Translated material
PSG suffers first losses
The leader of the French championship, Paris Saint-Germain, lost its first points in the championship. The Parisians tied in the Champagne region with Troyes - 1:1. The guests were the first to open the scoring - PSG's top scorer, Portuguese Pauleta, scored in the 35th minute. But at the beginning of the second half, Troyes equalized the score, and soon the Parisians were left in the minority. Edouard Cissé fouled Boskovic and was ejected from the field. Russian PSG legionnaire Sergei Semak again did not appear on the field.
The fourth round of the French championship will also be remembered for the record defeat in the history of Auxerre. The club, which left Guy Roux, who coached the team for more than forty years, lost to Lens with a score of 0:7. This is the biggest defeat in the career of new Auxerre coach Jean Santini. Andrey VDOVIN
Cavenaghi could move to Spain
Spartak Moscow striker Fernando Cavenaghi may leave Russia in the near future. Spanish Espanyol are interested in acquiring the Argentine forward. According to Spanish press reports, Espanyol is ready to buy Cavenaghi for 9 million euros. The main initiator of negotiations on the purchase of the Argentinean was the head coach of the Spanish team, Angel Lotina. “I remember Cavenaghi playing in Argentina and I have no doubt that he will fit into our game,” the coach said.
Let us recall that Spartak bought the Argentinean for 10.7 million euros last year, but then the former general director of the Moscow club Yuri Pervak said that the striker, including taxes, cost Spartak 14 million. This year, Cavenaghi scored five in the Russian championship goals, but did not take part in the last match with Dynamo. As Spartak coach Alexander Starkov explained, “for personal reasons.” In addition to buying Cavenaghi, Espanyol is considering other opportunities for strengthening. Among the potential acquisitions are Brazilian Fred and Czech Milan Baros. By the way, the latter is claimed by the English Aston Villa and the French Lyon, who offered Liverpool 10 and 12.5 million euros, respectively. Konstantin IVANOV
Student victory with a bitter taste
The Russian team took first place in the unofficial team competition following the results of the 23rd Summer Universiade that ended in Turkey. At the World University Games, Russians won 26 gold, 16 silver and 23 bronze medals. In second place is China (21--16--12), in third place is Japan (18--18--20).
The main contributions to our team's team goals were made by track and field athletes (11 victories), fencers and swimmers (four each). Along with the successes of representatives of individual disciplines, the extremely inexpressive performance of Russian teams in team sports should be noted. The men's volleyball team ended up only ninth, losing to Switzerland, Turkey and Canada during the Universiade. The girls in this sport finished eighth, behind China, Turkey, Finland, Serbia and Montenegro. The water polo players in the match for bronze were defeated by the hosts, who had never achieved serious success in water polo before - 6:11.
The players, like the senior team at the 2002 World Cup, lost to Japan in the group stage, after which they failed in the playoffs against either Italy or Mexico, and only in the game for seventh place were they stronger than Uruguay. The Universiade clearly demonstrated the colossal difference between the level of development of student basketball in the USA and Russia. In the semi-finals of the men's tournament, the Americans defeated us with a 40-point advantage - 120:80, after which the Russians lost to the Serbs in the fight for third place - 77:86. A similar picture emerged in girls’ competitions. The Stars and Stripes won the semi-final against Russia with an indecent score of 118:67; our team also did not have enough strength for bronze: it was defeated in the meeting with Australia - 72:81. Ilya TRISVIATSKY
Grabovsky was allowed to play for Dynamo
Yesterday, the arbitration committee of the Professional Hockey League declared the contract of hockey player Mikhail Grabovsky with the Kazan club Ak Bars invalid. Thus, Grabovsky is allowed to play for the capital’s Dynamo.
Let us remind you that former Neftekhimik player Mikhail Grabovsky at the end of the season signed a contract with the capital’s Dynamo, which was registered in the PHL. After some time, a contract was born with another hockey club - Ak Bars. According to the PHL regulations, Grabovsky should have been disqualified for two years for concluding two contracts at the same time. However, the arbitration committee accepted Dynamo's position in this dispute. A week ago, the arbitration court allowed hockey player Denis Kulyash, who had a contract with CSKA, to move to Dynamo. Andrey VDOVIN
IOC unhappy with refereeing in amateur boxing
International Olympic Committee spokeswoman Giselle Davis explained why the IOC is in no hurry to pay the International Amateur Boxing Federation (AIBA) the 9 million euros it is owed for the development of the sport in the new four-year cycle.
“The payment is frozen because AIBA has not yet taken any steps to address the problem of biased refereeing that participants constantly face at major international competitions, including the Athens Olympics,” Davis said. MTF President Jacques Rogge sent a letter to the head of AIBA, Pakistani Anwar Chaudhry, saying that the money will be paid only after the leaders of world amateur boxing present a clear program to improve refereeing. Previously, the IOC demanded that international fencing, gymnastics and wrestling federations put things in order in refereeing and has already received from them an action plan and specific decisions on this issue. Vladimir ILYIN