Cuban Baseball Series 2015-2016

There was Blue slide at Guillermón Moncada Stadium on Thursday when Industriales beat Santiago de Cuba 4-1.

With his homer in yesterday's game, first baseman Alexander Malleta set a record of 222 home runs for Industriales team.

This is the third consecutive slide of Industriales over Santiago de Cuba.

Other slides included the one Matanzas produced over Camaguey when Jefferson Delgado hit a double with José Noroña on base to secure the victory. Veteran right hander Yosvani Pérez pitched an almost perfect game in five innings backed up by homers of William Luis and Denis Valdés.

Las Tunas won over Mayabeque first 7-6 and later 7-1 to complete the three-game slide with outstanding performance of outfielder Jorge Yhonson who hit a homer and drove in three runs.

Holguin defeated Artemisa 8-6 also by slide with homer of Yeison Pacheco in the 10th inning.

Outfielder Julio Pablo Martínez batted three hits out of five and drove in two runs in his Guantanamo team victory 4-2 over Cienfuegos to complete another slide of the day.

In other games, Villa Clara was defeated by Sancti Spíritus with a score of 3-1 but took revenge in a second game with a 7-1 win.

Granma and Pinar del Río finished their game in a draw because of the rain.

World Chess Championship

The first game of round three at the FIDE World Cup in Baku was one of many draws. The games were not overly exciting, basically because Black managed to equalize without much trouble and that was the case of Cuban Lenier Dominguez who equalized the match thanks to some precise moves against British Michael Adams.

The World Cup of chess, part of the next World Championship cycle, started with 128 players but went down to 32. There are two games under normal time control in each round except the final that has four games. After normal games, games of shorter time control are played to determine the winner.

Dominguez and Adams are tied and will go into speed tie-breaks of 25 minutes on Saturday morning to decide the winner to qualify among the final 16 who advance to the next round.

2017 World Baseball Classic qualifiers are set

World Baseball Classic, Inc. announced on Thursday the venues and pools for the qualifying round of the 2017 World Baseball Classic, the fourth installment of the baseball tournament featuring many of the world's greatest players. The winners of each qualifier will advance to compete in the 2017 World Baseball Classic.

Initial opening-round matchups (including home and visitor designations) as well as ticket information will be announced at a later date by the host venues. The pools for each qualifier are:

• Qualifier 1 (Feb. 11-14 in Sydney): Australia, New Zealand, Philippines and South Africa

• Qualifier 2 (March 17-20 in Mexicali): Mexico, Czech Republic, Germany and Nicaragua

• Qualifier 3 (March 17-20 in Panama City): Colombia, France, Panama and Spain

• Qualifier 4 (Sept. 22-25 in Brooklyn): Brazil, Great Britain, Israel and Pakistan

The qualifiers will feature a six-game, modified double-elimination format. The composition of the pools was determined after venues were selected, with consideration given to competitive balance, existing rivalries and each national team's geographic location.

The teams selected to participate in the Qualifiers will include the four World Baseball Classic teams from the 2013 tournament that finished in last place in their respective pool during the opening round -- Australia, Brazil, Mexico and Spain.

The winners from each qualifier will advance to the World Baseball Classic tournament, scheduled for March 2017. Those four teams will join the 12 countries -- Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Italy, Japan, Korea, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, United States and Venezuela -- that received automatic invitations based on their performance in the 2013 tournament.

The qualifiers were originally introduced prior to the 2013 World Baseball Classic, when qualifiers were held in Panama City; Regensburg, Germany; Jupiter, Fla; and Taipei, Taiwan during the fall of '12.

US to Host Copa America Despite Scandal

After months of doubt and speculation, the United States will be the host of Latin America’s most prestigious soccer tournament, the Centenary Copa America 2016, the director of the North, Central American and Caribbean Football Federation (Concacaf), Jurgen Mainka, said Thursday.

Skepticism over the U.S.’s suitability to host the competition, supposedly a showcase for the country’s emerging soccer scene, surfaced when local officials were arrested in May over corruption charges. 

IFA puts Secretary General Jerome Valcke on leave

World soccer body FIFA has placed Secretary General Jerome Valcke on leave just hours after an ex-footballer raised allegations Valcke may have been involved in an improper deal to resell 2014 World Cup tickets for a lucrative profit.

FIFA, which has been rocked by ongoing corruption investigations by Swiss and US authorities, said in a statement it was made aware of allegations involving Valcke and has requested a formal investigation by the FIFA ethics committee.

FIFA did not specify what allegations they were referring to in the statement, which said Valcke would be "released from his duties effective immediately until further notice."

Earlier on Thursday, former Israeli soccer player Benny Alon said at a press conference in Zurich that he agreed in 2013 to pay cash to Valcke to secure plum World Cup tickets. He said the plan was to then sell the tickets to fans at a markup and split the proceeds with Valcke.

Alon said the deal fell through and he never paid the soccer official any cash.

FIFA controls the rights to sell all the World Cup tickets and has sanctioned officials in the past for reselling the coveted World Cup spots at a higher price.