4th loss on the spin for S'pore U-22 team

ABU DHABI • Singapore's Under-22 national football team lost 0-2 to Thailand last night in their final game of the Dubai Cup, a round-robin invitational tournament.

It was the Republic's fourth straight defeat after they fell 0-2 to Jordan, 0-4 to hosts United Arab Emirates and 1-3 to Malaysia.

Rummenigge slams enlarged World Cup

ATHENS • The decision- making process that led Fifa to increase the number of teams at the World Cup to 48 starting with the 2026 tournament is unacceptable, European Club Association chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said yesterday.

The European Club Association, which represents 220 football clubs, opposes the Fifa decision which Rummenigge, the former German international who is also Bayern Munich's chief executive, has previously dismissed as "nonsense".

REUTERS

Kohli cuts ties with Australia cricketers

DHARAMSALA (India) • Indian skipper Virat Kohli said he no longer considered Australian cricketers as friends after his team won 2-1 in the acrimonious four-Test series between the world's top-two test teams yesterday.

Kohli, who remarked before the series that he was "really good friends" with some Australian players, said things had changed during the bitter contest which was marred by cheating allegations.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Rodriguez's obscene gesture lambasted

BOGOTA • Controversy engulfed Real Madrid star James Rodriguez in his native Colombia on Monday, after he was photographed making an obscene gesture to journalists covering a Colombian national team training session.

The gesture drew a fierce debate on social media, with Colombians alternately criticising and defending the star.

The picture spawned its own hashtag on Twitter: #NoJodanAJames ("Don't f*** with James").

REUTERS