Spanish Football League (LFP) President Javier Tebas and Spanish National Police Force Dir Ignacio Cosidó signed a deal to eradicate and prevent crimes in football. Tebas: "Without the Police and their mechanisms it's impossible to bring this blight on our game to an end." He explained that the police will have at their disposition reports from all LFP matches, as a demonstration of the collaboration of the State Security Forces, and insisted that both bodies will continue to share resources (LFP). ... The Spanish Basketball League (ACB) announced that Laboral Kutxa's Tornike Shengelia will be suspended five games and Bilbao Basket's Dejan Todorovic will be suspended for four games. The suspensions follow a fight between the two during a game on March 1 (EL MUNDO, 3/11). ... Understanding the impact of concussions and injuries in community sport "will be easier with the release of new software available to Canberra sporting clubs." The software will allow Sports Medicine Australia to record and collate data about injuries as well as monitor concussion rates in the ACT. This will result in "improved care for athletes and will prevent potentially catastrophic side-effects of returning a concussed athlete to training or competition too early." Lisa Elkington, a PHD student at the University of Canberra, said that "while concussion was being taken more seriously in professional sporting codes" such as the National Rugby League and the Australian Football League, community sport was "lagging behind" (CANBERRA TIMES, 3/12). ... The Rugby Football Union has "launched a series of new online concussion education courses aimed at players, coaches and match officials across the community game." The interactive courses -- based on the 4Rs of recognize, remove, recover and return -- have been devised to "improve the understanding of concussion and the behaviours needed to manage it effectively in a more accessible way" (London GUARDIAN, 3/12).
UAE SUSPENDED: The UAE's equestrian federation "has been suspended by the sport's world governing body over abuses during endurance events." The sanction follows an investigation by the Int'l Equestrian Federation (FEI), which found "horse welfare abuses and rule violations." The suspension bars Emirati athletes from int'l competitions. The UAE federation has 30 days to appeal against the suspension to a FEI tribunal (BBC, 3/12).
