Page 1539 - Sports
Bonne chance! Frenchman bags second million-euro lottery win
A Frenchman has won a million euros twice in the last eighteen months on the same lottery, media reported today, a feat mathematicians said carried odds of around 16 trillion to one. Le Parisien newspaper said the unnamed player, from the eastern Haute-Savoie region, held winning tickets on both 11 November 2016 and May 18 this year through My Million. The lottery is linked to the Euro Millions franchise, which is offered in 12 European countries twice a week and carries enormous jackpots, sometimes worth more than 100 million euros. French players who buy a Euro Millions ticket get automatically entered into the My Million draw which carries a lower top prize of one million euros (USD 1.2 million). Unlike Euro Millions, players cannot choose their numbers for their My Million ticket. They are randomly generated instead. Le Parisien quoted mathematicians as saying the odds of winning My Million was around 19 million to one while the harder to win Euro Millions was 140 million to ...
Virat Kohli among world's highest-paid athletes; no women in top 100: Forbes
Virat Kohli is among the world's highest-paid athletes, with the India cricket captain earning a whopping USD 24 million, according to a Forbes' compilation topped by American boxing champion Floyd Mayweather. Surprisingly, the 'World's Highest-Paid Athletes 2018' compilation is an all-male affair with no women being featured in the list. Kohli, the only sportsperson from India to be featured in the list, is ranked 83rd with earnings of USD 24 million. Kohli, 29, is not just cricket-crazy India's biggest name but is also one of the most popular athletes in the world, "boasting more Twitter followers (25 million-plus) than all but three active sports stars", Forbes said. The 'World's Highest-Paid Athletes 2018' list is topped by 41-year-old Mayweather, with USD 285 million earnings. This year the Indian national cricket board 'The Board of Control for Cricket in India' named Kohli as one of just five players to receive the newly-created A+ contracts, which guarantee an annual retainer .
Man United signs Brazilian midfielder Fred
English football giants Manchester United have announced the signing of Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk's midfielder, Frederico Rodrigues de Paula Santos, otherwise known as "Fred".
Paraguay's Gonzalez doubtful for Japan friendly
Forward Derlis Gonzalez suffered a knee injury while training with Paraguay's national football team and is awaiting medical results to know if he will be able to play in the friendly against Japan scheduled for June 12.
Russia's weaknesses on display in 1-1 draw with Turkey
Russia was held 1-1 by Turkey in the hosts' final friendly before their June 14 FIFA World Cup opener here against Saudi Arabia.
Mexico gets ready in Copenhagen without Reyes
The Mexican national football team "El Tri" have begun their preparation and training in Copenhagen for the warm-up friendly match against Denmark, although defender Diego Reyes was missing as he was recovering from a muscle injury.
French Open: Nadal, Halep to play for semi-final berths
World number one Rafael Nadal will continue his quest for record 11th French Open title, when he crosses swords with Diego Schwartzman in the quarter-finals of the men's singles event here on Wednesday.The Spanish tennis maestro heading into the clash on the back of an easy straight sets win over Maximilian Marterer, beating the German 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 to reach the last-eight of Roland Garros for the 12th time.Schwartzman, on the other hand, rebounded strongly from two-set down to thrash Kevin Anderson of South Africa 1-6, 2-6, 7-5, 7-6, 6-2 in nearly four hours to reach the quarter-finals for the second time in the last three Grand Slam tournaments that 25-year-old Schwartzman has made the quarter-finals.Nadal and Schwartzman have met each other five times previously, with the Spaniard clinching all of those matches and dropping just one set in the process during the fourth round at this year's Australian Open.Elsewhere, top-seed Simona Halep will also look to book her place in the ...
India will pose tough challenge: NZ coach
New Zealand coach Fritz Schmid admitted that it will be a big challenge for his boys to face India in their bid to keep their final hopes alive. "We have to do everything to recover quickly. Unfortunately, the calendar has given us less days and we face the hosts on the last day, which is difficult. We saw India in the first two games and it will be a big challenge," Schmid told reporters after his side defeated Chinese Taipei 1-0 in their Intercontinental Cup game here last night. For the Kiwis, Myer Bevan scored in the 36th minute, when he calmly slotted the ball into the right-corner of the box to give 'All Whites' match-winning 1-0 lead at the Mumbai Football Arena here. About the game, Schmid described his opponents as tough and said they took the game away via a penalty. "Today was very tight and defensive as the opponent was difficult. It was tough but at the end we took it away with a penalty. We had opportunities in both halves but the penalty might have made it easier," ...
Intercontinental Cup: New Zealand edge past Chinese Taipei 1-0
New Zealand opened their points tally in the Intercontinental Cup after the All Whites defeated Chinese Taipei 1-0 at the Andheri Sports Complex in Mumbai, Maharashtra last evening.Myer Bevan's 36th minute penalty gave the All Whites three points as they triumphed over their opponents.The All Whites dominated the lion's share of possession and attacked at will on the opposition goal.In the 35th minute, Sarpreet Singh was brought down inside the box after a heavy tackle by the opposition defender to award New Zealand a penalty.Myer Bevan stepped up to the spot and scored past the Chinese Taipei custodian to put the All Whites ahead. The half-time scoreline read 1-0 in New Zealand's favour and shortly after the second half started, the All Whites were back at attacking again.In the 50th minute, a shot from inside the box, although was saved by the Chinese Taipei custodian, just went inches over the bar as New Zealand looked to cement their authority in the match.Chinese Taipei recouped .
Cricket Australia CEO Sutherland announces resignation
Cricket Australia Chief Executive Officer James Sutherland on Wednesday advised the Chairman and Board of Cricket Australia of his intention to stand down from his position.Sutherland, who began at Cricket Australia in 1998, has been CEO since 2001. He has provided 12 months' notice and will continue in his current position until a suitable replacement is found. The period allows for a transition to complete a comprehensive handover with the successful candidate.The Board has appointed Executive Search agency Egon Zehnder to conduct the recruitment process to replace Sutherland. Fiona McGauchie will lead this process and expressions of interest in the role can be emailed to mel.search@egonzehnder.com.Speaking on his decision, Sutherland said he felt the time was right to step down."After nearly 20 years at Cricket Australia, the time is right. I feel very comfortable that this is the right time for me and a good time for the game."In the last 12 months we have laid key foundation ...
Belgium-tennis-corruption-investigation
Belgian police on Tuesday held 13 people as part of a major international investigation into match-fixing in tennis, barely a month after a report warned of a "tsunami" of corruption in the lower levels of the sport. Officers swooped on 21 addresses in Belgium, while simultaneous raids were launched on properties in the US, Germany, France, Bulgaria, Slovakia and the Netherlands. The raids were part of an international probe into an Armenian-Belgian criminal network suspected of bribing players to throw games. Belgian prosecutors said the matches involved were on the low-level Futures and Challenger circuits, away from the gaze of television coverage and where meagre prize money leaves players susceptible to backhanders. The "investigation showed that an Armenian-Belgian criminal organisation actively would have bribed professional tennis players from 2014 to the present day," the prosecutors said in a statement. This was done "in order to obtain a pre-arranged match result with the .
Brazil's Dani Alves undergoes knee surgery - PSG
Brazilian defender Dani Alves went under the knife Tuesday for the injured knee that ruled him out of the World Cup, his club Paris Saint-Germain announced. The 35-year-old former Barcelona star Alves suffered knee ligament injuries on May 8 during the French Cup final, meaning Brazil lost a senior player with 107 international appearances for the World Cup. "We waited for the right moment to operate so he would be fit again as soon as possible," the club said. In his 17-year career, he won his first trophy with boyhood club Esporte Clube de Bahia followed by five at Sevilla, 23 with Barcelona, two at Juventus and four so far at PSG.
Argentina friendly with Israel to be scrapped - reports
Argentina's upcoming friendly with Israel in Jerusalem has been cancelled following protests by Palestinian football authorities, local media reported on Tuesday without citing sources. Lionel Messi and his team-mates were due to face Israel on Saturday in their final warm-up match before heading to Russia for the World Cup. However multiple reports in Argentina on Tuesday said the game had either already been scrapped or was soon to be. Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie did not confirm the game had been axed, but told reporters in Washington on the sidelines of the Organization of American States meeting that he believed players had been reluctant to travel to Israel for the game. "As far as I know, the players of the national team were not willing to play the game," Faurie said. The Argentine official said team coach Jorge Sampaoli had requested no further matches be scheduled ahead of the team's World Cup opener against Iceland in Moscow on June 16. The Argentina Football ...
Prostitute scandal jolts Mexico World Cup squad
Members of Mexico's national football squad held a farewell party with around 30 prostitutes before the team travelled to Europe ahead of the World Cup, reports said Tuesday. According to the TVNotas gossip magazine, nine members of Mexico's World Cup squad partied with dozens of escorts at a private compound in Mexico City last Saturday following the team's 1-0 win over Scotland at the Aztec Stadium. The magazine published grainy images of players arriving at the party under the headline "The true farewell of the Tri!". However, Mexican officials said the players involved will not be sanctioned because they attended the party in their free time. Guillermo Cantu, general secretary of the Mexican Football Federation, said the players would not be punished because "they have not missed training." "A free day is a free day and those are the risks that one runs with freedom," Cantu was quoted as saying. Among the players in attendance were goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa and Benfica striker ...
Djokovic facing career crisis point
Novak Djokovic is facing the gravest crisis of his career after a shock French Open defeat to Italian journeyman Marco Cecchinato left him contemplating missing Wimbledon to rebuild his game and reboot his state of mind. The 31-year-old Serb slumped to an epic 6-3 7-6 (7/4) 1-6 7-6 (13/11) quarter-final loss to world No 72 Cecchinato, a player who had never won a match at the majors before this year's Roland Garros. Djokovic, a former world number one and 12-time Grand Slam title winner, had previously only been beaten by a player ranked lower than 25-year-old Cecchinato at the majors on two occasions -- Marat Safin at Wimbledon in 2008 when the maverick Russian was at 78 and 117th-ranked Denis Istomin at last year's Australian Open. Tuesday's defeat left Djokovic shell-shocked, so much so that he threatened to skip the forthcoming grasscourt season and, by extension, Wimbledon where he is a three-time champion. "I don't know if I'm going to play on grass -- I'm just not thinking ...
Cricket Australia chief Sutherland to stand down
Cricket Australia chief James Sutherland announced Wednesday he will stand down in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal that rattled the game and an acrimonious pay dispute with players. Sutherland, who has been chief executive for 17 of his 20 years with Cricket Australia, has given 12 months' notice and will continue in his role until a suitable replacement is found. "After nearly 20 years at Cricket Australia, the time is right. I feel very comfortable that this is the right time for me and a good time for the game," he said. Sutherland becomes the latest in a growing list of changes in Australian cricket over recent months. He came under intense pressure in March when former captain Steve Smith, his deputy David Warner and batsman Cameron Bancroft attempted to alter the ball in the third Test in South Africa. They were all sent home in disgrace and banned from state and international cricket over one of the biggest scandals to engulf the sport, while then-coach Darren Lehmann ...
Everyone dreams of the World Cup: Uruguay's Suarez
FC Barcelona's Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez says that everyone, including his team, dreams of the World Cup and hopes to go as far as possible.
Lula denies knowledge of vote-buying to gain 2016 Olympics
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has denied having any knowledge of a vote-buying scheme to secure the 2016 Olympic Games for Rio de Janeiro.
Euro is EU's future: Jean-Claude Juncker
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has said the future of the euro is the future of the European Union (EU) as a whole, and one of the main challenges of the EU is to complete Economic and Monetary Union.
It's all about winning at World Cup, Macron tells French team
French President Emmanuel Macron has met the national football team and set a high standard for the players at the World Cup, telling them that "a competition is only a success when you win."