MARTIAL ARTS
UFC sets Macau date
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is to return to Macau for the first time in 10 years with a fight night event on Nov. 23, the mixed martial arts promotion said yesterday. The UFC last held an event in Macau in August 2014. “We are ecstatic to be back at this incredible destination city,” UFC senior vice president Kevin Chang said. The event is to take place at Galaxy Arena, which has capacity of 16,000.
CRICKET
India appoint Morkel
India have appointed Morne Morkel as their new bowling coach with the former South Africa international paceman officially joining head coach Gautam Gambhir’s staff next month, local media reported. The 39-year-old has previously played alongside Gambhir at Indian Premier League side Kolkata Knight Riders and was part of the former India opener’s coaching team at Lucknow Super Giants. Morkel’s first assignment is to be a Test series against Bangladesh starting on Sept. 19 in Chennai. He is to join Abhishek Nayar, Ryan ten Doeschate and fielding coach T. Dilip as Gambhir’s assistants. Morkel resigned from his role as Pakistan’s bowling coach in November last year.
OLYMPICS
Wrestler’s appeal dismissed
The Court of Arbitration for Sport has dismissed Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat’s appeal against disqualification from the Paris Olympics after she failed to make the weight for her women’s 50kg freestyle final. Phogat was to face Sarah Hildebrandt of the US for the gold medal on Wednesday last week, but was found 100g overweight despite starving herself and spending hours in a sauna the previous night to cut down to her competition weight. The disqualification meant Phogat did not receive a medal and she filed an appeal in sport’s highest court challenging the decision of governing body United World Wrestling. Cuba’s Yusneylys Guzman Lopez replaced Phogat in the final, which Hildebrandt won 3-0 to take the gold.
SOCCER
‘Saturation point’ feared
Soccer will reach saturation point if more matches are added to the calendar, Premier League chief executive officer Richard Masters said on Wednesday. “It’s a really difficult thing to predict when saturation takes hold,” said Masters, speaking ahead of the new Premier League season, which is to begin today. “Obviously, we have lots of football. The Premier League is part of it. It’s part of the picture, our clubs participate in multiple competitions, and we’re adding to that calendar, so it should be a concern. I think that we will reach a point of saturation, yes.” The US is to host a relaunched FIFA Club World Cup in June and July next year, with 32 teams — 12 from Europe, including Real Madrid, Manchester City and Bayern Munich — playing a maximum of seven games. “If our clubs get to the final of those competitions, what sort of teams are they going to be able to field at the start of the [2025-2026] Premier League season when we have an obligation to the players to give them three weeks’ rest, which they won’t get?” Masters asked. “In the end, it doesn’t add up. So a new accommodation has to be reached. The Club World Cup is a relevant competition that should be able to develop in its own way, but not at the expense of other people’s competitions.”
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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