DE BRUYNE TELLS HAZARD TO STAY CALM
Belgium playmaker Kevin De Bruyne has advised teammate Eden Hazard to remain calm as he expects the Chelsea winger to be targeted aggressively by the opposition at the World Cup.
Hazard limped off with a dead leg after a series of heavy tackles in Belgium’s 4-1 win over Costa Rica in Monday’s warm-up game. “If you are good then people try to kick you,” De Bruyne said.
“You need to calculate what is coming. You try to stay calm as much as possible. Sometimes that isn’t easy but you just try.”
De Bruyne believes such situations can be used as an advantage. “Even if he (Hazard) gets kicked we get a free-kick, an advantage, and they get a yellow, so it is positive,” the 26-year-old added.
BRUSSELS:
ARGENTINE PRISONERS GO ON HUNGER STRIKE
in an Argentine prison have begun a hunger strike to press authorities to repair the cable TV system so they can watch the World Cup.
“Cable television is an indispensable right for everyone deprived of their liberty,” according to a statement from nine inmates at Puerto Madryn jail some 1,300 kilometers south of Buenos Aires. “It hasn’t been working for three days. And we have decided not to receive any food until the problem is resolved,” the prisoners wrote.
The nine inmates also filed a legal suit to assert their rights.
BUENOSAIRES:Inmates
LEAN TIME FOR SPORTSWEAR MAKERS
Although World Cup teams will be as boldly emblazoned with logos as ever, sportswear makers see little hope this year of repeating sales leaps that greeted past tournaments in nations like Germany and Brazil.
“There is no doubt that the World Cup in Russia does carry lower financial opportunities than the similar event four years ago in Brazil,” acknowledged Kaspar Rorsted, chief executive of Adidas — the German firm that has supplied footballs to the event since 1970. Like US competitor Nike, Adidas hopes above all to polish its brand image in 2018.
Russia suffers from a double handicap in the megabrands’ eyes: football is far from being the cultural juggernaut and the country suffers from an international image that is at best mixed.
FRANKFURT: