Italian PM offers a radical idea

Rome: Italian professional soccer should be halted for two or three years to get over the match-fixing scandal which has spattered its image, Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Tuesday.

“It’s particularly sad when a world which should be an expression of the highest values — sport, youth, competition, fairness — turns out to be a mass of foul play, falsehood and demagoguery,” he said at a news conference with visiting Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

“This isn’t a government proposal, but I wonder if it wouldn’t be a good idea to suspend the game for two or three years.”

Meanwhile, Italy’s friendly against Luxembourg in Parma on Tuesday has been cancelled after the earthquake which struck the region near the northern city earlier in the day, Italy’s football federation said.

Ruled out

Stockholm: Denmark goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen will miss Euro 2012 because of a back injury sustained in a friendly against Brazil on Saturday, the Danish FA said in a statement on Tuesday. He will be replaced in the squad by Kasper Schmeichel, whose father Peter played a key role when Denmark won the European Championship in 1992.

Sueoka move

Calcutta: Japanese midfielder Ryuji Sueoka, who donned the Salgaocar jersey last season, was roped in by Dempo SC on Tuesday for the upcoming season.

Negi target

New Delhi: Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi, who won the Asian Continental title recently, has now set his sights on the 2700 Elo rating points. He, however, said, he needs to work on his consistency and keep the momentum going this year.

“The next couple of months will be very important for me. I am aiming to reach the 2700 Elo points. I’ve two tournaments in Holland and Spain in July and after that there is Olympiad at Turkey in August and I will look to win these,” Negi said, whose current rating point is 2660.

PGTI meet

Chandigarh: R Srinivas of Bangalore produced a sizzling five-under-67 to claim the first-round lead at the PGTI Players Championship being played at the Chandigarh Golf Club here, on Tuesday.

Local favourite Harendra Gupta and the Delhi duo of Shamim Khan and Naman Dawar were in joint second at four-under 68.

Clarke injured

London: British Open champion Darren Clarke has pulled out of next month’s US Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco because of a troublesome groin injury. “I am extremely disappointed that I will be unable to play in the US Open,” the 43-year-old Northern Irishman said in a statement released by his management team on Monday.

“But I have to make sure I am 100 percent ready for the British Open at Royal Lytham in July and to do that I’ve been advised not to play for a month.”