■ENGLAND
Liverpool suspend Itandje
Liverpool have suspended reserve goalkeeper Charles Itandje for 14 days after he was caught on camera apparently laughing during Wednesday’s Hillsborough memorial service. The actions of the 26-year-old Frenchman enraged Liverpool fans, with complaints over his behavior flooding in on Internet message boards. Itandje was instructed by Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez not to attend training on Friday. A Liverpool spokesman said in a statement on the club’s Web site: “Charles Itandje has now been officially suspended for 14 days by the club while we investigate his conduct during the Hillsborough Memorial Service.” The memorial service, attended by players past and present and thousands of Liverpool fans, was to honor the 96 fans who died at the FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest on April 15, 1989.
■GERMANY
Schalke move into sixth
Schalke 04 beat Energie Cottbus 4-0 on Friday for their third straight win to move back into contention for a place in Europe. Christian Pander and Halil Altintop scored in the first half and Jermaine Jones and Kevin Kuranyi added goals after the break to lift Schalke provisionally past Hoffenheim into sixth place. Schalke dominated the game and were never threatened by Cottbus, who have lost their last six games in Gelsenkirchen. The team from eastern Germany remain next-to-last. The game was decided early after Pander had scored on a deflected shot four minutes in and Altintop doubled the lead in the 23rd minute. Schalke cruised in the second half, with Jones netting in the 60th minute and Kuranyi completing the win in the 89th minute.
■MACEDONIA
Pobeda banned by UEFA
Macedonian club FC Pobeda were on Friday banned from UEFA competitions for eight years for match-fixing, the sport’s European governing body announced. The UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body added that club president Aleksandar Zabrcanec and player Nikolce Zdraveski had been banned for life as a result of the investigation. UEFA said Pobeda had been punished “for breaching the principles of integrity and sportsmanship under Article 5 of the UEFA disciplinary regulations by manipulating the outcome of a match.” The investigation centered on a Champions League qualifying tie between Pobeda and Armenian side Pyunik which took place in 2004.
■BOLIVIA
Physio admits Viagra use
The former physio of Bolivian side Blooming said on Friday he had administered Viagra to several players to help them conquer the effects of playing at altitude in La Paz. “We used Sildenafil, better known as Viagra. In Bolivia, the best-known brand is Segurex. We prescribed it for several players, especially those who suffered most from altitude,” Rodrigo Figueroa told La Prensa newspaper. Figueroa said he administered the product, which La Prensa said aids oxygenization, mixing it with fruit juice for matches at La Paz, which stands 3,570m above sea level. Blooming’s base at Santa Cruz, in contrast, stands at barely 400m above sea level. Figueroa, now with Bolivar, who are based in La Paz, admitted the players were unaware of what they were taking. “Eight or nine players were concerned,” he said, while stressing Sildenafil was not on the list of banned products either of the World Doping Agency or FIFA. Asked about his old side’s results using the product, Figueroa said: “At altitude you win, you draw, you lose. The best results came when the team relied on strong tactical nous.”
South Korean giants T1, led by “Faker,” won their fifth League of Legends (LoL) world championship crown in London on Saturday, beating China’s Bilibili Gaming (BLG) in a thrilling final. The teams were locked at 2-2 at a packed O2 arena, but T1 clinched game five to make it back-to-back titles after nearly four hours of tense action. China’s BLG started strongly, taking the first game before T1 struck back to level. The Chinese team pulled ahead again at 2-1 only for their opponents to hit back again and go on to take the decider. Faker, who won the Most
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Belgian partner Elise Mertens on Monday notched up their first win in the doubles group stage of the WTA Finals in Riyadh to keep their semi-final hopes alive, while Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russian partner Veronika Kudermetova were aiming to record their first victory after press time last night. Third seeds Hsieh and Mertens came back from a disheartening opening-day loss to Australia’s Ellen Perez and Nicole Melichar-Martinez to defeat top seeds Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, the women’s doubles world No. 3 and 4 respectively. The 6-1, 6-3 victory at King Saud University Indoor Arena
Amber Glenn overcame a fall and her own doubts to win a maiden Grand Prix figure skating title on Saturday at the Grand Prix de France. The American skater had the lead from Friday’s short program. That and the support of the crowd got her through a tough free skate in which she fell on a triple flip and put a hand onto the ice to steady herself on two other jumps. “I didn’t feel that great out there today, but I really tried, and the audience really got me through that last half when I was doubting myself,” Glenn
WORLD SERIES: ‘The individuals that were involved in that last night was a very small segment of the east Los Angeles community,’ the Los Angeles county sheriff said Rowdy crowds took to the streets of Los Angeles after the LA Dodgers won the Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series, setting a city bus on fire, breaking into stores and lighting fireworks. A dozen arrests were reported by police on Thursday, but officials said that most fans celebrated peacefully. Video showed revelers throwing objects at police in downtown LA as sirens blared and officers told them to leave the area on Wednesday night after the Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in Game 5 of the MLB World Series at Giants Stadium in New York. Another video showed someone standing atop
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