Serie A announced the date and venue of the Italian Super Cup, which will be played in Saudi Arabia next month "despite calls for the game to be moved after the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi." The match between Juventus and AC Milan will be played on Jan. 16 at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah. While the match is slated to be broadcast domestically by RAI, the Italian state TV’s journalists' union said last month that it was "absurd" and "unacceptable" for the game to be played in Saudi Arabia. The deal reportedly will provide €20M ($22.8M) to Serie A and €3.15M ($3.6M) to the participating clubs (AP, 12/5).
Victoria Racing Club Chair Amanda Elliott slammed Racing NSW's decision to schedule a new A$7.5M ($5.4M) race at Rosehill on Derby Day, describing it as one that "shows little regard for" or interest in "the bigger picture." She said that scheduling three feature races in Sydney on consecutive Saturdays -- from Cox Plate day to the final day of the VRC calendar -- "without due consideration of the impact the decision would have on racing's participants was a process foreign to the VRC" (CANBERRA TIMES, 12/6).
The entry fee for runners in the Tokyo Marathon will jump 50% from '20 to cover the cost of increased security, organizers said Thursday. The Tokyo Marathon Foundation board of trustees agreed to hike the entry fee, excluding tax, from 10,000 yen ($88) to 15,000 yen ($133) for Japanese residents starting with the '20 race (KYODO, 12/6).
