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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Adu will remain with D.C. United

The Spokesman-Review

Major League Soccer insists Freddy Adu will play for D.C. United for the “foreseeable future,” denying a British newspaper report of a deal that would send the 16-year-old prodigy this year to Premier League power Chelsea.

The Times of London reported that Chelsea is in advanced stages of negotiations with MLS, which holds Adu’s rights, for a transfer fee of about $8.7 million.

“We haven’t had any discussions with any club about a transfer for Freddy,” MLS deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis said Tuesday.

Adu has often said Chelsea is his favorite team and his dream is to play in Europe. But international rules make it extremely difficult for a player to transfer overseas until he is 18.

Olympics

Rogge speaks out

IOC president Jacques Rogge urged governments to speed up approval of global anti-doping rules before the Turin Games open on Friday.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the IOC’s annual session, Rogge expressed concern at the “very slow rate” of acceptance of the World Anti-Doping Code.

“We express the hope that the governments who have promised to adopt the code by the first day of the Olympic Games will accelerate their efforts,” Rogge said.

Two members of the Italian ski jumping team are out of the Turin Olympics after falling during training.

Marco Beltrame and Stefano Chiapolino were injured in separate falls while attempting landings at Predazzo in Val di Fiemme, Italy.

Baseball

Stottlemyre takes job

Mel Stottlemyre will be a spring training instructor for the New York Yankees after spending 10 seasons as their pitching coach.

Stottlemyre quit after last season, saying he was tired of second-guessing by owner George Steinbrenner and the team’s office in Tampa, Fla. The Yankees replaced him with former New York star Ron Guidry.

The District of Columbia Council rejected a lease for the Washington Nationals’ new ballpark, leaving the Washington government and Major League Baseball headed to arbitration.

Miscellany

Byrd will face Klitschko

Chris Byrd will defend his IBF heavyweight title in Germany against Wladimir Klitschko on April 22.

UCLA promoted Jim Svoboda to offensive coordinator and hired Jim Colletto as assistant head football coach.

Flight crew errors probably caused a 2004 Hendrick Motorsports plane crash that killed 10 people with ties to one of NASCAR’s top racing families, the National Transportation Safety Board said.

Quarantines on two barns at Pimlico Race Course have been lifted after sensitive tests did not find any traces of the equine herpes virus that killed three horses at the home of the Preakness Stakes.

Victor Conte, the convicted ringleader in the BALCO doping scandal, settled a defamation lawsuit brought by track star Marion Jones over allegations that she used banned performance-enhancing drugs, a lawyer in the case said. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.