BRAZIL
Ancelotti joins national team
Real Madrid’s Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti is set to become the first foreigner in almost 60 years to coach Brazil’s national team, Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) president president Ednaldo Rodriguez said on Tuesday. Ancelotti, 64, has a season remaining on his contract with Real, which he has said he would like to honor, would take over Brazil in time for the Copa America in the US from June next year. The CBF had earlier announced that Fluminense coach Fernando Diniz would take charge of the team for the coming year. “This guy [Diniz] is a coach who has a nice style of play,” Rodriguez told CNN Brazil. “His style is similar to the coach who will assume the role at the Copa America, Ancelotti.”
LA LIGA
Scandal haunts Osasuna
UEFA yesterday removed Spanish club CA Osasuna from the UEFA Europa Conference League, because former club officials were implicated in fixing matches a decade ago. Osasuna said in a statement that it would appeal the ruling at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. By finishing seventh in La Liga last season, Osasuna earned a place in the playoff round of the third-tier European club competition. UEFA’s verdict lifts eighth-place Athletic Bilbao into the competition instead. Osasuna officials who are no longer with the club were implicated in fixing matches between 2012 and 2014. However, UEFA’s competition rules state that teams implicated in fixing any game played since April 2007 can be removed from the next competition for which they qualify.
BRAZIL
Neymar fined US$3.3m
Brazilian soccer star Neymar was fined about 16 million reals (US$3.3 million) for contravening local environmental rules during renovations at his mansion in the city of Mangaratiba outside Rio de Janeiro. Mangaratiba City Hall said in a statement on Monday night that it had issued four fines. “Among the dozens of infractions that were noticed at the player’s property are the start of an unauthorized construction which requires environmental control; capture of a river course and detouring it without authorization; moving rock and sand; suppressing vegetation without authorization and non-compliance of an embargo,” the statement said. A city hall document said that the latter charge is related to Neymar’s decision to swim in the artificial lake despite local authorities showing up to forbid him from that area due to environmental consequences.
BRAZILIAN SERIE A
Luan hurt in fan attack
Midfielder Luan was attacked by angry fans in Sao Paulo, Sport Club Corinthians Paulista said on Tuesday. Local media reported that the 30-year-old Luan, an Olympic gold medalist with Brazil in 2016, sustained minor injuries after he was assaulted at a party he threw for about 10 guests in a hotel. “Corinthians received with sadness and indignation the information that our athlete Luan was assaulted by alleged fans in the early hours of this Tuesday morning,” the club said in a statement. “After another repugnant case of violence, Corinthians regrets the current moment of intolerance that dominates Brazilian soccer.” Luan, once regarded as one of the best players in South America, joined Corinthians in 2020, but has not delivered for the club. Many fans want him to leave.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
‘TOUGH TO BREATHE’: Tunisian three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur suffered an asthma attack in her 7-5, 6-3 victory over Colombia’s Camila Osorio Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday cruised into the second round of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Iga Swiatek romped into a third-round women’s singles showdown with Emma Raducanu and Taylor Fritz was just as emphatic in his pursuit of a maiden Grand Slam title. Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, the third seeds, defeated Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls of Britain 7-5, 6-2 in 90 minutes in Melbourne. Ostapenko and Hsieh — who won the women’s doubles and mixed doubles at the Australian Open last year — hit 25 winners and converted five of nine break points to set
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
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