LONDON-- Suspended UEFA head Michel Platini said on Thursday he was the only person with the vision to lead soccer's world governing body FIFA out of a corruption scandal but there were opponents who "don't want to give football back to the players".
"I'm not in a penal colony or a Siberian Gulag," the European soccer authority chief said of a 90-day provisional suspension excluding him from campaigning for February elections to the FIFA presidency. "I'm waiting for events to unfold."
FIFA has been embroiled in a widening corruption scandal since 14 soccer officials and sports marketing executives were indicted by the United States in May.
Since then, Swiss authorities have opened their own investigation into FIFA's activities and FIFA's own Ethics Committee has suspended both President Sepp Blatter and Platini, who had been favourite to replace him. Platini denies wrongdoing and is fighting the suspension.
"People want to prevent me running because they know that I have every chance of winning," Platini, one of seven candidates in the race for the presidency, said in interview published by British newspaper the Daily Telegraph and the Swiss French-language Le Matin.
Platini portrayed himself as the man to bring world soccer back to its sporting roots.
"I get the impression they don't want a former player running FIFA, as if they don't want to give football back to the players. But I am the only one who has a vision right across football," he said, citing his record as player, France coach and UEFA president.
"I am, in all modesty, the best-placed person to run world football."
Platini and Blatter have been provisionally banned while FIFA investigates a payment of 2 million Swiss francs ($2.1 million) the Frenchman received from FIFA in 2011.
The Swiss attorney general's office has initiated criminal proceedings against Blatter over the payment in 2011 and says that Platini is "between a witness and an accused person".
The payment, which Platini said was for work done for FIFA between 1998 and 2002, was made shortly before a FIFA election which Blatter won in 2011 and raised questions as to why the Frenchman had waited nine years to be paid.
"People have recently been bringing up that my debt wasn't detailed in the FIFA accounts," Platini said. "It was put before two specialist committees on the subject and was quite obviously reviewed by the statutory auditor.
"So to be clear: was there work provided? Yes. Is an oral contract legal in Switzerland? Yes. Did I have the right to reclaim my money even nine years later? Yes. Did I produce a proper invoice as FIFA required? Yes. Was the money declared to the taxman? Yes."
He described his ban as disproportionate.
"This suspension prevents me from campaigning and fighting on an equal footing. Even if I cannot go out campaigning, I fully consider myself a candidate," he said.
Royals won 5-4 in 14 innings.
KANSAS CITY - The Fox Sports telecast of Game One of the World Series in Kansas City was knocked off the air due to a "rare electronics failure," the broadcaster said on Tuesday.
The roughly 20 minute outage happened when a broadcast truck lost power, Fox said, interrupting the first game in the best-of-seven series between American League champions Kansas City and National League pennant-winning New York Mets.
The glitch caused a seven-minute delay on the field as Major League Baseball officials waited for it to be fixed in order to deliver the telecast to replay officials in New York.
Play resumed after the teams agreed to continue without video replay, which allows plays to be reviewed, during the Fox outage.
Fox switched to the MLB Network's live international feed of the game, though that too went down before shortly coming back on air.
"Before the start of the bottom of the fourth inning ... a rare electronics failure caused both the primary and backup generators inside the Fox Sports production compound to lose power," Fox Sports said in a statement.
"The issue was immediately addressed, although it resulted in the audience missing one at-bat during the time needed to switch to (the) international feed, powered by a different generator on site."
Google Fiber apologized for a "service outage" in Kansas City just as the game was starting, but it was not immediately clear whether that problem was related to the Fox glitch.
"We're so sorry about the outage in KC. We know it couldn't have happened at a worse time, and we're working as quickly as we can to fix it," it said on Twitter.
Kansas City was the first city in the country to get Google Fiber high-speed Internet and television service in 2012. It has since expanded to several other cities.
A power outage at a major U.S. sporting event is nothing new. At the Super Bowl in New Orleans on Feb. 3 2013, the game was delayed for 34 minutes when an outage at the Superdome put much of the stadium in the dark.
The Baltimore Ravens held a commanding 28-6 lead but the San Francisco 49ers were able to regroup during the delay and made the game close before losing 34-31.
The power failure that disrupted the National Football League championship game was caused by a device installed specifically to prevent a blackout at the Superdome.
Disgruntled baseball fans took to social media to criticize Fox over the mishap on Tuesday.
"No idea what Fox paid for the World Series, but the local affiliate is encouraging people to go online to watch the 10:00 News," one user wrote.
KANSAS CITY -- The Kansas City Royals and New York Mets get set to battle in the 111th World Series starting on Tuesday in a best-of-seven clash with intriguing match-ups between teams aching to end long title droughts.
Showdowns abound with the Mets' young, fireballing starting pitchers going against a battling Royals team that have been the hardest to strike out in Major League Baseball.
Kansas City will pit their relentless hit and run, pressure offense against a Mets attack that features the hottest hitter on the planet in Daniel Murphy, who along with other slugging New Yorkers will test their power in spacious Kauffman Stadium.
What the two teams have in common is a fierce desire to end decades of frustration by hoisting the championship trophy, with oddsmakers making Kansas City a narrow favorite.
The Royals are in the World Series for a second consecutive season after last year ending a 29-year postseason drought only to fall painfully shy of beating the San Francisco Giants.
The last Mets' appearance in the Fall Classic came in 2000 when they lost in five games to the crosstown rival Yankees.
Kansas City last reached the MLB winner's circle in 1985, while the Mets have not won since 1986.
Those Royals, led on the field by Hall of Fame third baseman George Brett, were a perennial contender. Those 1980s Mets were a powerhouse built around young stars Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry.
Kansas City came agonizingly close last year, pushing the Giants to a Game Seven at home before going down to defeat against valiant emergency reliever Madison Bumgarner with the tying run on third in the bottom of the ninth.
"I think it was a driving force for all of these guys back in spring training, knowing that we wanted to get back to that situation and get that one more run," Royals leftfielder Alex Gordon said at a workout in advance of the Series.
The Mets' success starts with their young pitchers - Noah Syndergaard, who hits 100 miles per hour with his fastball, Matt Harvey, who throws in the high 90s, the moving 96 from Jacob deGrom and all the strikeouts they log.
They combine that sizzle with curves and change-ups that can buckle the knees of batters braced for high heat.
"We're going to strike people out," said Mets manager Terry Collins.
Power pitching has been combined with power at the plate by the Mets, who have soared this postseason with the home run surge by the astonishing Daniel Murphy.
Murphy, who hit a modest, career-high 14 homers this season, carries an MLB record of six home runs in six straight games into the World Series and is backed by power-hitting Yoenis Cespedes and Lucas Duda in the Mets' batting order.
The Royals' pitching edge comes from a deep bullpen anchored by closer Wade Davis and flamethrowing set-up man Kelvin Herrera, who routinely reaches 100 mph himself, that preserves late-inning leads like clockwork.
Then again, the Mets never trailed once during their four-game sweep of the Cubs in the NL Championship Series.
Kansas City relies on a different type of attack, standing second from last in the American League with 139 home runs, but second best in stolen bases with 107.
The Royals, including Lorenzo Cain and Alcides Escobar, AL Championship Series MVPs the last two years, make the most consistent contact in the majors.
The pennant-clinching run against Toronto demonstrated their resourcefulness as Cain raced from first base all the way home on a single by Eric Hosmer down the rightfield line.
"It was an unconventional way to score a run, but that was Royals baseball," said Kansas City manager Ned Yost. "We did it on speed and athleticism."
LONDON-- Chelsea's woes continued when the holders were dumped out of the Capital One (League) Cup fourth round following a shootout defeat by Stoke City on Tuesday, while Arsenal suffered a humiliating 3-0 defeat at second tier Sheffield Wednesday.
Boss Jose Mourinho will be under mounting pressure after Eden Hazard failed to convert the crucial penalty following another testing encounter for Chelsea, who only forced extra time thanks to a last-minute leveller from Loic Remy.
Penalties were also needed in the other two ties as second tier Hull City ousted Premier League Leicester City and Everton squeezed through against Norwich City.
There was to be no solace for a reasonably strong Chelsea side, whose miserable season dragged on as they could not find a winner against Stoke despite playing against 10 men for all of extra time.
It looked like it was going to be their night when Remy cancelled out Jon Walters's stunning strike from early in the second half and Stoke's Phil Bardsley was sent off for a second booking at the close of normal time.
Yet their killer instinct from last term deserted the Premier League champions again and after some superb penalties, Stoke goalkeeper Jack Butland pulled off a stunning save to palm away Hazard's effort for a 5-4 shootout win.
"Losing 1-0 feeling the situation against an experienced opponent... the team did everything. I tried to help too," Mourinho told reporters after suffering his eighth defeat in 16 games this season.
"We try, we try, we try. When we scored the goal it was no more than we deserved."
The shock of the night came at Hillsborough, a ground where Arsene Wenger has never tasted victory, as Arsenal lost to lower-league opposition by a three-goal margin for the first time since February 1959.
The Arsenal manager has also never won the sometimes maligned League Cup in his 19 years at the club and looked forlorn on the bench as Ross Wallace and Lucas Joao put the hosts two goals up before halftime.
When Sam Hutchinson netted just after the restart, there was no way back for the visitors, who failed to create a meaningful chance all game.
A miserable occasion for a strong-looking Arsenal, who have begun their Premier League campaign with such promise, was compounded by first-half injuries to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who went off after five minutes, and his replacement Theo Walcott, who exited 13 minutes later.
Wednesday, who beat Newcastle United in the previous round, took the lead with a goal of genuine quality after 27 minutes as a rapid passing move freed Daniel Pudil down the left and his cross was met by Wallace to curl beautifully into the bottom corner.
They doubled their advantage when Wallace turned provider, curling the ball into the area for Joao to head home after 40 minutes and six minutes after the break Hutchinson converted from close range as Arsenal went to sleep from a set piece.
"Congratulations to them, they were faster, sharper and more decisive than us," Wenger told Sky Sports.
"We could not create anything. We were very naive when defending."
Hull, relegated from the Premier League last season, relived the high life by beating Leicester on penalties.
The match had finished 0-0, but Riyad Mahrez put Leicester ahead in extra time, only for Hull's Abel Hernandez to level and force penalties, which Hull won 5-4.
Everton drew 1-1 with Norwich before sneaking through 4-3 in the shootout.
Sebastian Bassong had put Norwich ahead at Goodison Park early in the second half, before Leon Osman levelled.
After nobody found a winner in extra time, Norwich's Wes Hoolahan and Nathan Redmond missed in the shootout.
AUSTIN, Texas-- Lewis Hamilton's life has changed gear just as fast as the Mercedes he drives on the Formula One racetrack.
This time last year he had only one world championship to his name and now he has three, a career dream come true as he pulls level with his boyhood idol, the late Brazilian great Ayrton Senna.
The first Briton to take back-to-back titles, and only his country's second triple champion after Jackie Stewart in 1973, Hamilton is living life in the fast lane like never before and loving it.
"It's hard to get the balance of life right but I've got a mega balance now," says the 30-year-old. "It's awesome and it couldn't be better. I'm having the most fun outside (Formula One) and the most fun inside."
The United States, where Hamilton spends much of his downtime with friends from the music industry and Hollywood, was a fitting place for the first black world champion to clinch his triple crown.
The multi-racial boy from an underprivileged background is now a man who keeps up with the Kardashians, hangs out with Rihanna and attends fashion shows with other regulars of the celebrity gossip pages.
Happy to flaunt his millions and the trappings of success, he is also reaching out to new audiences.
Only he, when asked how the sport could create more enthusiasm in urban black America, could talk about karting with black kids and describe being overtaken as "like seeing myself come by".
The fierce and sometimes bitter rivalry with German team mate Nico Rosberg, who took last year's title battle right down to the final race, has been replaced by something close to dominance.
Formula One's commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone, Hamilton's 84-year-old compatriot who has known most of the sport's world champions since the 1950s, could not have asked for more.
"He does a fantastic job, a better job in my opinion outside the car than inside the car," said Ecclestone, who has criticised champions in the past for not selling the sport sufficiently to a wider public.
"What he does for us, for the sport, is incredible."
Hamilton, by his own admission, sticks out like a sore thumb in Formula One.
He may rub shoulders with the rich and powerful, Russian President Vladimir Putin handing him a winner's trophy only two weeks ago, but nothing in his background suggested he was destined for such fame and fortune.
The private jet, the garage full of luxury sportscars, the clunky gold chains and diamond ear studs are the visible rewards.
But Hamilton never forgets that he grew up in social housing, sleeping on his father's sofa on a Stevenage council estate.
With money tight, and his parents divorcing when he was two, father Anthony held down multiple jobs to fuel the passion for karting that his son first discovered on a low-cost family holiday to Spain.
When Hamilton came home from school, he would put on a video of Senna and dream.
"I wanted to be like him. I aspired to one day drive the way he drove, and achieve something similar to what he achieved," he recalled last month before equalling Senna's tally of 41 race wins.
"At the time, I felt that if I could get anywhere close to doing anything similar to him I would be super-proud of myself. That is what I set my sights on all those years ago."
The grandson of a Grenadian who emigrated from the West Indies to work on the London underground rail system, Hamilton owes everything to his talent -- even if Mercedes and McLaren spotted it early on and bankrolled his progress.
"Who would ever have thought it of us Hamiltons turning up at the track in the first year in karting, the only black family there?" Hamilton recalled last year when he became the most successful British driver in terms of race wins.
"It was almost like everyone thought 'what are they doing here?' It was so funny. We had the crappiest little box trailer. I feel very proud."
Hamilton could have taken the crown in his sensational 2007 debut season, losing out to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen by a single point after a stormy year at McLaren, but he did it the next year to become the youngest ever champion at 23.
Five seasons of frustration, albeit with plenty of wins, followed as compatriot Jenson Button triumphed for Brawn and then Sebastian Vettel took four titles in a row for Red Bull.
He was once seen as over-controlled by McLaren group boss Ron Dennis, but Hamilton's move to Mercedes allowed him to become his own man, even if not everyone is a fan of his fashion sense.
"Until this year, I cared what people thought and tried to live to people's own expectations rather than my own," he said in September after sporting a new dyed blond look.
"But I turned 30 over the winter and I have really got to a point in my life where I am comfortable in myself...I am more at ease within my job, within my skin and with how I drive and where I stand."
