Magath: Schalke 04’s disciplinarian coach Felix Magath showed his displeasure at his side’s 5-0 hammering by Kaiserslautern by shortening his players’ Christmas break to just six days. Magath announced that his squad would only be free from after the Cup match with Augsburg on Dec. 21 till the 27th.
Zenit SP: Italian coach Luciano Spalletti celebrated Zenit St Petersburg’s Russian league title by ripping off his shirt and baring his chest following their final match of the season yesterday, a 0-0 draw with Samara. The former Roma coach defied the freezing weather to express his joy at delivering the title to Zenit in his first season in charge.
Match rescheduled: The French First Division clash between Brest and Lens will be played tomorrow. The match had to be abandoned on Saturday at half-time because of heavy snow with the match level at 0-0.
Mandaric: Milan Mandaric has confirmed he will be stepping down as Leicester chairman as he prepares to seal his proposed takeover of Sheffield Wednesday. The former Foxes owner has been at the helm of the Walkers Stadium since February 2007 but recently sold the club to Asia Football Investments. His last game as chairman will be tonight’s Championship home game against Nottingham Forest.
Rugby Union: A flawless display by Jonathan Sexton eased Ireland to an end-of-year 29-9 win over an off-colour Argentina at Aviva Stadium in Dublin yesterday in their final autumn test. The Ireland fly-half got the better of his former Leinster mentor, Argentina’s Felipe Contepomi, kicking 17 points as the hosts got the better of the side that has caused them enormous problems in the past including two demoralising defeats in the 1999 and 2007 World Cups.
Boxing: Juan Manuel Marquez stopped Michael Katsidis in the ninth round to retain his World Boxing Association and World Boxing Organisation lightweight titles. Mexico’s Marquez regrouped after an early knockdown and punished the Australian challenger in the ninth. After Katsidis was hurt by a series of combinations referee Kenny Bayless called a halt for the technical knockout at 2:14 of the round. “We worked really hard for this fight, and I could tell my body shots were wearing him down,” said the 37-year-old champion, who improved to 52-5.
Horse Racing: Belgian jockey Christophe Soumillion guided Japanese top gun Buena Vista to victory in the Japan Cup yesterday, but was denied the win after he was ruled to have impeded the runner-up. With less than a furlong to go, the four-year-old filly snatched the lead to cross the line in two minutes 24.9 seconds, three and 3/4 lengths ahead of Rose Kingdom of Japan, ridden by Yutaka Take. But race officials declared Rose Kingdom the winner, giving Buena Vista second place, after ruling that the filly disturbed Rose Kingdom’s course shortly before the finish.
Basketball, NBA: The NBA fined Cleveland coach Byron Scott 35,000 dollars yesterday for publicly criticising game officials. NBA executive vice-president Stu Jackson announced the sanction for remarks Scott made after the Cavaliers’ 110-100 loss at Orlando on Friday. Scott criticised officials Ed Malloy, Bennie Adams and Kevin Fehr, saying it was difficult to play an opponent where “there’s five white jerseys and three with stripes... It’s hard when you’re playing against eight people.”