Global Sport — Bundesliga top scorer Kirsten banned for nine weeks

Linke was taken off on a stretcher but was found to have suffered only severe bruising and a cut lip. Kirsten escaped punishment on the day as the referee did not see the incident.

Racehorse owner injured by burglars’ raid

LONDON: Leading racehorse owner Stan Clarke, whose New Zealand Bred Lord Gyllene coasted home in this year’s grand national, was handcuffed to his wife and injured during a terrifying raid on his luxury home by a gang of serial burglars.

Multi-millionaire Clarke, whose bad week started with the news that Lord Gyllene would not run this season, was attacked by a gang of masked men brandishing a baseball bat, screwdriver and a knife.

The gang burst into his home through an unlocked conservatory door and threatened Clarke with the knife before locking him to his wife Hilda. The raiders then searched the house and stole $750 in cash and jewellery before escaping.

Dutch fans combat with policemen

BOCHUM: A police spokesman said yesterday that fans went on the rampage in the town centre, breaking the windows of two bars before the scuffles broke out.

Some 100 fans were rounded up and taken away in three police buses, he added. “We have the situation under control and we expect a quiet evening,” the spokesman added.

No serious injuries were reported. Germany and their Dutch neighbours have a fierce rivalry in soccer, Dutch fans have a reputation for causing trouble in the past. Ajax lead 4-2 from the first leg.

Another World War II bomb found at club

VOLGOGRAD: An unexploded bomb thought to date back to World War II was dug up at Russian football club Rotor Volgograd.

The shell, weighing 50 kgms was found by workers excavating the rotor training ground yesterday. It was buried two metres deep closed to the team sleeping quarters.

Volgograd officials said they believed that the bomb was 55 years old, dating back to the battle of Stalingrad, as the city was then called, when Stalin’s soviet forces repelled the German army after a long seige.

Bomb disposal experts removed the shell from the site later yesterday and exploded it safely outside the south-east Russian city.

Ghanian club has edge in second leg

CAPE TOWN: Ghanian champions Obuasi Goldfields travel to Casablanca with a slender one-goal lead against local club Raja in Sunday’s second leg of the African Champions’ Cup final.

Goldfields hope to become the third team from the West African country to win Africa’s most prestigious club competition, but history is against them. In nine previous final appearances, only two clubs from Ghana have emerged victorious, while clubs from Morocco have won the cup on all three occasions that they made it to the final. North African teams have also triumphed in all but one of the last 14 finals. The fact that Goldfields prevented Raja from scoring counts in their favour and the visitors let the home side come at them.

In 20-year-old Togolese midfielder Kossi Noutsoudje, Goldfields have the top scorer of the Champions League in their midst and Noutsoudje is always good for a goal.pSwimming pool roof beams crash down

BANGKOK: Metal beams supporting the roof of a swimming pool for next year’s Asian Games have collapsed, injuring five people, but officials said today the accident would not delay Thailand’s troubled preparations for the event.

The accident was the latest misfortune yesterday for Thailand’s attempt to host Asia’s most prestigious sporting competition, coming a week before a crucial meeting in New Delhi to determine whether a different host country should be chosen.

Three workers were badly injured and two had minor injuries. A finance ministry official estimated damages at $116,000 to the $4.65 million facility.