ECCLESTONE BACKED: Red Bull Team Principal CHRISTIAN HORNER backed F1 CEO BERNIE ECCLESTONE “to keep running Formula One as the 83-year-old chief executive officer awaits the verdict of his lawsuit over bribery allegations.” Horner: “It all depends upon the outcome. Bernie is absolutely the best and only guy to do what he does, to take Formula One to the global reach that the sport has achieved. It’s a massive calendar that he’s pulled together. It’s in all our interests that he’s around as long as possible” (BLOOMBERG, 1/15).
STRIKING IT RICH: Cricketer MITCHELL JOHNSON’s “successful return to the elite ranks” of int’l cricket will result in him competing with DAVID WARNER “as Australia's most valuable Twenty20 player at next month's Indian Premier League player auction.” Although analysts “do not expect the cash to be splashed as wantonly in this year's market, Johnson is tipped to fetch” a $1M price tag “after his hot summer” and could even go as high as $1.2M (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 1/16).
POWELL TRIAL: Former 100m world record holder ASAFA POWELL "has made the startling confession" that he was unaware of the World Anti-Doping Agency rules on the opening day of the hearing into his failed drug test. Powell, who tested positive for the banned stimulant oxilofrine at the Jamaica national championships last June, also admitted that "he did not list all the supplements he was taking -- as required -- because they were new and he could not remember their names." Under cross-examination, Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission lawyer LACKSTON ROBINSON asked him, "Are you acquainted with the Doping Control rule?" Powell: "I am now" (GUARDIAN, 1/14).
German Football League (DFL) Finance, IT & Organization Dir JÖRG DEGENHART has been elected as the fifth board member of the Bundesliga Stiftung, which is the league's charitable organization (DFL). ... EPL Southampton Exec Chair NICOLA CORTESE is "close to leaving the club." Cortese, who is "credited with driving Southampton's renaissance as a force in the English Premier League," has suffered "an 'irretrievable breakdown' in relations with club owners the Liebherr estate" (REUTERS, 1/15). ... The Israel FA said that Israel national football coach ELI GUTTMAN "has been given a two-year contract extension" despite his "failure to take the national side to this year's World Cup finals" (REUTERS, 1/15).
