Ex-Chelsea and Leeds United Owner KEN BATES "may have helped a young boy's dreams come true" after donating £10,000 ($16,800) to pay for life-changing surgery.
LEO STOTT, who has cerebral palsy and cannot walk unaided, "has always wanted to play football without a walking frame."
Hundreds of people "donated money to pay for him to have a life-changing operation," with Bates pledging a sizeable chunk of the £45,000 ($75,700) needed (London DAILY MAIL, 8/7).
... Former ManU player PAUL SCHOLES will write exclusively for The Independent, and its sister paper i, throughout the new football season. The former midfielder will give his opinions each week -- and, "in true Scholes style," has promised to pull no punches (London INDEPENDENT). ... Former Tour de France winner BRADLEY WIGGINS "will return to the road after his Commonwealth Games track exploits in the elite Prudential Ride London-Surrey Classic on Sunday" (REUTERS, 8/7). ... Pictures of Super Rugby side Crusaders players on a hunting trip in South Africa "are being used by an environmental organisation in its fight against what it calls canned, or joyride, hunting."
The "players shown in the four pictures posted by the Landmark Foundation on its Facebook page" were TOM TAYLOR, GEORGE and SAM WHITELOCK, BEN FUNNELL and TYLER BLEYENDAAL. In each picture, one or more of the players "was posing beside a dead animal." Foundation Dir BOOL SMUTS said that "none of the animals involved were endangered and he expected the hunting was legal."
But his foundation was "against the whole concept of trophy hunting" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 8/7). ... Spanish Basketball League (ACB) side Laboral Kutxa reached an agreement for its coach, SERGIO SCARIOLO, to leave the club. His successor will be MARCO CRESPI, "who will sign a one-year deal with an option for an additional season based on the club's results during his first year" (AS, 8/7).
