| Brown celebrate past with ring of honor By TOM WITHERS 2010-09-19T17:45:44ZCLEVELAND (AP) -- The Browns are celebrating their glorious past without their greatest player.... hosted.ap.org |
Critics call Commonwealth Games crisis a symptom of a failed state • Indian newspapers criticise organisers• Neymar causes Santos manager to be sackedAfter the events in Delhi last week, a nation somewhat on the defensive may have been expected. Far from it. The Commonwealth Games crisis has turned from an issue of embarrassment and mismanagement into a vituperative assault on the very fabric of Indian society and its governance, the catalyst for grievances that go far beyond dirty sinks and collapsing roof tiles.The brunt of the anger has fallen on the Games organising committee, with The Times of India publishing a poll revealing that 97% of readers believed it had "tarnished India's image". The paper concurred: "These jokers ... deserve no mercy. Why should the nation be embarrassed for the folly of these individuals?" The Financial Express was equally unforgiving: "When [committee chairman] Suresh Kalmadi toured the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and declared that 'everything is 100% ready', was he wearing blinkers against the rubble and stagnant water?" Mid Day was blunter still in reference to committee secretary Lalit Bhanot's suggestion that cleanliness complaints were simply down to cultural differences, replying: "Sure dude! Our low standards make it really OK to have crap in the living room ..."All of which is understandable, but as the problems intensified so did the reaction and its targets. Shobhan Saxena, again in the Times, was unequivocal: "We are a third world banana republic which is falling into a bottomless pit." Before asking how anyone expected the country "to pull off an international sporting event without it sinking into the slime and grime of corruption and bad governance". The Games, it seems, were but the tip of the iceberg: "These are the symptoms of a failed state. We make tall claims about growth, but we treat our poor worse than animals. We aspire to be world power, but we can't even provide drinking water to all our citizens. We claim to be world's biggest democracy, but we 'solve' all our social and political problems with loaded guns in hand."He was not alone. The Telegraph commented: "This reality of a rising rate of growth and a corrupt and corroded delivery system ... has led us into the worst anarchy imaginable ... The CWG symbolizes this truth of supreme failure and massive corruption." The Deccan Herald saw the Games as "a microcosm of the way in which activities in the public domain are being handled in this country ... Corruption, confusion, chaos, procrastination, delay, blatant political interference ... The CWG project is not an exception but a typical example." The Hindustan Times finished the job: "In a way, the CWG preparations have been a model-scale version of India itself. Tales of success and ambition laid out on a rockbed of medieval infrastructure and the sheer inability to create a new one."This is criticism the government was not anticipating as hosts – the celebration was not supposed to backfire into lacerating self‑examination and much now depends on how the Games actually pan out. Success will distract but, as The Times observes, failure will only highlight the issues last week's problems raised – principally "the disconnect between India's newfound modernity and the masses of Indians who still face pitiable conditions of existence".BRAZILNeymar: Tantrums, fights, and sackingsNeymar, the 18-year-old Santos forward who turned down a move to Chelsea last month, has provoked his club into sacking their manager. It was the latest incident involving a player who cannot seem to avoid controversy.Neymar was dropped by Dorival Junior for throwing a tantrum when he was not allowed to take a penalty in the Brazilian championship match against Atlético Goianiense. After the kick was converted he remonstrated with, and threw a water bottle at, the bench, lost possession with some over-elaborate stepovers and spent the rest of the match sulking.He did apologise and was fined but Dorival Junior still suspended him from the following game. Santos then announced that the manager had been fired, apparently for breaking an agreement with the club that the player would not be banned.It's the culmination of a busy period for Neymar. At the end of a match against Ceará, he invited his marker for a fight and both teams got involved, sparking a brawl in which a Santos player was hit by a policeman's truncheon. Even when he does take a penalty, it's not simple. In a match against São Paulo, he stopped for a good two seconds in his run-up, waited for goalkeeper Rogerio Ceni to go one way, then struck it into the empty net. Shortly afterwards, Fifa banned the practice, citing examples of penalties they had seen in Brazil.He has now been left out of Brazil's squad for two friendlies but Santos's new coach, Marcelo Martelotte, is taking no chances – he picked Neymar for Wednesday's match against Vasco da Gama and made a point of praising his performance afterwards.USABallpark dining enters the digital ageBaseball fans in Philadelphia are the latest beneficiaries of new technology as the Phillies rolled out their new "At Bat" app – allowing spectators to order food at the game without even leaving their seats, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.As well as classics such as the Phillie cheesesteak there's a wide selection of mouthwatering treats on offer via the app, including: Tony Luke's roasted pork ("There's more to Tony Luke's than cheesesteaks!"); Bull's BBQ's turkey sandwich ("features the largest grill in all of Major League Baseball!"); Planet Hoagie's Italian hoagie ("hot soup on cold game nights!") and the Eastern Shore crab cake sandwich (vegetarian crab-free crab cake also available!). Fans simply tap in their order, seat and credit-card details and wait for their food to arrive.The Inquirer tried it on two fans, Paul and Ron Sandmeyer, whose food was delivered by a runner 18 minutes after ordering: "The sandwiches arrived hot and moist and the pair made short work of their meal. 'We would have been standing in line way longer than that,' said happily satiated Phillies fan Paul."ARGENTINAHighest exports and biggest earnersTwo different but equally intriguing figures emerged from the Americas last week. The first, a report by the sports marketing firm Euroamericas, shows that Argentina has overtaken Brazil as the leading provider of professional footballers worldwide. Argentinian clubs sold 1,716 players in 2009 against Brazil's 1,443, earning a total of $117m. Meanwhile in North America the Wall Street Journal revealed that five players – David Beckham, Landon Donovan, Rafael Márquez, Juan Pablo Angel and Thierry Henry – earn a combined $21.7m from their clubs, making up about 30% of the entire Major League Soccer payroll of $71.3m.Commonwealth Games 2010Giles Richardsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Wayne Huizenga buys Frederica Club Wayne Huizenga, the billionaire who brought hockey and baseball to south Florida, has bought the Frederica Club, an upscale St. Simon's Island golf club built by Sea Island Co. before it went into bankruptcy. (WFC) feeds.bizjournals.com |
Paul Rees: Regulations too rigid at World Cup Hard-line restrictions imposed by the IRB to keep the Rugby World Cup 'on message' make you wonder if the event is worth itIs the World Cup worth it? The New Zealand Rugby Union has been asking itself that question virtually ever since it was awarded the right to stage next year's tournament. It will make a loss: it is merely a matter of scale.The International Rugby Board will make a substantial profit: the more it makes, the more individual unions will receive, from big to small. It is one reason why the Rugby Football Union plans to clamp down on the commercial and media activities of the England players during the tournament.Players will be banned from using social networking sites as long as England are involved in the tournament. No making twits of themselves on Twitter or having to face punishment for a Facebook faux pas. And no newspaper columns, which would not be much of a loss given that they are already carefully censored.The ostensible reason for the crackdown is that the RFU does not want a repeat of some episodes in cricket in the summer when players, led by Kevin Pietersen, found that free speech cost. Remarks posted in the heat of the moment generated headlines and fines.England do not want their campaign undermined by having to put out fires lit on social networking sites. That is understandable, if symptomatic of the way a sport that used to be known for its close relationship with the media keeps on building walls and barriers.There is another reason for the determination to keep players in line, and it has as much to do with images as words. The IRB has had to fight hard for sponsors during a time of economic gloom and it has put up a number of restrictions in New Zealand, helped by a government act passed in 2007.Each stadium used in the World Cup will have a clean zone, with a five-mile radius, in which no rival of one of the official sponsors will be allowed to advertise. A group of supporters wearing, for example, a club jersey that bore the logo of a competitor to one of the official backers would have to remove it or be thrown out of the zone, never mind gain entry to the stadium.If someone puts up an advertising hoarding that is not inside the zone but can be seen from it, such as in the air, they will be breaking the law and would face a fine of up to £70,000 as well as a criminal record. The IRB's success in getting the law to support an assault on ambush marketing may persuade the organisers of other events to seek a similar sanctuary.The RFU is concerned that one of its players, posting a picture of himself on the internet wearing something that would embarrass the IRB because it contained a forbidden logo, would undermine the official crackdown. It is one thing to use the law to force groups and individuals to comply, but if the Rugby World Cup was ever held in the United States, where the freedom of speech is deemed more important than a sponsor, the Board would face many more obstacles than it did in New Zealand where every cent will count.Is the World Cup worth it? The IRB, or powerful sections of it, were so appalled by the quality of rugby in the last two tournaments that the experimental law variations were introduced. England especially were deemed to be a threat to the tournament's commercial appeal with their lamented limited approach, not that either Australia or France, never mind the IRB, did badly financially as hosts.The RFU will have to negotiate a deal with its players if it wants them to give up commercial activity and there will doubtless be several meetings between the two parties in the coming months. Any union that fails to control its players' activities off the field faces forfeiting some of its participation money if the tournament rules over advertising are broken and there is a danger that squads will be so tightly controlled and monitored that they will feel more in prison than an hotel.And what restrictions will be imposed on the family and friends of players who go to New Zealand. Will there be any comeback if 'wrong' images are posted on the internet? Or a politically incorrect message gains a wide currency? Will mobile phones, iPods, iPads and laptops have to be handed in before anyone is allowed into a team hotel?The IRB has a duty to protect its sponsors, some of whom are paying more than £2m for the privilege, but should it do so to the point where someone offering their house for rent during the tournament faced prosecution if they used the words rugby, world and cup in their advertisement?Ambush advertisers know that the best way to secure attention for their wares is through publicity, as happened during the football World Cup in South Africa earlier this year when a group of women, arrested for wearing orange miniskirts, were thrown out of a ground because the colour represented one that was a symbol of a brewer that was a rival to one of the main sponsors.How many would have got the message but for the subsequent fuss? Just as the IRB needs to make money out of the World Cup, so do traders in New Zealand, who may never get a similar opportunity again. The word open should not just be applied to the rugby.Ignore the bonus trapThe Six Nations committee has ruled out introducing bonus points into a tournament which stands alone in the major professional world in not rewarding defeat.The Six Nations believes that introducing bonus points would amount to change for change's sake. The championship was working and tweaking the system could make it worse rather than better.The Six Nations is unusual in that a win is worth two points, rather than four. Introducing bonus points would mean that a defeat by seven points or less was worth the same as a draw, a nonsense that could only be corrected by increasing the points for a win.There is another reason why bonus points could be anomalous. A team could win the grand slam but not the title. In 2002, France won five out of five. England only lost the one match, in Paris by five points, and scored at least four tries in their other four matches.With bonus points, that would have given them 13 points to the 11 of France, who only scored four tries once. If the values were changed and a win had been worth four points, both teams would have had 21. How would they have been separated?England had the superior try tally and points difference but they had lost to France. Surely a team that wins every match in a five-game tournament has the right to consider itself better than the rest?This is an extract taken from The Breakdown, guardian.co.uk's weekly rugby union email. You can sign up here.Rugby unionPaul Reesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Yankees, still trailing in series, refuse to be eliminated For the first time in their American League Championship Series against the Texas Rangers, the New York Yankees played like defending World Series ... rssfeeds.usatoday.com |