Ryder Cup for Tennis Not for Cash

A Ryder Cup-style competition for men's tennis may struggle to win player support, according to former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash.

Teams from Europe and the Rest of the World will compete annually for the Laver Cup, named after 77-year-old Australian tennis legend Rod Laver.

The inaugural edition of the event is scheduled for September 2017.

"I like the concept but I don't know if players will take it seriously," Cash told Radio 5 live sports extra.

The tournament organisers say each six-man team will be captained by a "a legend of the sport", who will pick two wildcards to add to the four players who qualify through "a results-based formula".

The 12-match competition will take place over three days, with each day featuring three singles matches and a doubles match.

The tournament is the brainchild of Team8, the management agency of 17-time grand slam winner Roger Federer, Tennis Australia and Jorge Paulo Lemann, a Brazilian businessman who represented both Brazil and Switzerland as a player in the Davis Cup.

Cash, who won the men's singles title at Wimbledon in 1987, believes the timing of the tournament will discourage the top players from signing up.

"The concept is a great idea, but it's after the US Open and the Davis Cup [semi-finals] - it's stuck in the middle of a tournament," he said.

"With the Davis Cup struggling in some places in the world, I'm not sure we need another tournament to squeeze in."

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Whistleblower Gives FIFA More Evidence

Swiss prosecutors say they have been given important evidence by a whistleblower in their investigation into Fifa and its suspended president, Sepp Blatter.

The Swiss attorney general’s spokesman, André Marty, said the case was making progress and formal charges could be brought by the end of the year.

Marty told the German broadcaster ARD: “A witness, a so-called whistleblower, gave us interesting information relevant to the case which brought us markedly forward in the criminal investigation.”

The Swiss attorney general, Michael Lauber, opened criminal proceedings against Blatter in September over suspected criminal mismanagement and misuse of Fifa money in two cases: a £1.3m payment made to the Uefa president, Michel Platini, in 2011, and selling undervalued World Cup TV rights to the disgraced former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner.

Blatter and Platini were banned for eight years last month by Fifa’s ethics committee over the payment.

The election contest to find Blatter’s successor is hotting up with a series of nominations being announced for Gianni Infantino, the Uefa general secretary, who is one of five candidates on 26 February.

Conmebol, the confederation which represents the 10 South American countries, has formally announced its support for Infantino, a Swiss-Italian lawyer.

The Central American Football Union (UNCAF), which represents seven small central American countries, has also announced its support for Infantino as have several Caribbean countries.

One of the outsiders for the role, South African politician and businessman Tokyo Sexwale, told Reuters that “the time for alliances is coming”. Sexwale, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, the favourite, and Infantino are all attending the final of the Asian Football Championship between South Korea and Japan in Doha on Saturday, and Sexwale said the trio would discuss their options, with the South African likely to withdraw from the race.

That support should see Infantino could make a determined push against the favourite, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, the president of Asian football who also has strong backing in Africa.

The other three candidates are Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, the former French diplomat Jérôme Champagne and Tokyo Sexwale, a politician and businessman from South Africa.

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Bayern Injury List Strains Pep Players

Bayern Munich may be expected to chalk up another Bundesliga win against Hoffenheim on Sunday but all is not well with the league leaders.

Their coach Pep Guardiola is reportedly cracking down as he seeks a treble of Champions League, Bundesliga and German Cup trophies in his last season in charge with his next destination likely to be Manchester City.

His predecessor Jupp Heynckes managed the feat in his final campaign in 2013.

Despite an eight-point lead over Borussia Dortmund in the league, where Bayern have dropped just five points all season, Kicker magazine reported that the relationship between Guardiola and his players was coming under strain.

The Spanish coach is said to be unhappy with some players’ professionalism and their behaviour on days off, with trips abroad causing particular annoyance. Kicker also said Guardiola criticised players for being overweight before the league resumed after its month-long winter break last weekend.

Bayern’s injury problems have revealed some tension at the club, with Jérôme Boateng the latest added to a long list. The Germany defender has been ruled out until at least the latter stages of the season with a groin injury sustained in last Friday’s 2-1 win at Hamburg.

Boateng’s absence is a blow for Bayern before the Champions League last-16 match with Juventus on 23 February.

The Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge indicated his frustration when he told the dpa news agency that he recommended the German football federation “keeps back” from Boateng “or there’ll be stress with Bayern”.

The Germany coach Joachim Löw had suggested he would give Boateng every chance to recover for the European Championship in France.

Rummenigge also revealed Boateng had consulted the former Bayern doctor Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt. Müller-Wohlfahrt had quit Bayern after 38 years in April 2015 after rowing with Guardiola over the club’s injury list.

Boateng joins Franck Ribéry, Mario Götze, Medhi Benatia, Rafinha and Sven Ulreich among Bayern’s casualties.

Guardiola will need to come up with solutions, with Xabi Alonso, Holger Badstuber or Javi Martínez likely to fill in. “I have huge trust in Guardiola and the team,” Rummenigge insisted.

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Valencia Reach Copa Last Four

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Valencia reached the Copa del Rey semi-finals after a Rodrigo Moreno goal earned a morale-boosting 1-0 second-leg victory at Las Palmas and a 2-1 aggregate win.

The Mestalla side have yet to win in seven La Liga matches under their coach, Gary Neville, and lie 11th in the table but this victory will ease some of the tension surrounding the club.

The game was always in the balance but Valencia worked hard defensively and had the better chances to score with Moreno slotting home after 20 minutes.

“Our fans deserved to enjoy a moment like this,” Neville said. “They have been patient with me and with the team in these past six weeks.”

“It has not been easy for us,” Rodrigo said. “It was important to advance to the next round, it gives us more confidence. We played well in the first leg but didn’t get a good result. Today we didn’t play brilliantly but we advanced, and that’s what was important.”

Sevilla eased into the last four after a Vicente Iborra penalty helped them to a 3-0 second-leg win over second-tier Mirandes and a 5-0 aggregate success.

Sevilla were firmly in charge from the start and went ahead after Sebastián Cristóforo was upended by Ion Vélez and Iborra sent the goalkeeper Raúl Fernández the wrong way with his spot kick after nine minutes.

Mirandes caused little danger and Sevilla could have added to their lead but Yevhen Konoplyanka fired over and Vitolo had a shot beaten away by Fernández in the first half.

They sealed the win after the break when the 20-year-old Juan Muñoz finished clinically after 70 minutes from a Vitolo pass and Coke headed home the third goal in stoppage time.

Sevilla have clicked into gear after a slow start to the season and have suffered only one defeat in 16 games in all competitions, moving them up to seventh in La Liga.

Barcelona reached the semi-finals on Wednesday after knocking out Athletic Bilbao. Real Madrid were disqualified for fielding an ineligible player in an earlier round.

Celta Vigo completed the semi-final lineup with a 3-2 aggregate success against Atlético Madrid on Wednesday.

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Awesome Djokovic Ends Federer Dream

Novak Djokovic produced an awe-inspiring display to beat Roger Federer in the semi-finals of the Australian Open.

The 45th meeting between two of the sport's greatest champions was another classic encounter and Djokovic produced one of his finest ever performances in a 6-1 6-2 3-6 6-3 win in Melbourne.

Both men shared 22 wins apiece ahead of this latest showdown, but Djokovic seemed a class above his long-term rival while storming into a two-set lead in just 54 minutes.

Federer's decision to attack the net stemmed the Serb's onslaught in the third and he hauled back a set as a partisan crowd roared him on at a flood-lit Rod Laver Arena.

But the defending champion was not denied for long and broke again in the fourth set rivened by tension before serving out the match to love in two hours and 19 minutes to secure a place in his fifth successive Grand Slam final.

The world No 1 will now bid to join Australian legend Roy Emerson with a sixth title at Melbourne Park.

He will meet the winner of second seed Andy Murray and 13th seed Milos Raonic who play in the second semi-final on Friday. 

"I played unbelievable first two sets, but that's what's necessary against Roger," said the 10-time Grand Slam champion.

"He's been playing at a very high level and I knew he was going to try to play aggressive, mix up the pace and come to the net.

"I came out with the right intensity and executed everything perfectly. But it was a battle in the end."

Djokovic had given his rivals hope after two lacklustre displays against Gilles Simon and Kei Nishikori but the top seed was back to his very best here and will now be strong favourite to clinch his 11th major crown.

For Federer, his wait for an 18th continues and despite playing brilliantly against the rest of the field, it may never end while he keeps running into Djokovic, who has now won their last four Grand Slam meetings.

Sunday will be Djokovic's 19th major final overall and moves him into equal-third place with Ivan Lendl on the all-time list of most appearances in major finals, which is headed by Federer.

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