■SOCCER
Subotic opts for Serbia
Bosnian-born defender Neven Subotic has chosen to play soccer for Serbia instead of the US. Subotic, who holds a US passport, has played for the US under-17 and under-20 teams. He now plays for Borussia Dortmund in the German league. Subotic wrote to US soccer officials, informing them of his decision to play for Serbia. “We wish Neven all the best and continued success in the future,” US Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati said on Thursday. Subotic had until next Dec. 10, his 21st birthday, to chose his senior national team under the rules. He could have picked the US, Bosnia or Serbia. Serbia coach Radomir Antic has said he plans to pair Subotic with Manchester United’s Nemanja Vidic in the center of Serbia’s defense in next year’s World Cup qualifiers.
■SOCCER
Reims appoint Fernandez
Former Paris Saint-Germain and Athletic Bilbao coach Luis Fernandez has agreed to take over as coach at struggling French second division side Reims, club sources said on Thursday. The much-traveled Fernandez, 49, has been working as a television commentator since he stood down as manager at Real Betis in Spain in June last year, but he has always said that he would be ready to return to coaching if the offer was right. Reims are currently bottom of France’s second divison, a long way from their glory days of the 1950s and 1960s when they were one of the best teams in Europe.
■BOXING
Conte fingers Mosley
Victor Conte says boxer Shane Mosley would arrive by limousine for visits to his office where Conte provided him with steroids, USA Today newspaper reported on Wednesday. Conte, whose BALCO laboratories sparked stunning scandals in athletics and baseball, alleges in court papers filed on Tuesday that he charged Mosley US$900 for blood-boosting drug EPO and US$600 for the steroids known as “the cream” and “the clear.” Conte says he also billed Mosley US$200 for the limousine Mosley used to get around in. He also charged him US$150 for blood work before Mosley’s 2003 title fight against Oscar De La Hoya. Conte is trying to have a defamation suit filed by Mosley against him dismissed.
■SOCCER
Ramos looks to improve
Real Madrid coach Juande Ramos said on Thursday that the Spanish champions, trailing in fifth position behind arch rivals Barcelona in La Liga, were experiencing “a complicated situation.” Yet the former Tottenham Hotspur boss, who replaced Bernd Schuster at the Bernabeu this month, insisted things would only get better. “The team’s experiencing a complicated situation, but I’m hopeful and I like challenges,” Ramos wrote on his personal Web site on Thursday. “I’m sure the team’s going to get better ... we’re not even at the halfway point of the season and we can still achieve lots of things and above all give satisfaction to our fans.”
■TENNIS
Pierce not ready to retire
Two-time Grand Slam champion Mary Pierce isn’t ready to hang up her racket just yet. Despite being sidelined by a knee injury since 2006, the Frenchwoman told sports daily L’Equipe that she’d like to play again at the French Open. “I care about Roland Garros. If I could stand in center court for one match, that would already be a big victory,” she said. “I don’t feel it’s the right moment [to announce my retirement],” she told L’Equipe, adding that her left leg was weak, but her knee had recovered.
■BASKETBALL
Francis back with Grizzlies
Steve Francis never wanted to play for the last-place Grizzlies when the Vancouver franchise made him their first round draft pick in 1999. Chances are he won’t be much happier in his return to the Grizzly franchise either. Now an NBA journeyman, the aging former all-star Francis was traded on Wednesday by Houston to Memphis where the former Vancouver franchise moved when it left western Canada. The last-place Memphis Grizzlies (9-19) acquired Francis, a second-round draft pick next year and cash considerations from the Rockets, who received a conditional second-round pick in 2011. Francis was drafted second overall out of college by Vancouver but never played a game there, saying he wanted to play in a bigger NBA market. Vancouver traded him to Houston in a three-team, 11 player deal in August 1999. Francis hasn’t appeared in a game for Houston this season and played in just 10 games last season. The often injured Francis was scheduled to make US$2.63 million this season, meaning that the deal merely constitutes a salary dump for Houston. Francis was considered one of the NBA’s top all-around point guards during his first stint with Houston and has averaged 18.1 points in parts of nine seasons.
■BASKETBALL
Suns sign ‘Dee’ Brown
The Phoenix Suns have signed free agent guard Daniel ‘Dee’ Brown, the NBA club said on Wednesday. Brown entered the NBA with the Utah Jazz in the 2006 draft and spent his rookie season in Salt Lake City before moving to Galatasaray in Turkey for the 2007-2008 season. The pacey Brown made 11 starts this season for the Washington Wizards before being released two weeks ago.
■OLYMPICS
Harbin may make bid
The northeastern Chinese city of Harbin is considering a bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics and could make a decision following an international sports event there in February, state press said on Thursday. “We are considering a bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics, although the decision has to be approved by Chinese sports authorities,” the China Daily quoted Li Zhanshu, governor of Heilongjiang Province, as saying. “If the hosting of the 2009 Winter Universiade [games in February] can win applause from all guests, it will enhance our confidence to bid for the Winter Olympic Games.”
■SAILING
Team Russia pulls out
Team Russia has withdrawn from the round-the-world Volvo Ocean Race because of insufficient funding, team backer Oleg Zherebtsov said. “By this stage in the Volvo campaign we had intended to find sponsorship, but this process has been impacted by the global economic situation,” Zherebtsov, the founder of a Russian hypermarket chain, announced late on Tuesday. He said he had been financing the team with his own money in anticipation of sponsorship, which did not come about. Team Russia said it had “suspended” racing after arriving in Singapore at the end of the race’s third stage. Teams completed the third stage from Kochi, India on Tuesday. Spanish yacht Telefonica Blue sailed into the city-state first, snatching the lead from Sweden’s Ericsson 4 as the boats headed for the finish. Teams will leave Singapore on Jan. 18 for Qingdao, China, on the fourth stage of the event. The race, one of the most arduous in sport, will end in St Petersburg, Russia, in June after nine months negotiating 10 stages totaling more than 68,500km.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures