Free taxi service

SHANGHAI: Shanghai soccer fans will be offered free taxi rides home after upcoming World Cup matches to help keep drunken drivers off the roads, the Shanghai Daily newspaper said on Thursday. The service, paid for as part of a promotion by an international liquor distributor, will operate after selected matches from a handful of bars chosen by police, the paper said. Although China didn’t qualify for the World Cup in Germany, soccer is immensely popular here and huge audiences have

tuned in for games shown on national television - the earliest of which start at 10:00 pm local time.

Henri Michel quits

MUNICH: Henri Michel is going out a winner - even if Ivory Coast failed to qualify for the World Cup’s second round. Michel, who took Ivory Coast to the final of the African Cup of Nations in February before losing to Egypt on penalties, quit as coach. “I had a goal, which I reached: qualification for this World Cup and the last African Cup of Nations,” Michel said. “I would have like to have done better things in this World Cup but now I’m going to leave this Ivory Coast team and coach a club in Qatar. That’s all I have to say.”

Krstajic has fracture

MUNICH: Serbia-Montenegro defender Mladen Krstajic has a compound fracture of his left arm. Krstajic hurt his arm in the 15th minute of his team’s match against Ivory Coast on Wednesday. Krstajic, shivering with pain after clashing with his teammate Ivan Ergic, was taken off the field and had surgery in a Munich hospital, Serbia-Montenegro team spokesman Dan Tana said. Serbia-Montenegro, playing with only three field players on the bench, had to substitute Krstajic with Albert Nadj, who was red-carded in the 45th minute. “We were all in shock after seeing Krstajic in pain,” coach Ilija Petkovic said.