| Becks may
give Croatia a miss London: England captain David
Beckham may miss the friendly against Croatia on August 20 to give him time to
settle at his new club Real Madrid, England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson said on
Wednesday. “We haven’t made any decisions about David yet,” Eriksson said on the
Football Association’s website. “But we’ll see how things go for David and we’ll
make that decision just before we pick the squad.” England will
face Croatia at Ipswich Town’s Portman Road ground in a warm-up for their Euro2004
qualifiers against Macedonia and Liechtenstein in September. Eriksson said he
would be interested to see whether new Real coach Carlos Queiroz plays Beckham
in his usual position on the right of midfield or in a more central role. Nine
cities bid for 2012 Lausanne: Nine cities have submitted
their bids to host the 2012 Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee
(IOC) said on Wednesday. Havana, Istanbul, Leipzig, London,
Madrid, Moscow, New York, Paris and Rio de Janeiro, lodged their bids with the
IOC here by the deadline of midnight Tuesday, the IOC said in a statement. The
IOC will make their choice in Singapore on July 6, 2005. “We are delighted to
field such a long list of prestigious cities,” IOC President Jacques Rogge said.
“I believe this reflects the strong image of the Olympic Games and the IOC’s policy
of reinvesting revenues in the staging of the Games,” he added. New
meet for Thailand Bangkok: Thailand will host the
first Europe-Asia snooker tournament in August after losing the Thailand Masters
which it had held for a decade, officials said Wednesday. The
£70,000 ($115,000) Thailand 2003 Europe versus Asia Challenge will be held in
Bangkok from August 27-30. Sindhu Pulsirivong, president of the Asian Confederation
of Billiard Sports, said the tournament would have an all-star line-up like seven-time
world champion Stephen Hendry, current world No.1 Mark J. Williams and former
world champion Ken Doherty. Ben
warms up with Perugia Rome: Ben Johnson, who was stripped
of his 100m gold medal for using drugs at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, has been putting
the players of Italian club Serie A Perugia through their paces ahead of Saturday’s
Uefa Intertoto Cup match. The 42-year-old Canadian arrived at
the team’s summer training camp in Folgaria on Monday and took the squad through
a series of sprint excercises alongside Perugia coach Serse Cosmi. The
Jamaica-born Johnson is believed to have been asked to help the club because of
his relationship with Perugia’s new signing Saadi Gaddafi. Saadi,
son of Libyan leader Muammar, was trained by Johnson for a three-month spell in
Tripoli three years ago in order to get him fit for the rigours of professional
football. Gaddafi junior, 30, signed a one-year contract with
Perugia last month. Players, ref
banned Rio de Janeiro: Five players and a referee
were banned on Tuesday following a brawl in last week’s Brazilian championship
derby between Corinthians and Santos which ended with one player going to a police
station. The most severe punishment was handed out to Corinthians
defender Fabio Luciano, who was suspended for 60 days. Referee
Salvio Spindola was banned for 20 days. Sport on screen
Cycling, Tour de France — Highlights from 8.30 am on ESPN ; Cricket, Sri
Lanka vs West Indies — Second Test, Day III highlights from 3 pm on ESPN ;
Golf, British Open — Day I, live from 6 pm on TEN Sports ; Pool, World
Championship — Live from 6.30 pm on STAR Sports
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