CNN
 — 

Serena Williams has highlighted the perceived double standards surrounding men’s world No. 1 Jannik Sinner’s doping ban, saying in a new interview with Time magazine that she would have been suspended for 20 years for a similar offense.

Sinner is currently serving a three-month ban having twice tested positive for banned substance Clostebol, an anabolic steroid, in March last year.

The three-time grand slam champion previously escaped a ban when the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) ruled that he wasn’t at fault for the positive tests, accepting that the contamination was caused by a physio applying an over-the-counter spray to their own skin – not Sinner’s – to treat a small wound.

However, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) subsequently lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), leading to Sinner accepting a suspension from February 9 to May 4.

Williams, a 23-time grand slam singles champion who stepped away from tennis in 2022, described the Italian as a “fantastic personality” and “great for the sport,” while also acknowledging her surprise at how his case was handled.

“If I did that, I would have gotten (a ban of) 20 years,” she told Time in an interview published on Wednesday. “Let’s be honest. I would have gotten grand slams taken away from me.”

She added: “I’ve been put down so much, I don’t want to bring anyone down … Men’s tennis needs him.”

Sinner, who won the Australian Open at the start of the year, is due to return to the court ahead of next month’s Italian Open in Rome.

Williams is not alone in criticizing the length of Sinner’s ban. Men’s 24-time grand slam singles champion Novak Djokovic said that the whole case was “not a good image for our sport” and suggested that many players believe there “is favoritism happening.”

Meanwhile, British player Liam Broady told BBC Sport that it felt like the suspension was intended to “impact Jannik’s career as little as possible.”

An ITIA spokesperson previously told CNN Sports that it approaches each case in the same way, “irrespective of a player’s ranking or status.”

It added: “We understand that anti-doping is a complex and sometimes confusing topic, and commit significant time and resources into providing education and support to players to help them understand the rules and how they apply to them.”

In a February statement, Sinner said that he has “always accepted that I am responsible for my team and realize WADA’s strict rules are an important protection for the sport I love.”

Williams also said that the case made her think of her former rival Maria Sharapova, who was handed a 15-month suspension after testing positive for heart disease drug meldonium in 2016.

Initially banned for two years, Sharapova argued on appeal that it had been an administrative error and that the punishment was “unfairly harsh.” CAS concluded that it would be wrong to call the five-time grand slam winner an “intentional doper.”

“Just weirdly and oddly, I can’t help but think about Maria all this time,” Williams said. “I can’t help but feel for her.”

Since playing her last game of competitive tennis at the 2022 US Open, Williams has expanded her investment portfolio, and last month announced that she was joining the ownership group for the WNBA’s Toronto Tempo, an expansion franchise that will start playing in 2026.

On top of her involvement in the Tempo, the 43-year-old is also a minority owner of the National Women’s Soccer League’s Angel City FC and Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TGL, while also owning a part of the Miami Dolphins alongside sister Venus.

Speaking with Time about potentially returning to tennis, Williams said that she “just can’t peel herself away” from her two children, Olympia and Adira.

“Another reason I had to transition (away from tennis) was because I wanted to have more kids,” she said. “And I look at Adira and I’m like, ‘Was it worth it?’ I literally thought about it the other day. I was like, ‘Yeah, it was definitely worth it.’”

She added, however, that she misses tennis “a lot” and still feels healthy after not overplaying during her career.

Programming note: Watch the full interview with FIFA president Gianni Infantino on CNN’s “World Sport” airing on CNN International at 8:30 a.m. ET and again at 5:30 p.m. ET.

CNN
 — 

FIFA president Gianni Infantino told CNN Sports the governing body is keeping player health at the forefront as the soccer calendar expands with more intense summer competition during what is usually the sport’s off-season.

With the worldwide players union filing legal claims over the expanded Club World Cup this summer and next year’s World Cup, Infantino told CNN that FIFA is “always concerned” about the soccer calendar and highlighted the Arsène Wenger-led player welfare task force the governing body announced in October.

“(He) is one of the top, top coaches, managers of soccer in the world and he’s analyzing all of that when it comes to the FIFA Club World Cup,” Infantino said.

“It is a competition which takes place once every four years. The winner plays seven games – which is like one game and a half, almost, more a year – so it doesn’t have a big impact.

“What happens in world soccer is that there are many games for very few teams, very few players. Those who reach maybe the final stages of all competitions – which again is very rare because usually a team wins maybe one competition but doesn’t win them all – so, all in all, it balances itself out quite a bit.

“But we’re very careful about the calendar and about the health of the players. I mean, we want to do everything for the players to be in the best conditions to perform in the best way … and that’s what many players tell me as well, what you want is to play rather than to train, right?”

The first edition of the newly expanded and reorganized Club World Cup takes place this summer in the United States from June 14 to July 13 as something of a warm-up event for next year’s World Cup, hosted in the US, Canada and Mexico. The new tournament ensures a maximum of seven additional games every four years for the two clubs that make the final. It replaces the FIFA Confederations Cup as the tournament taking place in the World Cup host nation a year before the World Cup.

This year’s tournament will feature 32 teams compared to seven from previous editions, plus group and knockout stages.

In October, FIFPRO filed a complaint to the European Commission over what it describes as an “oversaturated international football calendar” that “risks player safety and wellbeing,” among other concerns.

That complaint came after June’s legal claim against FIFA’s decision to “unilaterally” set the sport’s calendar, which includes the expanded World Cup and Club World Cup. The October complaint also said FIFA faces a “conflict of interest as a competition organizer and governing body.”

The previous format – which hasn’t been removed from the calendar but renamed as the FIFA Intercontinental Cup – was a single-elimination, knockout tournament that took place over just 10 days compared to a month.

Of course, there has to be a shiny new trophy up for grabs for this new glitzy tournament – if the $1 billion dollar prize pot wasn’t enough motivation for the players.

Infantino describes the new trophy, which uses a key to open up from a flat plate into something that resembles a gold-plated gyroscope, as the “coolest trophy in all of sports.”

Infantino adds that the expanded version of the tournament will allow fans to see more of the world’s best players in one place, with Vinícius Jr., Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland, Rodri, Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane, among others, set to take part.

Plus, he says, it will help settle the debate between fans about which team can call itself the best.

“We created a new World Cup because soccer, the way it’s organized, on one side you have the countries and on the other side you have the teams, the clubs,” Infantino explains. “We have a World Cup for the countries, and we didn’t have a World Cup for the clubs.

“And we thought it’s actually quite good to know which team is the best in the world. When you win the Super Bowl, right, you are the world champion because you are the best in the world, but in soccer, this doesn’t exist.

“So we created a new Club World Cup, the World Cup for the 32 best teams in the world, from Europe, from South America, North America, Africa, Asia, everywhere in the world. And we will determine in 63 games, it’s 63 Super Bowls in one month … which of those teams is the best in the world.”

CNN
 — 

Former MLS and Gabon forward Aaron Boupendza has died aged 28 following a fall from the 11th floor of a building in China, local authorities confirmed.

The striker, who played for FC Cincinnati and Romanian club Rapid București, joined Chinese Super League side Zhejiang FC earlier this year.

The Hangzhou Public Security Bureau confirmed that officials responded to the player’s rental residence after receiving reports from the public of someone falling from a building at 1:14 p.m. local time on Wednesday.

“Our bureau quickly organized police forces to deal with the situation, and immediately sent the injured to the hospital for treatment. The injured was later declared dead in the hospital,” the bureau said in a statement posted on its official Weibo page, confirming Boupendza’s identity.

“After on-site investigation, visits and interviews of relevant parties by public security officers, and checking surveillance videos, it was found that he died after falling from the balcony of his rental residence, and a criminal case was ruled out,” the authorities confirmed.

Zhejiang FC said in a statement that it was “fully cooperating with the relevant departments to carry out the investigation.”

“All the staff of the club express their deepest condolences to his family,” the club added.

FEGAFOOT paid homage to the striker in a statement posted on X on Wednesday: “Aged 28, Boupendza will be remembered as a great striker, who left a lasting impression at the AFCON in Cameroon.

“FEGAFOOT and the entire Gabonese soccer community offer their sincere condolences to his family in this difficult time,” the statement concluded.

Interim Gabon president Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema said on X: “It is with great sadness that I learned of the tragic passing of Aaron Boupendza, a talented center forward who brought honor to Gabonese football. I offer my sincere condolences to his family and loved ones. May God bless his soul.”