Messi might miss Cup qualifiers

Barcelona says that Lionel Messi has hurt his left hamstring and might not play in Argentina’s upcoming World Cup qualifiers.

Messi will travel to join the Argentina squad, but his “presence in his country’s World Cup qualifying matches will depend on how the injury develops,” Barcelona says.

Argentina hosts Uruguay on Thursday and plays at Venezuela next Tuesday. Barcelona reported the injury a day after Messi played in a 1-0 win at Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish league.

The Earthquakes fired longtime general manager John Doyle, replacing him with technical director Chris Leitch on an interim basis.

Head coach Dominic Kinnear and his staff remain in place, the team said.

San Jose is 7-8-11 and in seventh place in the Western Conference, three points back of Portland for the final playoff berth.

Frank McCourt, the former owner of the Dodgers, is buying French soccer club Marseille from Russian-born billionaire Margarita Louis-Dreyfus, heralding a new chapter for a team that has fallen into the shadow of rival Paris Saint-Germain.

McCourt, 63, sold the Dodgers for $2 billion in 2012 to Guggenheim Baseball Management.

Olympics: A Brazilian judge ordered the release of a highranking IOC member who was arrested during the Rio de Janeiro Games in a ticket-scalping probe.

Judge Fernando Antonio de Almeida accepted a request by Patrick Hickey’s lawyers to free him from prison, where he had been held since Aug. 19. Hickey, who is head of the Olympic Council of Ireland and the European Olympic Committees, must remain in Brazil and hand over his passport.

Police have said Hickey, 71, plotted to transfer tickets illegally to a vendor who was not authorized to sell them. They want prosecutors to start a judicial process against Hickey for alleged ticket scalping, conspiracy and ambush marketing.