Italian F1 team Scuderia Ferrari has reportedly offered €5M ($6.8M) to former Mercedes Team Principal ROSS BRAWN "to join the struggling team" (SID, 7/3). ... Spanish football side Hércules, which has been relegated to the Spanish third tier for next season, is "facing a scandal after the arrest of one of its medics." JERONI LLORCA "was apprehended by National Police in an operation against drug trafficking that included the arrests of four others." Llorca "spent one night in jail before being provisionally released" (LIBERTAD DIGITAL, 7/3). ... American LOUIS ZAMPERINI, "an Olympic distance runner and second world war veteran who survived on a raft in the Pacific after his bomber crashed, then endured two years in Japanese prison camps, has died aged 97" (AP, 7/3). ... Disgraced former New Zealand cricketer LOU VINCENT said that "his match-fixing boss threatened him with a cricket bat after an attempt to rig a game backfired, costing crooked bookies a fortune" (AFP, 7/3). ... Tennis coach CARLOS RODRIGUEZ "has split with his top student," LI NA, "China's two-time Grand Slam winner, to fully focus on his tennis academy in Beijing, his business partner confirmed on Thursday." The news "created a heated buzz on Chinese social media, where public opinion about the end of their cooperation was divided" (CHINA DAILY, 7/3). ... The increasingly "bizarre world of Leeds United has taken another turn for the strange" after it emerged that Owner MASSIMO CELLINO "has such a dislike of the number 17 it has turned him against one of the club’s key players who was born on that date."
Cellino has instructed new Leeds head coach DAVE HOCKADAY not to select PADDY KENNY "after discovering that the goalkeeper’s birthday is on 17 May and concluding that he is bad luck for the Championship club" (London GUARDIAN, 7/2). ... Australia's triple Olympic champion STEPHANIE RICE, who called time on her illustrious swimming career in April this year at the age of 25, "has joined sports management firm Rhiti Sports with an aim to improve the overall health of the water sport in India." Rhiti Sports "claimed that Rice plans to set up academies in India and is looking forward to grooming young talent" (PTI, 7/3). ... Board of Control for Cricket in India President-in-exile N. SRINIVASAN, who was recently appointed chairman of the Int'l Cricket Council in a unanimous vote, has said that "he has done nothing wrong to ruin the image of the game." Srinivasan said that "he did as was asked of him by the Supreme Court of India." Srinivasan said, "There are certain matters in the court and I can't speak on them. (But) I have not done anything to bring disrepute or tarnish the game" (GO CRICKET, 7/3).
