Brazilian footballer KAKÁ "has been absolved due to a lack of proof in a tax evasion case in Milan." The court ruled that Tamid Sport & Marketing, an agency created by the player, "is really operational and is not a ghost business to avoid paying taxes" (EFE, 11/23). ... Big Bash League side Sydney Sixers "made history" by signing the first ever Chinese player to the BBL as the club's community rookie. MING LI, a 24-year-old cricketer from Hong Kong, "will join the Sixers this summer under the Cricket Australia rookie program." Ming has "been playing cricket" since '04 and debuted for Hong Kong in '10 when it toured Papua New Guinea, and then played in the 2013 and 2014 Asian Games (Sydney DAILY TELEGRAPH, 11/23). ... Russian side Lokomotiv President OLGA SMORODINSKAYA told the Match TV channel on Sunday that Brazilian goalkeeper GUILHERME MARINATO has been "granted Russian citizenship." Smorodinskaya said, "We have received the Russian passport. Guilherme is a Russian citizen now" (TASS, 11/22). ... RICHARD RUFUS resigned from his posts at League Championship side Charlton "after being found to have overseen a multi-million pound fraud." The retired defender, who spent his entire professional career with Charlton between '93-04, had been "working as an academy coach and an ambassador for the community trust at the south London club." However, he has now quit "after he was branded a fraudster by specialist civil court judge CLIVE JONES at the High Court in London earlier this month." Rufus had accepted more than £16M from investors between '07-11 -- "without authorisation and in breach of financial regulations." He had lost more than £5M "through currency exchange trading" and used more than £3M for his "own purposes" (PA, 11/23). ... Former Barcelona player CARLES PUYOL is "starting a new career as a football agent" and is about to get the services of Spain int'l MARC BARTRA as his first client. Mundo Deportivo reported Bartra has decided to "part ways with agent MAGICO DIAZ to work with Puyol and the main question now is whether that future will be at Barcelona or elsewhere" (INT'L BUSINESS TIMES, 11/23). ... Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb announced that midfielder ARIJAN ADEMI "has been given a four-year ban from football" by UEFA after failing a drug test. The Macedonia int'l "tested positive for a banned substance" following Dinamo's 2-1 Champions League victory over Arsenal in September. Following a hearing at UEFA's HQ in Switzerland, "it was confirmed that the 24-year-old will be banned" until '19 (London GUARDIAN, 11/20). ... Two British rowers have "been banned for two years after failing doping tests." U.K. Anti-Doping said that SYBREN HOOGLAND and TIMOTHY GRANT were "suspended after testing positive at a regatta in Ghent, Belgium last May." Both "competed for Oxford Brookes University Boat Club." UKAD said that Hoogland tested "positive for a metabolite of cocaine and was suspended from all sport" until May 8, 2017. Grant, who previously rowed for Britain's U23 team, "tested positive for the stimulant modafinil" and was banned until June 3, 2017 (AP, 11/23). ... Former All Blacks rugby player JONAH LOMU "probably died from a blood clot that formed during his flights" from the U.K. back to New Zealand, according to one of the New Zealand team doctors. JOHN MAYHEW, the former All Blacks doctor who helped treat Lomu's chronic kidney disease, said that a flight-related clot "was the most likely explanation for his unexpected death in Auckland" last week. Mayhew said that the player's kidney disease "made him vulnerable to the kind of clots that can be caused by long-haul flights" (LONDON TIMES, 11/23).
