'Jail', $29m fine for Ronaldo

MADRID • Real Madrid and Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo has reached a deal with the Spanish tax authorities to serve two years in prison and pay an €18.8 million (S$29.4 million) fine in a tax evasion case, newspaper El Mundo said.

But he is unlikely to serve any time in jail under the deal because Spanish law states that a sentence of under two years for a first offence can be served on probation. The 33-year-old, who is accused of evading €14.7 million in taxes, denied all the allegations through his agents.

REUTERS

Stamp of approval for Polish star

WARSAW • Poland's Robert Lewandowski was honoured on Thursday with his own postage stamp, as the national post office kicked off the World Cup with one bearing the Bayern Munich star's portrait.

Poland Post said that the 29-year-old "has for years been one of the best strikers in the world and is the idol of young players and fans" as it rolled out five million copies of the stamp. It features his face, name and the RL9 acronym of his initials and team number. Each stamp is valued at six Polish zloty (S$2.20).

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Scaling heights at Ekaterinburg

MOSCOW • People seated in the Ekaterinburg Arena's now-infamous temporary stands behind each goal will certainly need to be fit.

Fans will have to scale 250 metal steps to reach the dizzying top rows and, once they get there, they will also need a head for heights.

The two stands, which are each the equivalent height of a 14-storey building, were constructed specially for the World Cup to increase the stadium's capacity to 35,000.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE