Asumah Abubakar is moving to FC Luzern. And Tessari/Walker achieve the freestyle at the figure skating championship. The most important sports reports at a glance.
Investigations against dozens of suspects in Belgian football scandal
(dpa) Belgian football is rocked by a possible cheating scandal. The federal prosecutor’s office announced on Friday (January 14) that they wanted to indict 57 suspects, as reported by the Belga news agency and other media.
56 people and a company are suspected of, among other things, fraud, money laundering, match fixing and membership in a criminal organization. According to the daily Dernière Heure/Les Sports, the suspects include officials from several Belgian professional clubs, consultants and referees.
Denmark and the Netherlands do not send government delegations to the Winter Olympics
The mascots of the Beijing Winter Olympics, January 12, 2022.
gds./(dpa) The Netherlands will not send a government delegation to the Beijing Winter Olympics. This was decided by the cabinet, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the ANP news agency in The Hague on Friday (January 14). The reason he gave was that due to the corona measures, no spectators from the country were allowed either.
Another reason is that the human rights situation cannot be addressed. Due to the Corona measures, there is “only limited space for a substantive program and for bilateral contacts with the host country, where the great concerns of the Netherlands about the human rights situation can be discussed in an appropriate manner,” ANP quoted the spokesman as saying.
A few hours later, Denmark made the same decision. Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod also justified the absence of an official country delegation with the human rights situation in China. “It’s no secret that we are very concerned,” Kofod said, according to Reuters news agency.
Other EU member states will also not be represented with an official delegation in China. Voting on this issue is still ongoing within the European Union, said Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) on Thursday in Berlin, and that this process is not yet complete in every respect. The US government had declared that it would boycott the games diplomatically because of the human rights situation. Australia, Canada, Great Britain and New Zealand joined. UN Secretary-General António Guterres, on the other hand, will travel to Beijing for the opening ceremony on February 4th.
Football: Lucerne takes over Asumah Abubakar from Lugano
Returns to Central Switzerland: Asumah Abubakar joins FC Luzern.
(sda) Asumah Abubakar (24) is moving from Lugano to Lucerne within the Super League with immediate effect. The striker from Ghana with a Portuguese passport trained under Mario Frick in Lucerne for the first time on Friday.
Abubakar is no stranger to Central Switzerland: he played for SC Kriens until the end of 2020. A year ago he moved to FC Lugano in the Super League, for whom he made 42 appearances and scored six goals.
Figure skating: Text: Tessari/Walker achieve the freestyle at the EM
(sda) The ice dancers Jasmine Tessari/Stéphane Walker, who are starting for Switzerland, qualified for the freestyle of the top 20 on Saturday at the European Figure Skating Championships in Tallinn. They finished the rhythm dance in 18th place. With 60.98 points, however, they remained well below their personal best (66.06).
The Italian Tessari and Walker complete their first season together. The latter started as a single runner until 2018 and as such took part in seven European Championships and four World Championships. The duo has a prominent trainer: Barbara Fusar-Poli. In 2001, the Italian won both the European and World Championship titles in ice dancing together with Maurizio Margaglio.
The Russian defending champions and world champions Viktoria Sinizina and Nikita Kazalapov (87.89) are in the lead in Tallinn.
Biathlon: Swiss women’s relay disappointed with 14th place
(sda) The Swiss women’s relay with Irene Cadurisch, Elisa and Selina Gasparin as well as anchor Lena Häcki finished in the disappointing 14th place in Ruhpolding, Germany.
Only Elisa Gasparin showed a strong performance. Despite two spare rounds, she put Switzerland in an acceptable position at half-time in 11th place, just 47 seconds back. This was after she had taken over from Irene Cadurisch in 19th place with a handicap of 54 seconds. The latter remained flawless in the shooting range, but couldn’t keep up on the cross-country ski run.
The catch-up crushed the eldest of the Gasparin sisters. Olympic silver medalist Selina Gasparin had three penalties in standing. Lena Häcki lost another half a minute on her 6 km to the victorious French women.
Ice Hockey: NHL All-Star Game for the first time with Timo Meier
Premiere for Timo Meier: He was voted into the NHL All-Star Team for the first time
(sda) Timo Meier from the San Jose Sharks has been nominated for the All-Star Game of the National Hockey League (NHL) for the first time – as the only Swiss.
The All-Star Game takes place in Las Vegas on February 5th. Timo Meier owes his selection primarily to his scorer qualities. The 25-year-old from Appenzell scored 15 goals and 39 scorer points (1.22 points per game) in the first half of the season, which means he is heading for a new career high and is in the top 10 in the scorer list.
Roman Josi, a three-time All-Star, was not nominated, although fans can vote for an additional player in each of the four divisions.
Tennis: Stefanie Vögele at the Australian Open
(sda) Stefanie Vögele (WTA 147) has qualified for the Australian Open for the third time. The Aargau native joins Belinda Bencic, Jil Teichmann and Viktorija Golubic in the main draw. In the last round of qualifying, Stefanie Vögele prevailed after 2:52 hours 6:3, 4:6, 7:5 against Indy de Vroome (WTA 252) from the Netherlands. In the decisive set, Vögele fended off two match points when the score was 4:5 and 15:40.
Ice Hockey: Controversial winner by Kurashev in extra time
When Philipp Kurashev (left) scores, not only does the puck end up in the goal, but also three players.
(sda) Philipp Kurashev’s controversial goal in the third minute of overtime gave the Chicago Blackhawks a 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens.
Philipp Kurashev successfully completed a counterattack on his winning goal. During the rescue attempt, Montreal’s rearmost man (Mike Hoffman) slipped over the goal line along with goalkeeper Sam Montembeault and the puck. The case has been cleared.
At first, the Chicago Blackhawks weren’t celebrating Kurashev’s attempt to finish. It was only the slow motion and the video study that revealed that it was a regular goal, that Kurashev was not responsible for Hoffman “clearing” his own goalie despite contact, and that the goal was only postponed when the puck had already crossed the line had. Montreal launched another video challenge because of offsides, but the Swiss also moved exactly within the permitted range.
While Kurashev decided his Blackhawks’ home game with the winning goal, there was little reason for the other Swiss in the NHL to celebrate. “A day to forget,” said Roman Josi, for example, who lost the home game against the Buffalo Sabers 4-1 with Nashville after five wins in a row – and had to leave the ice with a minus-2 record. For Nino Niederreiter (-3), Pius Suter (-3), Timo Meier, Nico Hischier and Jonas Siegenthaler it also resulted in defeats and negative balance sheets.
Soccer: No one gets more sending offs than Granit Xhaka
A tackle with consequences: Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka (below) is sent off after tackling Liverpool’s Diogo Jota.
(sda) Liverpool and Arsenal drew 0-0 in the first leg of the League Cup semifinals. Granit Xhaka was sent off.
After missing out on the humiliation in the FA Cup against Nottingham Forest (0-1) at the weekend due to a positive corona test, Granit Xhaka caused a stir with Arsenal on the pitch again on Thursday – in a negative sense.
In the semi-final first leg of the League Cup against Liverpool, it was 24 minutes when Xhaka tried to stop a long ball. However, he didn’t hit the ball with his tackle, but the chest of Liverpool’s Diogo Jota. Referee Michael Oliver dismissed the 29-year-old. It is Xhaka’s fifth red card at Arsenal. Since moving to the Premier League in 2016, no other player in the league has seen more red than the captain of the Swiss national team.
However, Liverpool could not use the advantage to score goals. The game remained goalless, leaving everything open ahead of the second leg in London in a week’s time.
Alpine skiing: Thanks to a special permit, Vincent Kriechmayr can complete the descents in Wengen
May start for the two descents on Friday and Saturday: the Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr.
(sda) Vincent Kriechmayr can also complete the two Ski World Cup downhill runs in Wengen on Friday and Saturday. The double world champion, who finished ninth in Super-G on Thursday, received special permission from the jury in the afternoon. After sitting out his corona quarantine, the 30-year-old only arrived in Wengen late on Wednesday evening and therefore missed the downhill training sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Normally, without training, he would have to skip the shortened descent on Friday and the Lauberhorn classic on Saturday for the entire distance. However, the FIS race director Markus Waldner explained in the team captains’ meeting in the evening that Kriechmayr is allowed to start due to a jury decision. There is no rule that an athlete must complete full training runs. He only has to be on the list and drive out of the start house, then he can stop the run immediately.
Kriechmayr will start on Friday at 9.44 a.m. from the original start of the Lauberhorn descent, said Waldner. After that he will stop immediately and complete the race later (start 12.30 p.m.). “We didn’t make that decision because it’s Mr. Kriechmayr, who is a world champion and won here. We would make that decision for every driver because we live in very complicated Covid pandemic times, »explained the South Tyrolean. “We want to avoid a driver not being able to start because of this Covid.”