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LIV Golf launches the sport’s first-ever transfer window

LIV Golf launches the sport’s first-ever transfer window
RangeGoats GC’s Talor Gooch is LIV Golf's individual champion for 2023. (LIV Golf)
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Updated 08 November 2023
Arab News
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LIV Golf launches the sport’s first-ever transfer window

LIV Golf launches the sport’s first-ever transfer window
  • Free agency, new team rosters announced ahead of 2024 season
  • RangeGoats GC’s Talor Gooch won the Individual title while Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC claimed the Team Championship
Updated 08 November 2023
Arab News
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LIV Golf has launched the sport’s first-ever transfer window with player movement, free agency and new team rosters in progress as momentum builds for its second full season teeing off in 2024.

The unique format of LIV Golf features two season-long leaderboards, with an individual and a team championship up for grabs.

In 2023, RangeGoats GC’s Talor Gooch won the Individual title while Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC claimed the Team Championship.

The individual standings are broken down into three categories, with final positions determining a player’s status in the league:

Lock Zone: Players finishing in the Top 24 secure an opportunity with the league next season.

Open Zone: Players finishing 25-44 whose contracts are expiring become free agents.

Drop Zone: Players finishing 45 and below are relegated out of the league and automatically qualify for LIV Golf Promotions for the chance to earn their spot back next season.

There are several phases to offseason player movement as teams prepare for next season:

Phase One: Top 24 contract extensions offered

Players who finished in the Top 24 Lock Zone of the Individual Standings at the conclusion of the regular season are guaranteed an opportunity to play in the 2024 LIV Golf League.

In Phase One, which is now underway, players in the Top 24 whose contracts expire at the end of 2023 are offered a minimum one-year contract extension by their existing team.

The five players who are extension eligible are Peter Uihlein (12th, 4Aces GC), Anirban Lahiri (13th, Crushers GC), Carlos Ortiz (15th, Fireballs GC), Richard Bland (20th, Cleeks GC) and Scott Vincent (22nd, Iron Heads GC).

If a player in this group decides not to accept the offer from his current team, he will become a free agent and may be signed by another team with an open roster spot.

Phase Two: Free agency

In addition to any Top 24 players who opt to become free agents, players who finished 25th to 44th (Open Zone) whose contracts also expire at the end of 2023 are free agents.

These players may be re-signed by their previous team or can negotiate a contract with another team that has an open roster spot. The players who finished in the Open Zone and are no longer under contract are Pat Perez (28th, 4Aces GC), David Puig (31st, Torque GC), Matt Jones (37th, Ripper GC), Bernd Wiesberger (41st, Cleeks GC), and Graeme McDowell (42nd, Cleeks GC).

Teams are not obligated to re-sign their free agents from the Open Zone and can instead create an open roster spot for players from other teams.

Free agency will conclude when four league roster spots remain. These spots are reserved for the winner of The International Series Rankings and the top three finishers from LIV Golf Promotions.

Phase Three: LIV Golf Promotions

LIV Golf Promotions presents an exciting pathway for the world’s leading amateur and professional golfers to play in the LIV Golf League in 2024.

The inaugural tournament will be staged Dec. 8-10 at the iconic Abu Dhabi Golf Club in the United Arab Emirates, with four rounds of golf played over three days, including 36 holes played on the final day. LIV Golf Promotions will offer overall prize money of $1.5 million, and the top three finishers will earn a place on one of LIV Golf’s teams next season and access to all 14 LIV Golf League events in 2024.

Leading players from all over the world will be eligible to take part. In addition, relegated players finishing 45th and below in the 2023 LIV Golf League standings (the Drop Zone), and those without a team contract for 2024 who finished in the Open Zone, also have the opportunity to regain their playing rights for 2024. The deadline for players to register is Nov. 20.

Trades and Draft

Throughout the offseason, teams may swap players from their rosters, providing the trade is approved by both teams. To support opportunities for teams to strengthen their rosters once the season has begun, a mid-season trading window will take place in 2024 (exact dates to be announced) where teams and players will be free to negotiate trades as well as extensions to their existing contracts if a player is in the last year of their contract.

Following LIV Golf Promotions, the league will host the LIV Golf Draft through which the winner of The International Series Rankings and the top three finishers in LIV Golf Promotions will be drafted onto the remaining teams that have open spots on their rosters. Additional details on timing and format will be released in due course.

Topics: LIV Golf Talor Gooch Bryson Dechambeau

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Arsenal get under Man City’s skin amid ‘dark arts’ accusations in English soccer’s new big rivalry

Arsenal get under Man City’s skin amid ‘dark arts’ accusations in English soccer’s new big rivalry
Updated 23 September 2024
AP
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Arsenal get under Man City’s skin amid ‘dark arts’ accusations in English soccer’s new big rivalry

Arsenal get under Man City’s skin amid ‘dark arts’ accusations in English soccer’s new big rivalry
Updated 23 September 2024
AP

LONDON: Call it the dark arts. Call it anti-football. Call it doing whatever it takes to win.

Arsenal tried it all against Manchester City on Sunday in the latest chapter of the Premier League’s new heavyweight rivalry — and came within seconds of victory.

“There was only one team that came to play football,” Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva grumbled after an intense, absorbing and incident-packed 2-2 draw at Etihad Stadium. “The other came to play to the limits of what was possible to do and allowed by the referee, unfortunately.”

John Stones’ equalizer for City in the eighth minute of second-half stoppage time denied Arsenal, who played with 10 men for the entire second half, what would have been a defining victory for a team that is getting closer and closer to Pep Guardiola’s repeat champions.

City’s players know it, too.

Hence Bernardo’s outspoken post-match comments on Arsenal. Notice how Erling Haaland chucked the ball at the back of Arsenal defender Gabriel’s head in City’s wild celebrations after Stones’ late intervention. Look, too, at Pep Guardiola kicking his seat in the dugout after feeling a sense of injustice at the manner of Arsenal’s equalizer by Ricardo Calafiori.

Arsenal has gotten under City’s skin.

Roll on the return match at Emirates Stadium in early February.

“As a football match, it is a great spectacle for the Premier League,” City captain Kyle Walker said of the new rivalry with Arsenal, who have been runners-up in the last two seasons. “Probably not so much certain stuff — I think it’s part and parcel of the game and we’ll say the dark arts.”

Stones spoke of Arsenal’s attempts to slow the game down by what he perceived as feigning injuries to allow manager Mikel Arteta to “get some information on to the pitch.”

“I wouldn’t say they have mastered it but they have done it for a few years now so we knew to expect that,” Stones said. “You can call it clever or dirty, whichever way you want to put it, but they break up the game which upsets the rhythm.”

To that extent, Arteta looks to have taken a page out of former Chelsea and Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho’s playbook. Mourinho was, of course, once a huge rival of Guardiola’s and took cynical play to the extremes at times.

Arteta’s Arsenal can play beautiful football, as well. But with captain Martin Odegaard out injured and Leandro Trossard sent off against City in first-half stoppage time, the

Gunners knew when it was time to change the approach to the other extreme.

“It’s unbelievable what we have done,” said Arteta, who knows City and Guardiola inside out having once been his fellow Spaniard’s assistant at the Etihad.

For Silva, matches against Liverpool — which was City’s big rival before Arsenal — were more enjoyable to play in.

“Liverpool always faced us face-to-face to try to win the games,” the Portugal playmaker said, “so by this perspective, the games against Arsenal haven’t been like the ones we had and have against Liverpool. So yes, maybe a different rivalry.”

Silva was one of many City players to get riled in what was an incendiary encounter pretty much from the start. At one stage, he curled his finger into a “0” as he faced up to Gabriel – seemingly in reference to Arsenal not winning any Premier League titles, at least since Silva joined City in 2017. Arsenal’s last league championship was in 2004.

Pressed on the difference between playing Liverpool and Arsenal, Silva said: “Maybe that Liverpool have already won a Premier League, Arsenal haven’t. That Liverpool have won a Champions League, Arsenal haven’t.”

Will this be the season that Arsenal end their wait for the league title?

After five games, Arsenal sit in fourth place and two points behind City, the leaders, having just emerged from visits to Tottenham and City — two of their toughest away games — in the space of a week with four points, either side of a 0-0 at Atalanta in the Champions League.

The stage could be set for another City vs. Arsenal title race.

Topics: english Premier League Arsenal Man City

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Dubois changes perceptions and muscles onto the top table of heavyweights, wants Usyk next

Dubois changes perceptions and muscles onto the top table of heavyweights, wants Usyk next
Updated 23 September 2024
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Dubois changes perceptions and muscles onto the top table of heavyweights, wants Usyk next

Dubois changes perceptions and muscles onto the top table of heavyweights, wants Usyk next
Updated 23 September 2024
LONDON: Tyson Fury looked as stunned as everyone else inside Wembley Stadium after witnessing Daniel Dubois dismantle Anthony Joshua in the latest shake-up of boxing’s heavyweight division.
Except Fury had other things on his mind.
“Listen, that’s cost me 150 million,” Fury, scratching his head, shouted to a friend at ringside on Saturday night.
Maybe Fury vs. Joshua — the long-awaited heavyweight fight that boxing officials had reportedly been planning — might never happen.
Instead, it’s Dubois, another British fighter, who has muscled his way onto the sport’s top table.
Given his age, he could be there to stay.
The 27-year-old Dubois might have the boxing world at his feet after a brutal fifth-round knockout of Joshua that not only legitimized his status as the IBF titleholder but made plenty sit up and take notice.
That included Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, currently the two major powers among the heavyweights who are preparing for a rematch in the Kingdom in December and were seen joking around at ringside on Saturday. Usyk won their first fight in May to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion since 2000, but vacated his IBF belt in June.
The wider plan was for Joshua to take on Fury — reportedly there was an agreement on a double-header for the sum Fury was talking about — or to fight Usyk for a third time, having already lost twice to the Ukrainian.
Now Joshua, outclassed by Dubois, looks to be out of the picture. Dubois is the main in waiting.
As for a potential Fury-Dubois fight, Frank Warren — the British promoter who represents both boxers — said that would put him in a “very, very awkward position.”
“It’s not something I would push for,” Warren said. “If there’s an offer made that makes a lot of sense, then that’s up to them.”
More likely, then, is a rematch between Dubois and Usyk, especially if Usyk beats Fury. That would put all belts on the table for another fight for the title of undisputed.
Usyk stopped Dubois in the ninth round when they fought in Poland in August last year, but only after controversially getting time to recover from what was adjudged a low blow by Dubois in the fifth round.
It sent Usyk to the canvas, where he sat against the ropes. Replays showed the punch hitting around Usyk’s belt and Dubois still maintains he was robbed.
“I want to get my rematch,” Dubois said of Usyk, “and put the wrong right.”
There’s video of Usyk and Dubois talking in the ring after their fight in Wroclaw, with Usyk telling his beaten challenger: “Daniel, you young. You can. You can dream.”
Still, Usyk said after the Dubois-Joshua fight that he thought Joshua would win on Saturday.
“For me, it’s a surprise,” said the Ukrainian.
Uysk said he was only thinking about “Tyson Fury and the fight and of my family and preparation” when asked if he wanted to take on Dubois again.
Fury, it seems, has money on his mind, too.
If he loses to Usyk, Fury could still fight Joshua in what would be billed as a grudge match, but it wouldn’t be so appealing and there would be no belts on the line for two fighters now in their mid-to-late 30s.
Joshua’s reputation has been seriously damaged by the way he was beaten up by Dubois, though the guy who has been a walking marketing phenomenon for the past 10 years wants to fight on.
“It’s far from over yet,” Joshua said in a video released on social media platform X. “We’ve done it once, done it twice. Doing it a third time hasn’t been easy but I believe it’s something I can achieve.”
Emulating the likes of Muhammad Ali and Lennox Lewis and becoming a three-time heavyweight champion might be beyond Joshua, though.
Instead, the baton undoubtedly has been passed to Dubois.

UAE’s Al-Qemzi cruises into record books with 5th powerboating world title

UAE’s Al-Qemzi cruises into record books with 5th powerboating world title
Updated 23 September 2024
Arab News
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UAE’s Al-Qemzi cruises into record books with 5th powerboating world title

UAE’s Al-Qemzi cruises into record books with 5th powerboating world title
  • Team Abu Dhabi star rounded off another triumphant season with victory in Portugal
Updated 23 September 2024
Arab News

VILA VELHA DE RODAO:Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashed Al-Qemzi has become the most successful driver in the history of the UIM F2 World Championship after clinching the driver’s title for a fifth time with a commanding victory in Portugal.

The Emirati rounded off his record-breaking season with an emphatic third Grand Prix triumph of the 2024 campaign in a repeat of his race win on the Tagus River circuit at Vila Velha de Rodao last year.

It took him into the record books ahead of Sweden’s four-time F2 champion Erik Stark, confirming an 18th world title for Team Abu Dhabi since Guido Cappellini arrived as team manager nine years ago.

After qualifying in second place for the sixth and final round of the championship, Al-Qemzi held a six-point lead over Lithuania’s Edgaras Riabko and knew a second-place finish would be enough to see him retain the F2 crown.

If there was any doubt over the final outcome in the title race, it was quickly dispelled as Al-Qemzi made a superb start, accelerating away past Monaco’s pole position winner Giacomo Sacchi to take an immediate lead.

It was a lead he did not seem to surrender at any stage as he underlined his status as one of the world’s top powerboat racing talents, winning by more than three seconds from Sacchi, with Riabko taking third spot to finish championship runner-up.

Despite making an early exit with mechanical problems, Team Abu Dhabi’s Mansoor Al-Mansoori secured third place overall in the championship to follow up his Grand Prix victory in Portugal a week earlier.

“I’m very happy to be world champion again, and I want to thank my team for the great support they’ve given to myself and to Mansoor this season,” said Al-Qemzi.

“Compared with my other four titles, this one was very difficult. There was some tough competition, and I missed some podiums. But we worked hard to get the points we needed.”

Al-Qemzi first came to notice by winning the Nations Cup and F4-S world titles before tackling the F2 World Championship for the first time in 2016, finishing ninth overall.

He secured his first F2 world title the following year, and the others followed in 2019, 2021, and last year when he wrapped up the championship in Portugal with one round to spare.

Topics: UAE AlQemzi

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All-Australian Ripper squad captures LIV Golf team crown

All-Australian Ripper squad captures LIV Golf team crown
Updated 23 September 2024
AFP
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All-Australian Ripper squad captures LIV Golf team crown

All-Australian Ripper squad captures LIV Golf team crown
  • The Aussies denied 4Aces a second team title in three seasons and doomed a worst-to-first bid for Iron Heads, who finished last in the LIV season team standings
  • Smith birdied the par-5 17th to give the Aussies a two-stroke lead and when Johnson found the water off the 18th tee, the outcome was all-but settled
  • LIV has announced four events to start the 2025 season, including Riyadh and Adelaide in February plus Hong Kong and Singapore in March
Updated 23 September 2024
AFP

WASHINGTON: Cam Smith’s Ripper won the LIV Golf Team Championship on Sunday, the all-Australian squad defeating Dustin Johnson’s all-American 4Aces and Iron Heads by three strokes.

Smith, the 2022 British Open champion, birdied three of the last six holes to fire a four-under par 68 at Maridoe Golf Club in suburban Dallas.

That gave Ripper a team total of 11-under par 277 with 4Aces and Kevin Na’s Iron Heads sharing second on 280 and Legion XIII, playing without captain Jon Rahm, fourth on 282.

The Aussies denied 4Aces a second team title in three seasons and doomed a worst-to-first bid for Iron Heads, who finished last in the LIV season team standings.

Justin Herbert birdied four of his last five holes to shoot 69 for Ripper with Marc Leishman and Matt Jones both on 70.

“It’s so good ... not only great golfers but they’re better people and I think that’s what being a Ripper is all about,” Smith said shortly after his teammates doused him in champagne on the 18th green. “To have those guys out there today to lean on, there was something telling me that we were going to be all right.”

The stroke-play final saw the scores of all four players counting to the team total after a shotgun start.

Ripper, 4Aces and Iron Heads were tied for the lead at 8-under as the captains final group, which began at the first hole, reached the 16th tee.

Jones birdied the par-5 second to lift Ripper one ahead at 9-under while Na made bogey at 16 and Scott Vincent closed with a birdie at the third to keep the Iron Heads one adrift.

Harold Varner III closed with a long birdie putt at the first to lift 4Aces level with Ripper but Herbert answered on the same hole moments later with an eight-foot birdie to put Ripper back on top at 10-under.

Smith birdied the par-5 17th to give the Aussies a two-stroke lead and when Johnson found the water off the 18th tee, the outcome was all-but settled, Smith finishing off the triumph with a par minutes later.

Johnson, the 2016 US Open and 2020 Masters champion, closed with a bogey to shoot 69. The 40-year-old Johnson, who won a LIV individual title at Las Vegas in February, shared his team’s low score with birdie-free Patrick Reed, the 2018 Masters winner.

Iron Heads, the 13th and last seeds, ousted defending champion Crushers in a Saturday semifinal. They were led by Na and Japan’s Jinichiro Kozuma on 69.

Legion XIII, usually led by season individual LIV champion Rahm, was without the two-time major winner from Spain after he withdrew Saturday with flu symptoms.

Saudi-backed LIV’s third campaign closes with merger negotiations ongoing between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF).

LIV has announced four events to start the 2025 season, including Riyadh and Adelaide in February plus Hong Kong and Singapore in March.

Topics: LIV golf Australia

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Gabbia ends AC Milan’s derby pain with late winner against Inter

Gabbia ends AC Milan’s derby pain with late winner against Inter
Updated 23 September 2024
AFP
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Gabbia ends AC Milan’s derby pain with late winner against Inter

Gabbia ends AC Milan’s derby pain with late winner against Inter
  • Milan’s win snapped Inter’s run of consecutive derby victories at six and stopped their rivals from taking top spot in Serie A on goal difference ahead of surprise early league leaders Torino
  • Goals from Artem Dovbyk, Paulo Dybala and Tommaso Baldanzi gave Roma their first win of the season against Udinese
Updated 23 September 2024
AFP

MILAN: Matteo Gabbia fired AC Milan to a stunning late derby win over Inter Milan on Sunday with a bullet header which earned his team a 2-1 win and local bragging rights, while Roma thumped Udinese 3-0 as fans protested the shock sacking of Daniele De Rossi.

Defender Gabbia rose highest to thump home Tijjani Reijnders’ free-kick in the 89th minute and give Milan a Serie A win which pulls them out of a miserable early season slump.

Paulo Fonseca’s side join Inter on eight points in seventh place thanks to Gabbia’s late winner, which came after Federico Dimarco had levelled Christian Pulisic’s brilliant 10th-minute individual effort just before the half-hour mark.

“They played with a lot of courage today and I think we deserved to win, I can’t remember another team that have created so many problems for Inter like we did today,” said Fonseca to DAZN.

Milan’s win snapped Inter’s run of consecutive derby victories at six and stopped their rivals from taking top spot in Serie A on goal difference ahead of surprise early league leaders Torino.

They will have renewed belief after a difficult start to the campaign, with the pressure relieved on new coach Fonseca whose team were worthy winners.

“They were the better team tonight, we didn’t play as a team and that’s not something you can usually say about us,” said Inzaghi.

Milan were booed off the field after being thumped by Liverpool on Tuesday but fans were fully back on their side after a strong display as the nominal away side at a pulsating San Siro.

They deserved to win after creating the best chances to win the match in the second half and were nearly denied the three points by a fine performance from Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer.

The Swiss pulled off a sensational save to stop Rafael Leao heading Milan ahead seconds after the restart before diving low to keep out Reijnders 20 minutes later.

Leao again cursed his luck in the 75th minute when at the end of a rapid counter-attack Sommer kept out his close range finish, and seconds later Tammy Abraham flashed a great chance just wide.

But Gabbia sparked a wild party among the Milan fans who could finally celebrate ending their derby hoodoo in the most dramatic fashion.

“It was pretty difficult when things weren’t going well, but this win will really help push us forward,” said Milan youth product Gabbia to DAZN.

“There are always tough moments in life, all we can do is not have regrets at the final whistle and that’s what happened today.”

Goals from Artem Dovbyk, Paulo Dybala and Tommaso Baldanzi gave Roma their first win of the season against Udinese who had been surprise leaders before this weekend but drop down to third, a point behind Torino.

But the match was a sideshow due to the vociferous protests at De Rossi’s dismissal on Wednesday which will continue unless new coach Ivan Juric can ensure continue with the sort of display which moved Roma up to 10th on six points.

“The boys were very sad about Daniele being fired, they were very honest about it and I appreciated that,” said Juric after the match.

Supporters hurled abuse at the team from the stands while the entire Curva Sud section of the Olimpico, where the hardcore supporters stand, was empty for the first half an hour of the match.

By the time those fans started pouring into the stadium Roma were ahead thanks to Dovbyk’s goal, but that didn’t stop loud chants of De Rossi’s name ringing around the stadium.

The anger at De Rossi being fired has been such that CEO Lina Souloukou, who resigned on Saturday morning, had been placed under police protection after online threats made against her and family.

Earlier, Albert Gudmundsson netted a brace of penalties on his Fiorentina debut to fire his new team to their first win of the campaign, 2-1 against Lazio.

Topics: Serie A AC Milan Inter Milan Matteo Gabbia

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