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Kaieteur News
Thursday December 17, 2015
Serena accepts Sportsperson of Platini will not attend FIFA Year, EYES MORE SLAMS ethics committee hearing
Serena Williams of the U.S.A. (Reuters/Toby Melville/Files)
NEW YORK (Reuters) Serena Williams added to one of the longest resumes in sports by collecting the Sportsperson of the Year award from Sports Illustrated, becoming only the third individual woman to claim the honour since its 1956 inception. Williams, 34, won the first three grand slam singles titles of 2015 after taking last year’s U.S. Open to hold all four
crowns at once for her second career ‘Serena Slam’. She logged a 53-3 record, reigned as world number one every week for the second successive year and took her total of grand slams to 21, one less than Steffi Graf for most in the Open Era, at an age when most players have been long retired. “I’ve been doing what I do for over 20 years profes-
sionally and that’s a long time to be playing,” Williams told Reuters before Tuesday’s awards dinner. “And this is the first time I was ever recognised as Sportsperson of the Year. “So it really, really meant a lot to me. And being a woman and being only the third to be recognised is pretty awesome.” Williams said that joining gymnast Mary Lou Retton and speed skater Bonnie Blair on the list of women to claim the award motivated her to succeed on court next year and target even more milestones. “There’s numbers,” she said at the awards dinner, referencing Graf’s 22 slams and the 24 singles titles won by all-time leader Margaret Court of Australia. “I never looked at numbers until recently. I want to at least try to reach a couple of numbers that I won’t mention. Just go one at a time and hopefully will be there one day.” Williams won out over such strong contenders as NBA star Stephen Curry, golfer Jordan Spieth and racehorse American Pharoah, the first to win the U.S. Triple Crown in 37 years, who won the magazine’s readers poll for the award. Her Sportsperson cover photo for the magazine, picturing her in a black leotard and high heels lounging on a golden throne, also generated a lot of buzz as well as delighting Williams. “The cover I thought was really amazing,” she said. “You can never be too hot.”
Samuel Eto’o given managerial chance at Antalyaspor BBC Sport - Former Cameroon captain Samuel Eto’o has been appointed interim player-manager at Turkish side Antalyaspor. The 34-year-old striker, who joined the club on a three-year contract in June, has been given three matches to impress at the helm. He takes over from Yusuf Simsek, whose contract was terminated by mutual consent on 7 December. Antalyaspor will make a decision about whether to give Eto’o the role permanently after the winter break. Eto’o will be guided and assisted by Mehmet Ugurlu, who is the club’s technical director, as the Cameroonian takes his first steps into management. The move is an unexpected one the former Barcelona, Inter Milan and Chelsea player, who has been involved in a number of controversial and damaging disputes with his country’s football federation as well as with team-mates. One of his former international team-mates, Patrick M’boma, admitted he was “surprised Eto’o has gone into management so soon”. But he revealed Eto’o, who he played alongside in two Africa Cup of Nations-win-
Samuel Eto’o (Reuters) ning sides, has long-held ambitions in that area. “I know it was in his plans to be a manager - he told me many years ago,” M’boma told BBC Sport. “But from what I know he has no experience. I hope he will be a good manager but I do not know. “He has the personality and the knowledge, but I am not sure he will have the patience. If he can improve on the areas where he is weak he could be a success.”
PARIS (Reuters) Suspended European soccer chief Michel Platini will not attend tomorrow’s FIFA ethics committee hearing in protest at what he condemns as a political process designed to prevent him running to lead the world governing body, his lawyers said on Wednesday. Platini was provisionally suspended for 90 days on Oct. 8, alongside outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter, over a suspicious payment from FIFA to Platini, deepening a corruption scandal that has engulfed soccer’s ruling body. The ethics panel is set to rule on their cases, and could impose much longer bans than the provisional suspensions if it finds the men guilty of violations. Blatter is due to appear on Thursday. Both men have denied any wrongdoing. Platini’s lawyers objected to comments in French newspaper L’Equipe by ethics committee spokesman Andreas Bantel that the former France captain would be sidelined for “several years”. “Michel Platini ... has decided not to attend his hearing at the FIFA ethics committee on Dec. 18, 2015, as the
verdict of this ethics committee has been announced in the press last weekend by one of its spokespersons, Mr Andreas Bantel, in disregard of all fundamental rights, starting with the presumption of innocence,” the lawyers said in a statement. By his decision to boycott the hearing Platini “intends to show his deepest indignation towards a process which he considers as uniquely political and designed to prevent him from putting himself forward for the FIFA presidency,” the lawyers said in their statement. FIFA said they noted Platini’s decision but his lawyers were still welcome to attend the hearing, which would be handled in “an unbiased manner”. “Mr Platini would miss the opportunity to present his points of view vis-a-vis the adjudicatory chamber in person,” FIFA’s ethics committee said in a statement. “However, his legal representatives would be fully able to present his case at the hearing.” It added: “We would like to clearly stress that the adjudicatory chamber of the ethics committee will deal with
the present case in the same way as with any other procedure independently and in an unbiased manner.” Platini, who has been head of European soccer’s governing body UEFA since 2002, had registered as a candidate to replace Blatter in a vote on Feb. 26. He had been seen as a frontrunner for the job before he was suspended as part of an investigation into the payment of 2 million Swiss francs ($2 million) he received from FIFA in 2011 for work he completed between 1998 and 2002. Last Friday, he failed in an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to have the suspension lifted, meaning he was unable to attend Saturday’s draw for the Euro 2016 Championship in France. FIFA is suffering the worst corruption scandal in its more than 100 years of existence, drawing in top officials and triggering investigations by U.S. and Swiss authorities. Blatter said in a letter on Tuesday that the ethics committee’s investigation was “tendentious and dangerous”, adding: “This trial reminds me of the Inquisition.”
Four officials to face IAAF hearing into alleged doping cover-up BBC Sport - The son of ex-world athletics chief Lamine Diack is one of four officials facing a disciplinary hearing this week over an alleged doping cover-up. Papa Massata Diack, a former consultant for the IAAF, and ex-IAAF anti-doping director Gabriel Dolle are charged with breaches of the IAAF’s code of ethics. Former All-Russia Athletic Federation chief Valentin Balakhnichev and coach Alexei Melnikov are also in the dock. None are expected at the three-day hearing, which starts on Wednesday. The charges relate to the payment of about £435,000 that Russian former London Marathon winner Liliya Shobukhova allegedly made to have her doping violations covered up. Her 38-month ban from track and field was reduced by seven months after she turned whistleblower for the World Anti-Doping Agency. A decision from the hearing, which will be held in London, is expected in early January. Russia have been banned from interna-
Liliya Shobukhova won the London Marathon in 2010 and came second a year later. (Reuters) tional athletics competition after a report by Wada’s independent commission alleged they were guilty of “state-sponsored doping”.
Bryant inspires Lakers to first... From page 27 games. Forward Giannis Antetokounmpo contributed 15 points, six rebounds and five assists. The Bucks did not play anything close to their performance in Saturday’s 108-95 win over Golden State that ended the Warriors’ perfect 24-0 start to the season. Against the Lakers, the
Bucks fell into an early hole and never recovered. Milwaukee also was hurt playing without center Greg Monroe, who was a late scratch with a sore left knee. Monroe apparently bumped knees with a team mate during the team’s shoot-around on Tuesday morning. He will be re-evaluated on Wednesday. The Lakers dictated the
first half en route to a 55-46 lead at the break and continued their dominance in the second half. Los Angeles opened the third quarter with a 102 surge, including a crowdpleasing dunk by forward Larry Nance Jr over Bucks center John Henson, for a 17-point advantage after a Bryant fadeaway at 8:47.