Soccer digest

England

Owen signs with Stoke

Former England striker Michael Owen has joined Stoke City on a free transfer, subject to Premier League Board approval, the club announced on Tuesday.

Owen, who made his name at Liverpool before joining Real Madrid, has signed a one-year deal following his release from Stoke's Premier League rival Manchester United at the end of last season.

He has enjoyed an impressive career, scoring 221 goals in 473 appearances. But the 32-year-old's career has been blighted by a series of injury problems and he has started just one Premier League match in the past two seasons.

And it is that fitness record which has led to reports, still to be confirmed by Stoke, that he has signed on a pay-as-you play deal.

Although he was also linked with Liverpool and Sunderland, Owen insisted on Tuesday he was "always keen to join" Tony Pulis' side. After signing a one-year contract, he posted on Twitter: "Delighted to have signed for Stoke subject to Premier League approval."

Spain

Alonso backs automatic qualification

Defending World Cup holders should qualify automatically for the next competition, Real Madrid midfielder Xabi Alonso, part of the Spain squad that won the 2010 tournament, said on Tuesday.

"Logically, as in many competitions and sports, the champion has the right to defend their title. FIFA does not allow for it but I think it is sufficiently important and fair that the winner have the right to qualify," he told a news conference ahead of Spain's friendly on Friday against Saudi Arabia.

World Cup holders stopped getting automatic entry in the next competition at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

In making the changes to the rules, soccer's world governing body, FIFA, argued that the four years between competitions was a long time for any team to retain its strength.

After taking on Saudi Arabia in Pontevedra in northeastern Spain, the 2008 and 2012 European champion will face Georgia in Tbilisi on Sept 11 in its opening qualifying match for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Brazil

Half of World Cup stadiums half done

Less than two years before the 2014 World Cup kicks off in Brazil, half of the 12 host stadiums are at least 50 percent completed, the sports ministry said on Tuesday.

Work on Rio's iconic Maracana Stadium, which will host the World Cup final, is 62 percent completed, according to a progress review posted on the government's official World Cup page.

Venues in Brasilia and the northeastern city of Salvador are more than 70 percent completed.

But the arena in the northeast city of Natal is only 30 percent done and work on the stadium in the southern city of Porto Alegre is just 33 percent completed.

Work on the venues in the northern city of Manaus, the southern cities of Curitiba and Sao Paulo, and in Cuiaba, capital of the central-western state of Mato Grosso, is nearly halfway done, the progress review said.

Last week, visiting FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke said preparations for the World Cup - renovation or construction of stadiums, as well as infrastructure projects - were progressing well.

"No stadium is behind schedule. All the projects are proceeding well and we have reached cruise speed," Valcke told a press conference in Rio after inspecting host arenas in Manaus and Cuiaba.

"Things are working better. More is being accomplished. Things are speeding up," he said with former Brazilian soccer great Ronaldo, a member of the World Cup Organizing Committee, at his side.

Agence France-Presse

(China Daily 09/06/2012 page22)