SOCCER
Thailand boss resigns
The president of Thailand’s soccer association yesterday announced his resignation following political pressure over brawling between the kingdom’s national team and Indonesia during the men’s final at the Southeast Asian Games. Indonesia defeated Thailand 5-2 in the final last month that saw players and coaches on both sides clash on two occasions with four red cards issued. The Thailand Football Association later apologized and handed out lengthy bans to two players, two officials and a coach. In a statement on Facebook, association president Somyot Poompanmoung said that Thai Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon, who heads the country’s national Olympic committee, had ordered him to stand down as president at a meeting on Friday. “As President of the Football Association of Thailand ... I am ready to follow the order of General Prawit,” Somyot said.
SOCCER
Cardiff ordered to pay
FIFA has ordered Cardiff City to pay French club Nantes the remaining installments for the transfer fee of Emiliano Sala, who died in a plane crash in 2019 before he could join the Welsh team. Sala died when the light aircraft he was traveling in from France crashed into the English Channel in January 2019, two days after Cardiff had announced the signing of the 28-year-old Argentine forward from Nantes. Cardiff had already been ordered by FIFA to pay the first installment of the ￡15 million (US$19 million) transfer fee, a decision that was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in August last year. Soccer’s world governing body on Friday ordered Cardiff to pay the last two installments as well.
ICE HOCKEY
Women’s league planned
Organizers on Friday announced plans to launch a new women’s professional ice hockey league in January next year that they hope would provide a stable, economically sustainable home for the sport’s top players. The North American league is expected to start with six teams — three in the US and three in Canada — a person with knowledge of the league’s plans said. “I don’t think there’s a more significant moment for the game since women’s ice hockey became an Olympic sport in 1998,” Professional Hockey Federation commissioner Reagan Carey said. “I think it will forever change the landscape of our sport — and certainly for the better.”
TENNIS
WTA eyes Saudi Arabia
Women’s tennis is looking into the possibility of getting into business with Saudi Arabia. WTA chairman and CEO Steve Simon on Friday said that he visited that country with players in February as part of the evaluation process. “It’s a very difficult and very challenging topic that’s being, obviously, measured by many, many different groups right now,” Simon said at an event in London to mark the 50th anniversary of the meeting that led to the founding of the WTA. He said that there “are still tons of issues in Saudi Arabia” with regard to women’s rights, but added: “The Saudis are talking to a lot of people and a lot of different sports right now. I think everybody’s evaluating what this means and: How do you move forward with that?”
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
Taiwan’s top table tennis player Lin Yun-ju made his debut in the US professional table tennis scene by taking on a new role as a team’s co-owner. On Wednesday, Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), founded in September last year, announced on its official Web site that Lin had become part of the ownership group of the Princeton Revolution, one of the league’s eight teams. MLTT chief executive officer Flint Lane described Lin’s investment as “another great milestone for table tennis in America,” saying that the league’s “commitment to growth and innovation is drawing attention from the best in the sport, and we’re
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
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
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