■INDONESIA
Cup bid dropped by FIFA
Indonesia has been dropped from the race to host the 2022 World Cup because of a lack of government support, FIFA said in Zurich on Friday. “We have informed Indonesia that because they failed to provide a number of documented guarantees by the deadline, Indonesia is no longer a candidate for 2022,” FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke told reporters. “They are out of this process.” The announcement leaves Australia, England, Japan, Mexico, The Netherlands/Belgium, Russia, Spain/Portugal and the US as candidates for the 2018 or 2022 finals, while Qatar and South Korea are bidding for the finals in 2022 only.
■IRAQ
FIFA lifts suspension
FIFA on Friday lifted its suspension on the Iraqi Football Association (IFA) after a solution was found to a spat over alleged government interference, officials said. “Iraq is fully back as a member of FIFA,” governing body president Sepp Blatter said. The IFA was suspended in November after police seized control of its offices and its governing board was dissolved on charges of links to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. FIFA had called for the members of the association’s executive committee to be reinstated. It said on Friday that the Iraqi national Olympic committee and the International Olympic Committee had helped restore the IFA’s “full authority.”
■TURKEY
Kurdish team to stay up
The Turkish Football Federation on Friday ruled against relegating Diyarbakirspor, the only Kurdish team in Turkey’s top league, after the team’s last two matches ended in fan violence. The case had become a matter of state, with politicians across Turkey’s fractious political spectrum and even the powerful military warning that penalizing Diyarbakirspor could harm Turkey’s national unity and radicalize Kurdish fans. The federation said on its Web site it had ruled against handing a second default defeat to Diyarbakirspor after a match against Istanbul’s Buyuksehir Belediyespor was abandoned in the 87th minute when fans invaded the pitch. The federation had already penalized Diyarbakirspor with a 3-0 default defeat to Bursaspor, after their match earlier this month was abandoned in the 17th minute because of crowd violence.
■FRANCE
Charges filed in PSG case
Preliminary charges of murder have been filed against three men suspected of taking part in an attack on a Paris Saint-Germain fan who died earlier this week. The three suspects, who were part of a group of four people arrested last week, have been freed under judicial supervision, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Friday. The 38-year-old PSG fan died late on Wednesday after spending weeks in a coma following an attack by rival PSG supporters.
■GERMANY
Maniche nets to grab point
Maniche scored a spectacular equalizer to earn Cologne a 1-1 draw at home to Borussia Moenchengladbach in the Bundesliga on Friday. The Portuguese midfielder collected a pass from Zoran Tosic before firing into the top corner from the edge of the penalty area in the 79th minute. Marco Reus had put Borussia ahead in the 56th minute, running past three Cologne players and driving a low shot into the corner of the net. Cologne are without a win in seven games and Borussia in five, with both teams just above the relegation zone.
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