MOTORSPORTS
Hydrogen to debut
The 24 Hours of Le Mans, the world’s most famous endurance race, is to be open to hydrogen-powered cars starting in 2026, Pierre Fillon, the president of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, said yesterday. Fillon spoke at Japan’s Fuji Speedway, which is holding a 24-hour race that includes hydrogen power. The vehicles for Le Mans are to include fuel cells and hydrogen combustion engines, Fillon said. The Automobile Club de l’Ouest organizes the race in Le Mans, France. “The 24 hours of Le Mans regulations have always advocated for freedom and variety,” Fillon said. “As such, I can officially announce today that both technologies will be accepted and authorized for manufactures which seek to enter the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the hydrogen class.”
SOCCER
Exodus not expected
Juergen Klopp said he would personally drive any of his players to another club if they wished to leave Liverpool after the Premier League side failed to qualify for the UEFA Champions League. Liverpool will finish the season in fifth place regardless of the outcome of their final game today against Southhampton and other results, qualifying for the Europa League, but missing out on Europe’s top competition for the first time since Klopp’s first full season at the Anfield club. Mohamed Salah said he was “totally devastated” that Liverpool had failed to secure Champions League qualification, but Klopp said there were no concerns about the frustrated forward’s future at the club. “No worries [about Salah’s future]... Obviously Mo loves being here and Mo was part of it. He said apologies for what ‘we’ did, not apologies for ‘what the other guys did, but I had to go with them.’ Not at all, it’s all fine,” Klopp said. “If a player would come to me and say: ‘Oh we didn’t qualify for the Champions League, I have to leave,’ I would drive him to the other club myself. I would take the key and say: ‘Come in the car, where do you want to go? I’ll drive you.’”
SOCCER
Cologne ban suspended
Cologne’s one-year transfer ban imposed by FIFA was provisionally suspended on Friday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) as it considers an appeal lodged by the club, the Bundesliga outfit said in a statement. Cologne were banned from signing players for next season after the world governing body accused the club of encouraging Slovenian 17-year-old Jaka Cuber Potocnik to break his contract with Olimpija Ljubljana and join them in January last year. A FIFA tribunal had fined Cologne 51,750 euros (US$57,000), banned them from signing new players in the next two transfer windows.
BOXING
Tyson Fury sends contract
Britain’s WBC world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury on Friday said that a contract had been sent to compatriot Anthony Joshua for a Wembley Stadium showdown in September. Fury called off a proposed bout with two-time world champion Joshua, 33, in September last year, saying his countryman had not signed the contract before the deadline. “Its a fight that everyone wants to see, including myself,” Fury said on Instagram. “This time I’m not gonna make a million vids & keep putting pressure on.”
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
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