Football Notes: Newcastle To Honor MH17 Victims During Sydney FC Friendly

EPL side Newcastle "will wear black armbands" when it plays A-League side Sydney FC in a preseason friendly match in Dunedin on Tuesday. The EPL club "is mourning the loss" of two fans, John Alder and Liam Sweeney, "who tragically perished on Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17" (Sydney DAILY TELEGRAPH, 7/21). ... Police officers from China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam conducted more than 1,000 "raids on illegal gambling dens in the six-week operation." Many of these were operated by organized crime gangs and believed to have handled $2.2B worth of bets, "mostly through illegal websites" (AAP, 7/19). ... Police have detained six Vietnamese football players on suspicion of throwing a domestic league game over the weekend, "the latest arrests in a country notorious for match-rigging and illicit sports gambling" (REUTERS, 7/21).