■PERU
The U’s headaches worsen
Being bottom of Peru’s first division is one of several problems besetting champions Universitario, including a four-match suspension for coach Juan Reynoso for insulting a referee. Universitario have also been banned by the ADFP, which groups the 16 top-flight clubs, for favoring a different airline from the one which sponsors the championship and provides teams with air travel to matches. Reynoso was suspended by the Peruvian Football Federation for insulting the referee in Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat by Sporting Cristal, who scored a controversial winner after a player appeared to handle the ball. “The U,” as they are popularly known, said they would appeal against the ADFP suspension. The champions struck a deal with Star Peru to fly them to away matches and wore the airline’s logo on their shirts in Tuesday’s game. The ADFP has a deal with LAN Peru, a subsidiary of Chile’s LAN.
■ENGLAND
Tug-of-war over Donovan
Everton wants to keep US midfielder Landon Donovan beyond his 10-week loan period, but Los Angeles Galaxy coach Bruce Arena says he doesn’t intend to give an extension. Donovan has made an impact in the English Premier League, winning praise from club manager David Moyes and the Goodison Park fans, who have started a Facebook campaign to keep him. Donovan, who was Everton’s player of the month for January, has two games remaining with Everton in the current loan deal: against Hull City today and at Birmingham City on Saturday.
■FRANCE
Minister rips into Domenech
Sports Minister Rama Yade waded into the row over the fate of national team coach Raymond Domenech on Friday, saying he deserved the boot after Les Bleus’ disastrous showing in Euro 2008. “We should have replaced the coach after the fiasco at Euro 2008 and judged him on those bad results,” Yade told a French radio station, two days after France lost 2-0 to Spain in a friendly match. “It is a shame to see this poor style of play. We’ve got some great individual players, but the manager has been so far unable to shape a team.” France went into Euro 2008 as one of the favorites, but suffered the embarrassment of being dumped out in the first round and finished bottom of their group.
■MOROCCO
Missing defender surfaces
Trouble-prone defender Youssef Rabeh has resurfaced in his native Morocco after going missing in Russia and then threatening to quit the game. The prolonged saga over the 24-year-old’s future finally appears over after he signed for Moghreb Tetouan, the Moroccan club said yesterday. Rabeh went missing from his new Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala’s training camp in Turkey last month only two weeks after joining from Bulgarian champions Levski Sofia. In another twist, Rabeh subsequently broke his silence and announced that he was hanging up his boots.
■ENGLAND
O’Neill pans Wembley pitch
Aston Villa boss Martin O’Neill on Friday added his voice on Friday to the mounting criticism of Wembley’s playing surface after Sir Alex Ferguson blamed the pitch for the injury to striker Michael Owen. O’Neill, whose side were beaten by Ferguson’s team in the League Cup final last weekend, said: “It looked like a rock concert had been held on it the night before. It is very poor for a national stadium. There is really no excuse for it.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
Former Formosa Dreamers player Ilkan Karaman was killed in a traffic accident in Datca, Turkey, Turkish media reported yesterday. He was 34. The former Turkish national team player was reportedly hit by a car, the driver of which was allegedly drunk, while he was standing on a sidewalk, Turkish newspaper Sozcu reported. Karaman and his friends were on their way to the beach town of Dalaman to go scuba diving when they stopped at a gas station to buy gasoline, it reported. Karaman was hit by the car while waiting on a sidewalk as his friends were buying gasoline, it
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on