Sports in brief

Times wires
Saturday, May 28, 2011

Soccer

Challenger pulls out of election for FIFA president

LONDON — Mohamed bin Hammam withdrew from FIFA's presidential election a few hours before facing an ethics hearing over alleged corruption during the campaign.

The Qatari challenger to 13-year incumbent Sepp Blatter has been accused of arranging bribes for up to 25 presidential voters on a campaign visit to the Caribbean earlier this month.

Bin Hammam, Blatter and FIFA vice president Jack Warner are due to face a FIFA ethics hearing today over the bribery allegations with the election scheduled for Wednesday.

Bin Hammam decided to try to become the first Asian president in FIFA's 106-year history after playing an important role in Qatar successfully winning the vote in December to host the 2022 World Cup.

"Recent events have left me hurt and disappointed — on a professional and personal level," Bin Hammam wrote on his website. "It saddens me that standing up for the causes that I believed in has come at a great price — the degradation of FIFA's reputation. This is not what I had in mind for FIFA, and this is unacceptable.

"I cannot allow the game that I loved to be dragged more and more in the mud because of competition between two individuals. The game itself and the people who love it around the world must come first."

More soccer: Arsenal received approval from the Premier League for American Stan Kroenke to take control of the club. Kroenke also owns the NFL's Rams, NBA's Nuggets, NHL's Avalanche and Major League Soccer's Rapids. He gained a controlling stake in the English club by buying shares from fellow directors and launched a mandatory takeover bid that values the club at $1.2 billion.

Cycling

Spaniard nears Giro d'Italia title

Alberto Contador , the two-time defending Tour de France champ, closed in on his second Giro d'Italia title during the next-to-last stage in Sestriere, Italy. He finished eighth to maintain his lead of 5:18 over second-place Michele Scarponi and 6:14 over Vincenzo Nibali in cycling's biggest race behind the Tour de France. It will take a mishap for the Spaniard or a massive effort by the Italians in today's 19.5-mile individual time trial to prevent Contador from winning.

Et cetera

Track: Caster Semenya, the 2009 800-meter world champion, won the event at the IAAF World Challenge Dakar Grand Prix in Senegal. It was her fifth win in five races this year but the first race outside of her native South Africa since a gender controversy and back injury sidelined her last year. Semenya, 20, finished in 2 minutes, 0.61 seconds. It was her best time this year but far off the 1:55.45 at the 2009 world meet.

Horses: Hibaayeb beat Giants Play by a length in the $150,000 Sheepshead Bay Stakes for fillies and mares at Belmont Park in New York. The 4-year-old, the 7-5 favorite, earned her fourth win in 14 starts by running 13/8 miles in 2:15.92.

Times wires

Source: http://www.tampabay.com/sports/sports-in-brief/1172496

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