Cycling
Morkov spoils Martin’s long, solo breakaway sprint
CACERES, Spain – Michael Morkov of Denmark won the sixth stage of the Spanish Vuelta after spoiling Tony Martin’s long solo escape in the final miles, and race favorite Vincenzo Nibali maintained the overall lead Thursday.
Martin, the world time trial champion, broke away near the start of the 108-mile ride Guijuelo to Caceres and held off the peloton until the final sprint.
The 28-year-old Morkov, riding for SaxoBank-Tinkoff, pushed in front of the pack to claim the victory with a time of 3 hours, 54 minutes, 15 seconds.
Nibali, the Giro d’Italia champion, kept his 3-second advantage over American cyclist Christopher Horner.
NFL
Former NFL players score a $765M injury settlement
PHILADELPHIA – The NFL reached a tentative $765-million settlement over concussion-related brain injuries among its 18,000 former players, agreeing to compensate sufferers, pay for medical exams and underwrite research.
The agreement, which is subject to approval by a federal judge, was announced Thursday after months of court-ordered mediation. It came just days before the start of the 2013 season.
More than 4,500 former athletes – some suffering from dementia, depression or Alzheimer’s that they blamed on repeated blows to the head – have sued the NFL since the first case was filed in Philadelphia in 2011.
They accused the league of concealing the long-term dangers of concussions and rushing injured players back onto the field, all the while glorifying and profiting from the kind of bone-jarring hits that make for spectacular highlight-reel footage.
Under the settlement, individual payouts would be capped at $5 million for men with Alzheimer’s disease, $4 million for those diagnosed after their deaths with a brain condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy and $3 million for players with dementia.
Soccer
Barcelona vs. Milan highlights Champions League draw
MONACO – Barcelona again will face seven-time winner AC Milan in the Champions League, and Bayern Munich is in a group that includes Manchester City.
Thursday’s draw put Barcelona in Group H with Milan, Ajax and Celtic.
Bayern, which beat Borussia Dortmund 2-1 in last year’s final at Wembley Stadium, is in Group D along with Man City, CSKA Moscow and Viktoria Plzen.
Dortmund is in one of the toughest groups of the tournament alongside Arsenal, Marseille and Napoli.
The first group games will take place Sept. 17-18.
FIFA hands down global bans on players and referees
ZURICH – FIFA imposed global bans Thursday on players and referees from Armenia, Lebanon, Estonia and Tunisia who are implicated in match-fixing cases.
FIFA extended life bans for two Armenian match officials on FIFA’s international list, referee Andranik Arsenyan and assistant Hovhannes Avagyan. They admitted to trying to fix a Europa League match for a betting scam.
Arsenyan and Avagyan, who both were appointed in 2012 to FIFA’s approved list for international matches, previously were banned for life by the Armenian federation and UEFA.
FIFA provisionally suspended Lebanese referee Ali Sabbagh, who is serving jail time in Singapore after being convicted of agreeing to fix matches in exchange for sexual favors.
The Asian Football Confederation provisionally banned Sabbagh for 30 days this month while it prosecutes a disciplinary case.
FIFA applied a life ban from all soccer duties to defender Elvis Liivamagi of Estonian club Tallinn Kalev. Liivamagi admitted to not reporting attempts to offer bribes but had denied offering bribes to teammates.
The world governing body also extended provisional bans to players Marouane Troudi and Mahmoud Dridi and an official, Amir Jaziri, who are implicated in an ongoing Tunisian investigation.
Associated Press
