Espinoza: Promoted Birmingham City have signed Ecuador defender Giovanny Espinoza from Barcelona Sporting. Centre-back Espinoza, Ecuador's second most capped player, has signed a two-year deal and joins recent arrivals Christian Benitez, Scott Dann, Stephen Carr and Joe Hart at St Andrews.
On strike: Tianjin Teda players went on strike after being asked to sign new long-term contracts with the Chinese Super League (CSL) club. The players are unhappy at being asked to sign deals of five years for younger players and two years for their more experienced team-mates. The club hope long contracts will prevent players going abroad on free transfers, as happened earlier this year when Shandong Luneng's Zhou Haibin moved to PSV.
Tom Tomsk: Russian Premier League side Tom Tomsk could go out of business because of its huge debts, the Siberian club said. "I would call our situation critical," Tom general director Yuri Stepanov was quoted as saying. "We owe almost 200 million roubles ($6.42 million). Stepanov said the region's major companies, such as oil giants Tomskneft who had backed the club in the past, had opted to put their money elsewhere.
Boateng: Germany U-21 midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng wants to take advantage of a new FIFA ruling and switch allegiance to play for Ghana. "Now I want to develop further myself with Ghana," Boateng said. "This is the next step." The 22-year-old Boateng, who has a Ghanaian father, has been capped at several junior levels by the Germans but never made the senior national team squad.
Boca coach: Former Argentina coach Alfio Basile will take charge of Boca Juniors next season after agreeing terms with the club he steered to two successive league titles in the 2005/06 season. The agreement ended days of negotiations between the parties following the dismissal by Boca of coach Carlos Ischia.
Bonetti: Dario Bonetti, a former player with Roma, Juventus and Milan, has signed a two-year contract to become coach of Romanian side Dinamo Bucharest. The 47-year-old Italian suceeds Romanian Mircea Rednic, who took Dinamo to a third-place finish last season.
Cycling: Spaniard Alejandro Valverde will miss the Tour de France as a result of the two-year suspension imposed on him in Italy, his Caisse d'Epargne team said. The world's top-ranked rider was banned by CONI last month but the punishment only applies within their borders. CONI said blood samples Valverde gave at a doping control when last year's Tour entered Italy matched DNA from code-named bags of blood discovered in Spain's Operacion Puerto doping investigation, launched in 2006. The 2009 Tour passes through Italy on July 21.
Rugby Union: British and Irish Lions lock Nathan Hines has been given a one-week ban for a dangerous tackle. The Scotland forward's tackle went unpunished in Tuesday's 13-13 draw with the Emerging Springboks but was later singled out by Citing Commissioner Steve Hinds. Hines will not be available for Saturday's second test against South Africa.
Basketball: The Chinese Basketball Association will be trimmed next season after a 115m yuan ($16.8m) loss from 2008-09 put the league in danger. The CBA, which is aiming to build the strongest league in Asia, extended it from 200 games to 450 over five months last season, which cost the 18 clubs a total of 265m yuan but only brought in 150m. Last season's bottom two clubs Yunnan Honghe and Shanghai Sharks are in the worst trouble. The owner of Yunnan, unable to pay the players, is planning to sell the team.
Baseball: United States President Barack Obama will throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Major League Baseball's All-Star Game next month, administration officials said. Obama will be the fourth US President, joining John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, to throw out the first pitch at the Midsummer Classic. The game will be played in St Louis on July 14.