Local sports calendar
SOFTBALL Elite Collegiate Skills Saugerties Prospect Camp: For female softball players grades 7-12 9 a.m.-4 p.m. July 13 at the Cantine Memorial Sports Complex. Limited to the first 120 campers. Camps include a complimentary college process seminar run by college coaches for players and parents where recruiting questions will be answered. Cost: $225 (Early bird rate $195 by May 1). For more information, contact Camp Coordinator Rick Spriggs at spriggsrick@yahoo.com or (845) 399-8162. Tournaments Joe Lawson MemorialTournament: July 21 at Block Park and Kingston Point Fields. Sponsored by the Joseph S. Lawson Scholarship Fund Committee and the Kingston Parks & Recreation Department. USSSA rules, Bracket format. 3 games guaranteed. 1st place prize: $500. Awards to first & second place sponsors, MVP, Sportsmanship and Defensive stars. Entry fee: $250. Entry deadline: July 14. For more information, call Hobie Armstrong at (845) 331-2688 or email hgarmstrong@aol.com —— SWIMMING Red Cross Swim Lessons: At the Zena Rec Club, 714 Zena Highwoods Road. Open to public. $125 for 2 weeks Monday through Friday. (discount for Zena Rec members). Choice of two sessions available: July 9-20, July 23-Aug 3. Classes run from 10:15-10:45 and 11-11:30 depending on skill level. For more information, call (845) 679-8098, visit www. zenarec.com or email swimlessons@zenarec.com
European, South American refs picked for World Cup QFs
FIFA has picked European and South American referees to handle the World Cup quarterfinals that feature only teams from their regions.
The Uruguay vs. France game will be refereed by Nestor Pitana of Argentina on Friday in Nizhny Novgorod. It will be his fourth assignment, including the opening game.
Also Friday, the Brazil vs. Belgium game in Kazan will be handled by Milorad Mazic of Serbia. He handled the Champions League final in May.
FIFA says Brazilian referee Sandro Ricci will work Russia vs. Croatia on Saturday in Sochi. He handled Croatia’s first groupstage game against Nigeria.
The Sweden vs. England quarterfinal in Samara on Saturday will be the fourth game refereed by Bjorn Kuipers of the Netherlands.
World Cup ratings down 42% without US team
The lack of a U.S. team caused a big viewership drop for World Cup telecasts.
The 48 group stage telecasts on Fox and FS1 averaged 2,069,000 viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. That is down 42 percent from the 3.54 million average on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC four years ago and down 15 percent from the 2,429,000 average on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC eight years ago.
Excluding games involving the U.S. team in previous World Cups, the average declined 28 percent from the 2014 tournament in Brazil and was up 1 percent from the 2010 tournament in South Africa.
Twenty-six group-stage matches were aired on Fox, up from six on ABC in 2014 and four on ABC in 2010.
Ratings include only television viewers and not those who viewed digital streams.
Real Madrid denies offer to sign Mbappe from PSG
Real Madrid has denied reaching an agreement to sign France forward Kylian Mbappe from Paris Saint-Germain.
he Spanish club released a statement Wednesday calling reports of an agreement between Madrid and PSG “completely false.”
Madrid says it “has not made any offer to PSG or the player and condemns the spreading of this type of information that has not been proven by the parties concerned.”
The denial comes two days after Madrid dismissed a report that it had offered to buy Neymar from PSG for a world record transfer of 310 million euros ($360 million).
It said the report by Spanish public broadcaster TVE was “absolutely untrue.”
PSG is under pressure from UEFA to raise cash from selling players.