Wed, Apr 08, 2009 page19

• Sports Briefs

  • AGENCIES
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  ■SOCCER

  Star not kidnapped: police

  Inter’s Brazilian star Adriano has not been kidnapped, police inspector Marcus Reimao told the Terra Web site in response to media speculation after the striker failed to return to Italy following a World Cup qualifier last week. He said that Adriano was apparently depressed because his girlfriend broke up with him and went to stay in the Vila Cruzeiro shantytown, where he was raised, to stay with friends. Adriano had not returned to Italy because of a personal matter, his agent said on Monday. “It’s not a family problem,” Gilmar Rinaldi told Brazilian media, according to Globo television’s Web site. “It’s something very personal, which could happen to anyone, but it’s a private thing and that’s why I can’t say what it is.” Once one of the world’s most fearsome strikers, Adriano has struggled with fitness and alcohol problems since the 2006 World Cup. Rinaldi confirmed that Adriano had been in Vila Cruzeiro. “I don’t have the right to ask Adriano not to go to the Vila Cruzeiro because it’s where his family lives, where he grew up,” Rinaldi said. “The price you pay for being someone who is well-known and for coming from where he came from is very high.”

  ■HORSE RACING

  Broadcaster sorry for jibes

  The BBC has apologized for jibes made by one of its presenters about jockey Liam Treadwell’s teeth, shortly after he had ridden a 100-1 outsider to victory in the Grand National, Britain’s leading steeplechase race. The broadcaster said it had received 1,477 complaints from viewers angered after presenter Clare Balding joked about the state of Treadwell’s teeth in a TV interview after the race. “Give us a big grin to the camera,” Balding said. Then to laughter from onlookers she added: “No let’s see your teeth. He hasn’t got the best in the world but you can afford to go and get them done now.” Treadwell, 23, had just sprung a huge surprise after guiding rank outsider Mon Mome to victory at the Aintree racecourse, becoming the biggest-priced winner since 1967.

  ■SOCCER

  No charges for Robinho

  British prosecutors will not charge Brazil forward Robinho over an allegation the Manchester City star committed a serious sexual assault at a nightclub, police said on Monday. Britain’s most expensive player was arrested in connection with a sexual assault on an 18-year-old woman in Leeds in January. “A file was submitted to the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] who decided no further action should be taken,” a spokeswoman for West Yorkshire Police said.

  ■FOOTBALL

  Burress keeps bonus money

  An arbitrator has ruled that former New York Giants receiver Plaxico Burress can keep bonus money he earned prior to accidentally shooting himself in a nightclub last year. The decision means the Giants, who released Burress last week, must pay him the US$1 million that his been withheld from his US$4.25 million signing bonus since the shooting, the New York Times reported on its Web site. Burress was arrested in December and charged with criminal possession of a weapon after his gun accidentally discharged while tucked into his trousers, with the bullet wounding his leg. “We are very disappointed with the decision,” Giants president John Mara said in a statement. “To think that a player could carry a loaded gun into a nightclub, shoot himself and miss the rest of the season but get to keep his entire signing bonus illustrates one of the serious flaws in the current system.”
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