Football in Brief

Co-owners increase stake in Birmingham

The Birmingham City co-owners, David Sullivan and the Gold brothers – David, the chairman, and Ralph – have increased their stake in the Midlands club. It means that between them the trio now own almost 50 per cent of the club’s shares.

Sullivan paid £574,000 to increase his stake to 24.45 per cent and the Golds between them have spent an additional £895,000 to increase their holding to 25.06 per cent. David Gold has individually purchased an additional number of shares for £43,696.

It is another blow to the club’s largest individual shareholder, Carson Yeung, the Hong Kong-based businessman who bought a 29.9 per cent stake in the club last summer and who has attempted to have Steve McManaman, the former Liverpool player, and Fan Zhiyi, the former Crystal Palace defender, voted on to the board as his representatives. Karren Brady, the club’s managing director, recommended that shareholders vote against the move in a letter.

Ronaldo leaves clinic

Ronaldo, the AC Milan forward, will today leave the Paris clinic in which he had knee surgery. The Brazilian, 31, has been there since an operation on a ruptured tendon last Thursday, an injury he suffered the previous night during Milan’s 1-1 draw against Livorno at the San Siro and which some fear may end his career. He will stay in Paris for another ten days to receive intensive physiotherapy.

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Play Rugby With Rules

Rugby was developed from a game that was played at Rugby School in England. Rugby uses a ball that is shaped like a prolate spheroid, much like an American football. Rugby is played at a fast pace, with few stoppages and continuous possession changes. All players on the field, regardless of position, must be able to run, pass, kick and catch the ball. Likewise, All players must also be able to tackle and defend, making each position both offensive and defensive in nature. There is no blocking of the opponents like in football, and there are only five substitutions per game allowed for each team. A rugby match consists of two 40-minute halves. Finally, rugby is considered to be a gender equity sport as approximately 25% of all players in the United States are female.

In rugby, two teams of fifteen or seven players, depending on the version played: are trying to score the most points. Points can be scored in various ways including some of the following:
Touching the ground over the opponent’s goal line with the ball in hand, a conversion play where a player kicks the ball at the goal line where the previous touch-down occurred kicking the ball above the crossbar and between the uprights of the field post. Scoring in rugby is similar to the rules of American football.

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Baseball's villains

The real pity of the Roger Clemens hearings before Congress on Wednesday is that the true villains of the baseball-steroids melodrama have yet to pay a price for what they did.

Clemens, of course, is paying the wages of Barry Bonds. He is at best a tarnished star, whatever happens today forward, and, at worst, a potential subject of criminal prosecution for lying under oath.

But the people who benefited most from the ballooning forearms and the magically rejuvenated pitching arms are, thus far, paying nothing.

Fans are clawing for absurdly priced game tickets in Boston and shrieking in New York for ever-fatter contracts that may buy back championships. They are set for another season of filling Wrigley Field, Busch Stadium and AT&T Park to the rafters. Television contracts are bursting with new dollars. New revenue streams abound.

No. For the men responsible - truly responsible - for the abomination of steroids and other play-enhancing drugs, payback is slow in coming. Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has presided over the entirety of the scandal. And he still presides. No owner has seen revenues slide for having employed chemically improved freaks. There has been no justice, no comeuppance for what they have done to the reputation of the game.


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Basketball - It’s a Vision Thing for Nash in Soccer and in Basketball

Published On : 10 Aug, 07

It was easy to tell who the sports fans were in Central Park on Tuesday afternoon. They were the ones doing double takes, pulling out their camera phones and snapping photographs of two top professional athletes who were nudging soccer balls around in the grass.

Steve Nash, a two-time most valuable player in the N.B.A., and Claudio Reyna, once a mainstay on the United States national soccer team, were warming up for what was supposed to be a pickup soccer game in the Sheep Meadow between one of Nash’s recreational-league teams and several players for the Red Bulls, Reyna’s professional squad in Major League Soccer.

Nash spends most of the year running the point for the Phoenix Suns, but in the off-season, he can be found playing soccer in rec leagues in New York.

“It’s better for me than just running lines,” he said. “I don’t want to play a lot of basketball until September’s over or I’ll burn myself out. I just shoot, work out and play soccer.”

But not in the Sheep Meadow. The 15-acre patch of grass is for passive recreation only, park officials said as they shut down the game Tuesday between Nash’s team and the Red Bulls players before it started. Employees of the Central Park Conservancy established that the group did not have a permit, then asked the soccer players to remove their cleats — “there is a reason the turf is in such nice shape,” one of them said.

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Baseball - Clemens Delivers Final Blow to Blue Jays

Published On : 6 Aug, 07

TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays must have known what was coming. Josh Towers had hit the Yankees’ marquee slugger, Alex Rodriguez, with a pitch in the third inning to start a bench-clearing fracas. The Yankees’ pitcher was Roger Clemens, the consummate gunslinger in double-knits.

Clemens kept the Blue Jays cowering for four innings, waiting until the bottom of the seventh to retaliate. He buried a 92-mile-an-hour fastball into Alex Rios’s back, with what became his final pitch. Clemens argued his immediate ejection, but it could not have surprised him, and he may now face a suspension.

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Boxing - Diaz puts on a late flourish and defeats Morales

Published On : 6 Aug, 07

ROSEMONT -- David Diaz overcame a first-round knockdown and an ugly welt under his right eye Saturday night to keep his World Boxing Council lightweight title with a unanimous decision over Erik Morales.

"I won in the late rounds like I usually do," said the bruised but happy winner. "I'm thrilled to defend my championship in Chicago for the people."

Even before the decision was announced, Morales said win or lose, "That's it for me. No more. I'll never fight again. I just don't want to do it any more."

Diaz had Morales in trouble in the opening minutes, but the challenger countered with a crisp right to the head for a flash knockdown that earned him the first round.

In the sixth round, both fighters kept punching when referee Benji Estevez tried to break their clinch, drawing a warning from the referee. Diaz, swollen beneath the right eye, shouted at Morales. The champion then pressed the attack, muscling Morales backward.

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Golf - Ochoa early leader at St. Andrews; Wie shoots 73

Published On : 3 Aug, 07

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -- If Lorena Ochoa has been saving her first major for the home of golf, it gave her the ideal start.

The Mexican compiled a bogey-free 6-under 67 at St. Andrews in calm, sunny conditions on Thursday to take a two-shot lead in the Women's British Open. It was the first time the women pros had played at the famous course and she came up with the best opening round.

"It was just a really good day, one of those days when things are easy and really good. There was only a little bit of a breeze and I took advantage of that and made some birdies.

"I had in my head 2 or 3 under so it's even better than I thought."

Ochoa finished well before lunch and then sat back to see if any of her rivals could catch up.

Sweden's Louise Friberg and South Korea's In-Bee Park are two behind after 69s with Japan's Ai Miyazato and England's Rebecca Hudson three off the lead after 70s. Annika Sorenstam had a 1-under 72 while Michelle Wie showed signs of straightening out her game with an even-par 73.
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