WORLD OF SPORT
▷▷▷ Perez denies refusing to play at Everton game
West Ham United striker Lucas Perez has denied reports that he refused to warm up and come on as a substitute during his side’s 3-1 win over Everton in the Premier League on Sunday. The Spaniard was on the bench and looked like he was about to replace the injured Marko Arnautovic in the second half, but manager Manuel Pellegrini brought on Michail Antonio instead. Perez was then captured by cameras talking to goalkeeping coach Xavi Valero on the bench and some sections of the media reported that he had refused to play. “Given the false information spread by the media that has affected my image, I am obliged to explain the only truth: I have never ever refused to warm up in my whole career, let alone play a match,” Perez said on Twitter yesterday. “In the moment that Marko got injured, I was on the bench after warming up. The coach called me to go out to play, however having realised that it was faster to substitute Antonio in, who at that moment was warming up, he changed his decision.”
▷▷▷ IOC chief cool on adding esports into Olympics
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach is not certain if, or when, esports might be incorporated into the Olympics. But he has made it clear about the need to meet some conditions before being considered. “We cannot have in the Olympic programme a game which is promoting violence or discrimination,” he said. “So-called killer games. They, from our point of view, are contradictory to the Olympic values and cannot therefore be accepted.” Esports is being held for the first time at the Asiad as a demonstration sport, and could be a medal event in Hangzhou 2022.
▷▷▷ Entire football team poisoned by Basra water
A top football club from Baghdad has become the latest victim of a health crisis in the Iraqi city of Basra, which meant they could not play the first game of their new season. The Al Hussein team travelled 600 kilometres south to play Naft Al Junoob in the Iraqi Premier League, but 10 players were admitted to hospital after being poisoned by polluted water. The water crisis in Basra has put 60,000 people in hospital since mid-August, according to the provincial council for human rights. The visiting club had taken precautions ahead of yesterday’s fixture, manager Fadhel Zaghir told AFP – but to little avail. “We brought a lot of mineral water with us from Baghdad but it seems the water used by the players to wash themselves and their clothes were polluted,” he said.