A city in Siberia will be stripped of hosting the '21 world biathlon championships "if Russians in the sport fail doping retests of samples taken at the 2014 Sochi Olympics." Int'l Biathlon Union President Anders Besseberg said on Wednesday that "it's possible without problem" to reallocate the hosting rights from the city of Tyumen if "more Russian doping infringements surface" following the revelation of an alleged state-backed doping plot at the Sochi Games. Besseberg: "WADA and IOC have commissions working on this. If they should come up with things that it will be wrong, or as a kind of punishment, that you cannot organize big events in Russia, then there is absolutely no problem for us. We will have a new congress in 2018" (AP, 9/7).
Misano will continue to host MotoGP until at least '20. A new four-year agreement "was signed on the eve of this weekend's round." The Italian circuit returned to the calendar in '07 and, fueled by "the success of local hero Valentino Rossi, was sold out on race day last season" (CRASH, 9/8).
Malaysia will host the inaugural Asian Football Confederation Solidarity Cup, a tournament involving Asia's emerging national teams at the end of this year. The decision was announced during the draw which was held at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Thursday, which will see nine national teams separated into two groups. The tournament will take place from Nov. 2-15, "however the venues have not been announced" (GOAL, 9/8).
