed-teams United Cup with victory over Kazakhstan. Last year’s runners-up face the US today for the title in Sydney after they beat the Czech Republic in the other semi-final. “This win makes me really proud,” Swiatek said after seeing off Rybakina 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 to give Poland an unassailable 2-0 lead in the tie. It was a statement of intent from the world number two with the first major of the year to start on Jan. 12. “It is perfect preparation for the
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