Chongqing’s Dutch coach Arie Haan has been banned from the sidelines for three Chinese Super League (CSL) matches after complaining about a penalty decision by offering the fourth official a wad of cash last weekend.
“Do you want money?” local media reports quoted Haan as asking the official after league leaders Beijing Guoan were awarded a penalty in Sunday’s 3-2 win for bottom club Chongqing.
Pictures in local media showed Haan gesturing toward the official with a handful of 100 yuan (US$14.64) notes.
PHOTO: EPA
The former China coach was also fined 15,000 yuan by the Chinese Football Association (CFA) for “insulting the fourth official in an immoral way,” the CFA said on its Web site, www.fa.org.cn.
The CFA said Haan’s gesture had had a “negative social impact.”
The suspension comes on the heels of a lifetime ban the CFA handed down to a Chinese player who chased a referee for half the field before pushing him to the ground in a provincial-level game.
Chinese soccer’s problems have extended to women’s soccer, with a fight breaking out earlier this week between Chinese and Australian players at the Under 19 Asian Championships. Fans in Wuhan in central China then pelted the Australians with plastic bottles as they left the field after losing 2-1.
Shaquille O’Neal is staying with TNT Sports on a new contract worth more than US$15 million per year, Front Office Sports reported on Friday. The news means the cast of Inside the NBA is staying together even as TNT is set to license out the show to ESPN starting next season. TNT was the odd network out in the NBA’s recent TV rights negotiations, as NBC and Amazon joined previous rightsholder ESPN in inking deals for basketball games. That left TNT without a need for pregame and postgame NBA shows. In a trade with ESPN, TNT is licensing Inside the NBA to the
Juventus on Sunday stopped Inter from replacing SSC Napoli at the top of Serie A by beating their fierce rivals 1-0 and moving into the UEFA Champions League positions. Francisco Conceicao made sure that Napoli would stay two points ahead of reigning champions Inter by classily tucking home the winning goal 16 minutes before the end of an entertaining contest in Turin. Portugal attacker Conceicao netted his fourth goal of the season in all competitions after brilliant work from Randal Kolo Muani to give Juve a third straight league win. Juve are in fourth place on 46 points, ahead on goal-difference from SS
Eugenie Bouchard already has her own signature pickleball paddle. She is No. 17 in the pickleball rankings and constantly appears on the main court at events because she is always a big draw. However, just to be absolutely clear, she is not retired from tennis. The 2014 Wimbledon finalist still practices on the tennis court, still competes at tennis events and still has a Women’s Tennis Association ranking (No. 1,288). The Canadian standout just has a new sport that has caught her attention. Bouchard is one of several familiar tennis names — like Jack Sock and Donald Young — crossing over to
BELGIANS ADVANCE: Club Brugge gave Atalanta a lesson in efficiency, as Gian Piero Gasperini’s team had 29 efforts at goal, compared with seven from the visitors Seldom has a player’s sending off had such an influence on a game. AC Milan was to left rue Theo Hernandez’s second yellow card — for diving — as Feyenoord advanced to the UEFA Champions League last 16 at the former European champion’s expense with a 1-1 draw in the second leg of their playoff on Tuesday, giving the Dutch team a 2-1 win on aggregate. Bayern Munich, Club Brugge and Benfica also won their playoffs, eliminating Celtic, UEFA Europa League winner Atalanta BC and French team AS Monaco respectively. “In soccer everything changes in a second,” said Milan forward
RSS