SOCCER
Three teams qualify
BSC Young Boys, Salzburg and AC Sparta Prague on Tuesday secured their places in the new-look, 36-team UEFA Champions League after coming through playoff ties. Swiss champions Young Boys returned to the competition following a 1-0 win away to Galatasaray SK that clinched a 4-2 aggregate victory. Salzburg are set for their sixth straight appearance in the main phase after a 1-1 draw at home to Dynamo Kyiv wrapped up the tie 3-1 on aggregate. Sparta Prague also made it through qualifying as a 2-0 win over Swedish side Malmo completed a 4-0 overall triumph for the Czech champions. The four remaining spots were to be filled yesterday before today’s draw.
FOOTBALL
NFL owners approve deal
NFL owners on Tuesday voted to allow private equity investment in a landmark move that could see billions of dollars in new funding pumped into the sport, the US-based league confirmed. At a meeting in Milwaukee, the owners of the NFL’s 32 teams approved a plan that would allow a group of handpicked private equity firms to purchase up to a 10 percent stake in a team. The vote represents a significant departure for the way NFL teams are funded. Historically, franchises have been run as family businesses or owned by wealthy individuals. The move to allow private equity investment potentially puts billions of dollars of new cash on the table to help pay for new stadiums and other projects for the most popular sport in the US.
HORSE RACING
Kelce buys Swift horse
Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, the boyfriend of pop star Taylor Swift, has acquired an ownership share in three-year-old thoroughbred Swift Delivery, the Team Valor International stable said on Tuesday. Kelce, along with his friend Alex Zoldan and family, had purchased a “significant share” of Team Valor’s interest in the gray gelding, who is set to race in Saturday’s Toronto Cup Stakes. “It’s very exciting,” Team Valor International CEO Barry Irwin said. “I met him [Kelce] at the Kentucky Derby and got to spend some time with him and stuff, and we talked about horses and everything. When this horse came to light and it was owned by one of my partners already, with the name, I figured this has got to be a no-brainer.” Irwin said the horse was not named after Swift — just “a total coincidence.”
SOCCER
Dutch games called off
Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb on Tuesday called off this weekend’s match between archrivals Feyenoord and AFC Ajax due to a police strike, saying public safety “cannot adequately be guaranteed.” The call comes after police unions on Monday said they would not be present at the highly charged game, which was scheduled to be played at Feyenoord’s De Kuip stadium in Rotterdam on Sunday. “The safety of players, as well as the public cannot be adequately guaranteed without the involvement of the police,” Aboutaleb said in a statement. A new date for the clash has not yet been set. Dutch police unions have run industrial actions for several months to protest the dropping of a scheme for early pensions for officers next year. Rivalries among the hardcore support of both clubs has led to clashes, resulting in a ban on visiting supporters for the fixture, called De Klassieker in Dutch.
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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