Andris Biedrins was the 11th player chosen in this year's National Basketball Association draft held in New York City on June 24. According to Diena, Biedrins has signed a deal with the Goldenstate Warriors for an estimated 800,000 lats (1.21 million euros) per year. Biedrins will become only the second Latvian ever to play in the NBA. At a press conference held after the draft, Biedrins said that he had hoped the Warriors would pick him.
Sebastien Loeb of the Citroen team won the Turkey Rally of the World Rally Championship. Marcus Gronholm from the Peugeot team came 26.2 seconds later and the Subaru team driver Petter Solberg was third with +36.7 seconds. Estonian driver Markko Martin from the Ford team had to quit because of a technical failure and managed to earn his team just a single point. In the overall standings after the Turkey Rally, Martin is third with 34 points. Loeb is first with 53 points, followed by Solberg who has 44 points.
The group opponents of Estonian soccer clubs in the Champions League and the UEFA Cup were announced last week. In the first round of preliminary matches, FC Flora will meet NK Gorica from Slovenia. In the UEFA Cup preliminary games, Estonia's FC Levadia and FC TVMK will meet Bohemian from Dublin and IA Akranes from Iceland respectively.
Top referees have hit out at the English press for its vilification of Swiss referee Urs Meier. Meier disallowed a goal by England's Sol Campell in the dying minutes of the quarterfinal game that England lost against Portugal on penalties. Some English papers published Meier's phone number and e-mail address, and one even hoisted an English flag up on his house.
Staying with referees, Italian Pierluigi Collina may soon be plying his trade in the English Premiership. Collina is undoubtedly the closest thing there is to a superstar referee, but he is being forced to retire from Serie A in Italy at the end of the coming season because he'll have reached the set retirement age of 45. The English FA has invited Collina to work in the Premiership, but Collina said that it was too soon to think about it.
