■ENGLAND
Venables slams Berbatov
Tottenham’s abysmal start to the season is largely due to the selfishness of striker Dimitar Berbatov, former manager Terry Venables said. Venables said that the Bulgarian star had been a “poisonous presence” at White Hart Lane as he tried to clinch a transfer deal to Manchester United. Speculation over Berbatov’s future dominated Spurs’ early matches as manager Juande Ramos wrestled with whether or not to select the striker, who eventually signed for Alex Ferguson’s outfit for £30 million (US$53 million). Spurs lie bottom of the table and Ramos is under intense pressure. But Venables believes the club’s problems stem from Berbatov. “Berbatov kept telling us he had ‘a dream.’ Well, good for you Dimi. You had a dream with a few extra noughts added to your bank balance,” he told the Sun newspaper. “But did Spurs have a dream too? You got your way but your poisonous presence at the start of the season — the brooding and the reluctance to play — has cost the club that believed in you.” Venables also said that Spurs were wrong to sell striker Robbie Keane to Liverpool before they had a replacement. “They thought they were going to get Andrei Arshavin,” Venables said. “This was a massive managerial blunder by Spurs, especially when they had allowed Keane to leave. But letting Berbatov and Keane go without having Arshavin in the bag was a boardroom blunder.”
■ENGLAND
Sven eyed foreigners
Former manager Sven-Goran Eriksson considered selecting four foreign-born players for his England squad in the wake of the failed Euro 2004 campaign David Davies, the former executive director of the Football Association said. In a Daily Mail serialization of his book FA Confidential, Davies claimed that Eriksson drew up a shortlist of Premier League imports who were uncapped by their countries and could legally be brought into the England side due to FIFA’s residence rules. The four names he suggested were Chelsea’s Italian goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini, Brazilian midfielder Edu, then of Arsenal, and French pair Steed Malbranque and Louis Saha, who played for Fulham and Manchester United respectively. None of the four ever went on to play for England, with Edu and Saha subsequently capped by their own nations.
■SOUTH AFRICA
‘Bafana Bafana’ win at last
World Cup hosts South Africa arrested a run of five matches without a win when they beat Malawi 3-0 in a friendly international at Germiston in Johannesburg on Tuesday. An experimental Bafana Bafana side, made up of home-based players, provided relief for beleaguered coach Joel Santana as Bernard Parker opened the scoring with a header in the 32nd minute and added a second 10 minutes from time. Substitute Daine Klate scored the third just before the end.
■SCOTLAND
Scots to play Argentina
Scotland will take on Argentina in a friendly at Hampden Park on Nov. 19, the Scottish Football Association (SFA) said on Tuesday. The announcement came after Argentina agreed to lower their fee for the game in Glasgow to a level which allows the SFA to put the match on and charge fans the same for tickets as they will pay for the Oct. 11 World Cup qualifier against Austria. Negotiations on a potential friendly between the two countries in July collapsed after fans canvassed by the SFA indicated they would be unwilling to pay higher ticket prices in order to bring Lionel Messi and co to Hampden.
In April last year, Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying finally opened up about her future in the sport in which she had competed professionally since 2009. “My plan is to retire after the end of next year’s season. Even if I’m still able to compete, I would prefer not to,” she said at a promotional event. If true, the Paris Olympics would be her last stab at an Olympic gold medal, a prize some might think a player who has topped the rankings in women’s singles for a record total of 214 weeks — between December 2016 and September 2022 — should
Vivian Kong on Saturday won Hong Kong’s third ever Olympic gold medal, disappointing the home crowd as she beat France’s Auriane Mallo-Breton 13-12 in sudden death in the women’s epee final. Kong wiped away tears after she clinched the title, having held her nerve when she trailed 7-1 in the second period and with a passionate home crowd, including French President Emmanuel Macron, urging Mallo-Breton on. Her gold emulates that of fellow fencer Cheung Ka-long in the men’s foil in Tokyo three years ago and sailor Lee Lai-shan who won the women’s sailboard title at Atlanta in 1996. “I just thought it was
Japan’s 14-year-old Coco Yoshizawa on Sunday grabbed gold in the all-teenage women’s street skateboard final at the Paris Olympics, after nailing a high-risk ride down the hand-rail. Yoshizawa went into her penultimate trick with two big scores, but needing a third to complete her total, before finishing in style. “I knew that if I wanted to win, I had to go for the most difficult tricks. I didn’t aim for second or third place; I aimed for the top spot with my highest difficulty moves,” she said. Even though all her rivals had one more run, she raised her board above
POLYNESIAN FOCUS: The separate opening event welcomed visitors with Tahitian dancing, while athletes participated in rituals to mark the occasion Tahitian dancers in palm-leaf skirts mingled with Olympic surfers, locals and tourists as the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games commenced in French Polynesia on Friday, about 16,000km from the main ceremony in Paris. “The people of Tahiti, we are all enchanted to have these Olympics Games here and to welcome all our friends from all over the world,” French Polynesia President Moetai Brotherson told reporters. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us. All the world is looking at us for this mighty wave.” Just steps from the ocean and set against the lush green mountains of Tahiti, the event was heavily