Soccer-FIFA reforms to go under the microscope

BERNE, Jan 11 (Reuters) - European soccer chiefs will meet this month to discuss proposed reforms to present to the sport's governing body FIFA, including an age limit for the president and a restriction on the number of mandates he can serve.
A working group which was set up to revise the FIFA statutes has proposed setting an age limit of 72 for the FIFA president and executive committee members at the time of their election, re-election or nomination.
It has also proposed limiting their mandates to two four-year terms.
Other matters under discussion for possible reform include the make-up of the International Football Association Board (IFAB), which makes decisions on changes to the rules of the game.
The IFAB currently consists of four members from FIFA and one each from the four British associations.
UEFA, European soccer's governing body, said in a statement that it would host a meeting of the presidents of its 53 members associations on Jan. 24 to analyse the proposals.
"UEFA wants to ensure that the FIFA reform process maintains its good governance objectives and this has been made clear to our members in a clear and transparent way, to enable them to make their position clear," said UEFA secretary general Gianni Infantino. "We now need our members to put forward their views."
FIFA was hit a string of corruption cases in 2010 and 2011.
Three members of its 24-man executive committee were sanctioned for corruption, including former presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam who was banned for life, and another two resigned amid allegations of wrongdoing.

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Soccer-Legal settlement agreed with former owners, say Liverpool

LONDON, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Liverpool said on Friday that a settlement between former owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett and directors involved in the sale of the Premier League soccer club had been agreed following a long-running legal battle.
Fenway Sports Group (FSG) completed their takeover in Oct. 2010, bringing to an end the acrimonious reign of Hicks and Gillett who tried to block the sale by RBS bank.
"As a consequence of that sale, Thomas Hicks and George Gillett (being the former owners of Liverpool FC) made a number of allegations and claims against Sir Martin Broughton, Christian Purslow and Ian Ayre (being the company directors responsible for the sale of Liverpool FC to the Fenway Sports Group). Those allegations and claims were denied by Messrs Broughton, Purslow and Ayre," Liverpool said in a statement on their website (www.liverpoolfc.com).
"The allegations, claims and denials resulted in legal proceedings being commenced.
"The parties have now agreed a settlement (the terms of which are confidential). All claims and allegations made against Messrs Broughton, Purslow and Ayre have been withdrawn by Messrs Hicks and Gillett and all legal proceedings between the parties concluded.
"The parties will not be making any further statement to the press."
The legal battle began after Liverpool was sold by RBS to Fenway - headed by American businessman John W. Henry - in a 300-million-pound ($483.21-million) deal in October 2010.
Hicks and Gillett alleged that the club had been sold at a "substantial undervalue", terming the sale an "epic swindle".

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Soccer-United's Rooney out of Liverpool clash

LONDON, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney will miss Sunday's Premier League clash against north-west rivals Liverpool after failing to recover from a knee injury, manager Alex Ferguson said on Friday.
Rooney injured a knee ligament in training and missed United's holiday fixtures against Newcastle United, West Bromwich Albion and Wigan Athletic as well as their FA Cup draw at West Ham United.
"Wayne Rooney is still out," Ferguson told reporters. "I am hoping he will start training today actually, in which case he won't be far away. I don't think it is an issue, but we need to guide him along.
"In terms of the injury he had, it's quite straightforward so if he starts today, I assume he will be available for Wednesday's replay (against West Ham)."
United winger Nani and midfielder Anderson will both return to the squad for Liverpool's visit to Old Trafford.
"Nani is back in training and will be included in the squad for Sunday.
"Anderson has been back training for 10 days now so he will be in the squad for Sunday. All in all it is quite a positive situation. It's good to have them back."
United lead the Premier League by seven points from local rivals Manchester City after 21 games, while Liverpool are 14 points further adrift in eighth place.
The fixture, however, remains as important as ever, according to Ferguson.
"The derby game against Liverpool never changes," he said. It's always an immensely important game - intense, emotional. We are going into the game in reasonable form.

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Could Alex Jones's "revolution" actually happen?

Piers Morgan had it easy. Radio show host and author Alex Jones threatened the rest of us with a "revolution" if the government decides to confiscate guns from the homes and glove compartments of law-abiding Americans. It's almost too easy to dismiss Jones as a fringe figure, especially since fringe ideas make their way into the mainstream with (exciting? alarming?) frequency these days. So let's take him seriously.
Let's accept his premise. Actually, let's dismiss it first but then turn around and accept it for the sake of argument. The government has not the means nor the mechanism nor the credibility to confiscate 100,000 guns, much less 600,000,000. And those in the government doing the confiscating would be neighbors and relatives of the confiscatory victims: police officers, national guard members, Army reservists. Of course, Jones might say that their intent is bad enough. But "they" -- the Obama administration, I assume -- have no such intentions, and never did.
But OK. Let's say that the government tries to confiscate guns and "the people" attempt to revolt.  No doubt that civil disobedience can spring up rather spontaneously and even be organized very quickly, but if rioting were to somehow break out in American cities, it would be isolated and theoretically containable. Organizing a "revolt" would require extensive planning, including the massive transportation of citizens from their homes to wherever the rally points were, a communications infrastructure, and leaders. The same Open Source culture that would make it difficult for the government to plan a confiscation in secret makes it just as unlikely for citizens to plan a feasible response to that confiscation in secret.
One of Jones's obsessions, which, I confess, I share, is the militarization of the American homeland, and he is not promulgating a conspiracy here. The military has expanded its presence on American soil, and crucially, has expanded the way it is organized to respond to mass contingency events of any kind, including natural disasters and rioting. The U.S. Northern Command does receive intelligence briefings about domestic disturbances from the FBI and DHS, so commanders would be somewhat prepared to deploy troops. Thousands would come from the standing Army, but the bulk would be drawn from state National Guard detachments. It is exceedingly difficult to picture weekend warriors following blind orders en masse to detain or harm U.S. citizens when local police resources are stretched. The government has the power of command and control, but the people have the power of fellow-feeling. The government's response to any real revolt would probably be quite restrained. There'd be too much attention paid to every movement of every tank to act harshly. The strategy to contain any "revolt" might therefore depend on a period of people letting out their energies and then returning to their normal business.
Ah, but what if the government controls the communication nodes?  Well, corporations do; I assume Jones would have them immediately bend to a secret executive order shutting down serves and clouds and services like Twitter, but even if corporations agreed to do this, together, it would take days to get even a fraction of the telecom infrastructure offline. Maybe the government would order a mass power outage. But that's why so many Americans have generators in the first place!  Although government "boards" comprising major telecom and infrastructure executives do exist, the most they've ever contemplated doing is to shut down a narrow slice of an infected communications node. These days, they're focused on the cyber threat.  In the early days of civil defense planning, when there were a few television networks an AT&T had its monopoly, the threat of a government takeover of TV, radio and telephones was technically feasible. Today it is not. Actually, it does not make sense. What's turned on really cannot be turned off.
But wait. if Jones's "revolution" is to succeed, he needs to take over the government, because he'd need to dominate communications as well, unless he assumes that his movement would be organic and immune to arguments from elected officials asking for stability and calm.
An objective of anyone who wants to take over the government would be a seizure of the Emergency Broadcast System, which allows the President to speak to the nation through almost any mechanism of communication at any time. The EBS lives at Mt. Weather, the massive FEMA bunker in Virginia, but it can be activated and controlled from at least a dozen other places, including the briefcase of the Emergency Actions officer who travels with the President.  A coordinated violent action to seize control of this key portal would require an incredible amount of prior planning.
Assuming even that the government's response to isolated-turned-mass rioting is uneven, the President would be able to address Americans anytime he wants. In theory, Jones's followers could try to take over every broadcast entity in America, or could try and jam the broadcasts using sophisticated electronic warfare technology available to the military, but once again, the practicalities are not possible.
Because there will be no revolt over gun control, because there will not be and cannot be a mass confiscation of guns, playing with these ideas is fanciful and fodder for a sequel to Seven Days in May. Heck, we haven't even addressed the FEMA concentration camps (which don't exist).  But that isn't to say that nothing discussed above will ever be relevant. It is much easier to imagine a small-scale revolt, a series of pre-planned violent protests against the powers that be, perhaps because the political system seems so non-responsive to the worries of people who listen to Alex Jones.  It would not take much to make Americans nervous about the government's ability to restore law and order. And that frission itself is probably the most unknowable of all these factors.
Patriotic citizens aren't supposed to speculate about these extremely unlikely events, but the government certainly thinks about them. So maybe we should too.

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HTC says licensing agreement with Apple will lead to better devices in 2013

Apple (AAPL) and HTC (2498) signed a 10-year licensing agreement in November that covered all current, pending and future patents and ended the ongoing litigation between the two companies. It has been estimated that the company will pay Apple between $6 and $8 for every Android device shipped, however HTC CEO Peter Chao refuted the claim. Regardless of how much is being spent, HTC China president Ray Yam believes the deal will begin to benefit the company in 2013.
[More from BGR: ‘iPhone 5S’ to reportedly launch by June with multiple color options and two different display sizes]
“The settlement with Apple will start to pay off next year, and the fourth quarter of this year is still going at a set pace,” the executive said in an interview with the Economic Observer of China, according to Focus Taiwan. “The biggest benefit to us is that we can put more energy into innovation, which is more important than anything else for a technology company.”
[More from BGR: Nokia predicted to abandon mobile business, sell assets to Microsoft and Huawei in 2013]
Yam notes that HTC has wasted too many resources on lawsuits with Apple in the past and that the company is now encouraging employees to “take broader steps” when creating new and better products. The executive revealed that HTC has adjusted its product, sales and marketing strategies for 2013 in the wake of the settlement. He said that many of the company’s projects are now proceeding at a faster rate and it has also changed the way it negotiates with its telecom partners.
While the settlement will ensure that HTC’s devices will remain on sale in the U.S. and other markets, the company must still find a way to increase its dwindling market share as its struggles continue.

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Nokia’s Lumia 920 remains as expensive as Apple’s iPhone 5

One thing handset industry analysts are watching like hawks is the price graph of the most important Windows Phone 8 model in the European handset market. Nokia (NOK) priced the Lumia 920 very, very ambitiously for its November debut. How long can the model maintain a stiff premium? Was the early pricing just designed to skim high margins from the pool of eager Nokia/Windows Phone early adopters?
[More from BGR: ‘iPhone 5S’ to reportedly launch by June with multiple color options and two different display sizes]
Christmas is now over and the year 2013 has rolled in. But in the most important handset market in Europe, the Lumia 920 still costs as much as the 16 GB iPhone 5. At Phonehouse Germany, the price is 640 euros. At Handy Attacke, Ebay Germany, Amazon.de and other leading German phone retail sites, the price remains rock solid and notably uniform 650 euros. Most of these sites offer shipment within two to three days, so the price is no longer jacked up by lack of supply.
[More from BGR: Nokia predicted to abandon mobile business, sell assets to Microsoft and Huawei in 2013]
In comparison, the 16 GB iPhone 5 costs 630 euros at Ebay Germany, 650 euros at Notebooksbilliger and Handyschotte; and 670 euros at Telbay, Modeo and other sites.
Even as the unsubsidized price of Samsung’s (005930) Galaxy Note II is slipping below 510 euros in Germany, the Lumia 920 keeps levitating at the same price as the most expensive mass-market smartphone on the planet. Germany remains the biggest smartphone market in Europe, so this is going to be one key issue to keep an eye on as January price-cutting starts in earnest.

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Hagel nomination: Israelis ask 'what's the big deal?'

President Obama’s choice of Chuck Hagel for secretary of Defense, hotly contested by the American Jewish community, has received a muted response in Israel. While some echo concerns that the former Republican senator is dangerous or anti-Semitic, others here ask, “Who’s that?”
To be sure, the appointment of a man who is seen as soft on Iran and eager to talk to terrorist groups on Israel’s borders isn’t generally popular here.
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said today that Israel should be "concerned, but not afraid of Hagel's isolationist ideas." But he and other politicians, including candidates in Israel's Jan. 22 elections, have emphasized that US-Israel ties go deeper than any one personality and have expressed confidence that the two countries would remain strong allies.
“It’s none of our business, it’s America’s prerogative,” said Naftali Bennett of the right-wing HaBayit HaYehudi (The Jewish Home) party, whose popularity has surged in recent weeks. “Israel and America’s bond goes way beyond certain relationships between individuals.”
Mr. Bennett's shrug comes despite the fact that Hagel’s record diverges sharply from Bennett’s views on Iran, which he identifies as the most pressing foreign policy issue facing Israel. While representing Nebraska in the Senate, Hagel voted repeatedly against US sanctions on Iran and has expressed opposition to a military strike on Iran – a country seen by some Israelis as an existential threat to the Jewish nation.
[Recommended: Obama-Netanyahu tensions: Not as bad as 5 other US-Israel low points]
“Zionism was about creating a shelter, the most secure place on earth for Jews,” said Bennett, speaking at a foreign policy debate at Hebrew University of Jerusalem today. “By having a nuclear Iran, Israel by one fell swoop would turn into the most dangerous place for Jews.”
Obama has promised to prevent a nuclear Iran, but his appointment of Hagel signals to some that Obama may be more lenient than they feel comfortable with.
“[Hagel] is dangerous,” says Eliyahu Ben Haim, one of the few Jerusalemites out and about on a very stormy day. “He’s anti-Semite. He’s against attacking Iran, he’s against sanctions, and he wants us to talk to Hamas and Hezbollah.”
But in the same shopping area, Fred Sternberg says Hagel essentially shares Obama’s views on Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and thus his appointment would not trigger any major policy change. The bigger conflict is between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and Obama, he says.
“The problem is that we don’t have a government that is very friendly toward Obama,” says Dr. Sternberg, who has lived here for 40 years. “I do not agree with the policy of the Israeli government. So I am not very far from Obama.”
Others on the political left here even go so far as to support Hagel’s nomination.
“I listened yesterday to some remarks that Mr. Hagel said – one was his critique about the behavior of Israel in the Palestinian issue. I share his views,” said Yaakov Peri, former director of Israel’s internal security service, the Shin Bet. He notes that Hagel supports a Palestinian state and thinks Israel “should go for it, initiate it.
“I rely on the president of the United States that Chuck Hagel is a responsible and capable guy to do his job and I share the view that the US and Israeli bond and relationship and cooperation will remain, and hopefully strengthen,” said Mr. Peri, a member of Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid (There is a Future) party.
Isaac Herzog of the Labor Party, another participant in today’s foreign policy debate, said it’s fine for American officials to criticize Israel as long as they know the facts.
“After that, they can be a critical friend, because that’s what friends are for,” said Mr. Herzog, the son of former Israeli president Chaim Herzog.
Yitzhak Hanegbi of Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud-Yisrael Beitenu bloc joked during today’s debate that all of Israel’s friends, even tiny Micronesia, are critical friends. On a more solemn note, he added that part of being a friend is trying to understand Israel’s “fears and hopes,” and expressed gratitude to the US for striving to do just that – despite personal tensions between Obama and Netanyahu.
“We believe that the president feels for Israel,” he said. “Even though sometimes personal tensions do occur, it has nothing to do with the strategy and with the instincts of the US toward Israel.

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Does Depardieu herald Russia as a tax haven for Europe?

French movie star Gerard Depardieu has returned to his native habitat in western Europe following a tumultuous Russia visit that has left behind a nation collectively scratching its head over the instinctively authoritarian Vladimir Putin's quirky decision to bestow Russian citizenship upon a cantankerous foreign tax rebel, and the equally odd spectacle of Mr. Depardieu accepting it amid a fusillade of lavish praise for Mr. Putin's regime.
Most analysts say the event was probably a big domestic propaganda win for Putin, who has been under criticism – even from members of his own government – for imposing a seemingly vindictive ban on US citizens adopting Russian orphans in response to US legislation that targets official Russian human rights abusers.
Some suggest that Depardieu's move might trigger a wave of wealthy Europeans, disgruntled by ever-higher tax rates, to move to Russia where everybody pays a flat 13 percent income tax.
Recommended: Vladimir Putin 101: A quiz about Russia's president
Such talk is encouraged by news that French actress Brigitte Bardot is also threatening to apply to Putin for a Russian passport, albeit for completely different reasons. Ms. Bardot, an ardent supporter of animal rights, is angry about plans by French authorities to euthanize two circus elephants thought to be carrying tuberculosis.
"In the West they badly understand the specifics of our tax system. When they do learn about it, you can expect a mass migration of rich Europeans to Russia," tweeted Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin on Saturday.
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"If someone like Depardieu wants to be a Russian citizen, that's good. Putin made a beautiful gesture," by granting his wish, says Vladimir Zharikhin, deputy director of the the official Institute of the Commonwealth of Independent States in Moscow.
"If rich people want to come here, why not? Plenty of talented Russians, like the tennis player Maria Sharapova, live in the US but hang on to their Russian passports.... It's not just about patriotism, but also about money. So, let rich people rush here and pay that 13 percent to the Russian treasury," he adds.
But Rustam Vakhitov, head of tax practice at the Moscow office of International Tax Associates, a Dutch tax consultancy, says that if things were that simple, rich tax evaders would have been flocking to Russia since the flat tax was initiated about a decade ago.
"In principle it's possible that rich Europeans could manage to maintain residency in Russia," by utilizing loopholes to get around the six-month-per-year residency requirement to be eligible for the 13 percent rate, he says.
"But they'd have to spend a few months here. In practice, the number of Europeans who'd be willing to come and live in Russia is probably quite limited," by a variety of factors, including distance from Europe, lifestyle and language, he says.
"Some may come here. I'm not saying Russia's a bad place, but there are other countries that probably offer better terms," for wealthy tax fugitives, he adds.
Depardieu was shown over the weekend on Russian TV bearhugging and dining with a smiling Putin in the Kremlin leader's palatial Black Sea dacha in Sochi, where the 2014 Winter Olympic Games are slated to take place.
Later Depardieu visited the deep-Russian republic of Mordovia, where (perhaps not coincidentally) one of the members of the punk rock band Pussy Riot, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, is serving her two-year sentence in one of the region's notorious penal colonies.
Mordovian officials greeted Depardieu like a visiting hero. Russian media reported that the French actor, who is planning to star in a film about the 18th century Russian peasant revolutionary Emilian Pugachov, was given a free apartment and offered the job of culture minister of the small, ethnic Volga River region.
And in a widely quoted open letter to Russian journalists, Depardieu declared that Putin's Russia is a "great democracy.... I love your President Vladimir Putin, and the feeling is mutual."
"I adore your culture, your intelligence. My father was a communist, listening to Radio Moscow! This is also my culture," he wrote.
"In Russia, there is a good life. Not necessarily in Moscow, which is too big a metropolis for me. I prefer the countryside, and I know wonderful places in Russia.... I like the press, but it is also very annoying because there is too often a single thought. Out of respect for your president and your great country, I have nothing to add," Depardieu wrote.
No opinion polls have yet detailed the Russian public's response to all this, but veteran pollster Alexei Grazhdankin, deputy director of the independent Levada Center in Moscow, says it will probably be mostly positive.
"We don't yet know how the population feels about this move of Putin's, but I believe the approval will be higher than the level of disapproval," Mr. Grazhdankin says. "Putin is a figure who crystallizes positive and negative attitudes."
Dmitri Oreshkin, head of the Mercator Group, a Moscow-based political consultancy, says the Depardieu visit to Russia, with its colorful political overtones, is a throwback to Soviet practices. Shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution, nearly a century ago, leading Western intellectual lights such as H.G. Wells, Bertrand Russell and George Bernard Shaw visited Russia, and brought back a largely sympathetic image of the new revolutionary state. Muckraking US journalist Lincoln Steffans famously returned from a trip to Soviet Russia declaring, "I have seen the future, and it works."
"This is a PR exercise, not too different from Putin's flight with the birds last September," aimed at countering negative views of Russia under his leadership, says Mr. Oreshkin.
"I recall in the 1980s the Soviet leadership gave Soviet citizenship and a Moscow apartment to a defecting American scientist, Arnold Lokshin," who claimed to be persecuted in the United States.
"Where is Lokshin now? I'm pretty sure Depardieu isn't going to want to come and live here, and this whole foolish business will blow over after a while," he adds.

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Poaching crisis escalates with 'targeted, efficient' slaughter of 12 Kenya elephants

Kenya has suffered its worst single loss of elephants to poachers on record, with 12 members of one family slaughtered and their tusks hacked out in just a few hours last weekend.
Eleven adults and one infant calf died in a “targeted and efficient” attack highlighting the growing professionalism of poachers bankrolled by international criminals supplying soaring demand for ivory in the Far East. The calf, less than a year old, is believed to have been crushed by its dying mother as she fell to the ground.
“It is unimaginable, a heinous, heinous crime,” said Paul Udoto, spokesman for the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). “We have not seen such an incident in recent memory, it’s the worst single loss that we have on record, and our records go back almost 30 years. These were professional killers. The attack was targeted and efficient.”
Recommended: Think you know Africa? Take our geography quiz.
The poachers, armed with automatic rifles, had already fled but there were hopes Tuesday that a massive search involving foot patrols, a dozen vehicles, and three aircraft could still find them.
“Every possible resource is being deployed to track down these criminals,” Mr. Udoto said. “They will feel the full force of the law.”
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But privately, conservations fear the poachers and their haul of 22 tusks, worth an estimated $281,000 on the Asian market, would already have escaped following the attack, which occurred late Saturday in a remote corner of Tsavo East National Park, Kenya’s largest wildlife reserve.
This was the latest in a surge of elephant deaths that has seen the number of the animals killed for their ivory in Kenya increase sevenfold in five years, from fewer than 50 in 2007 to 360 in 2012, according to KWS figures. Over the past six weeks, 20 elephants have been found dead, with their tusks hacked out, in the Samburu ecosystem of northern Kenya alone. Three females were killed close to the Amboseli National Park in October. Experts speculate that many more are killed in the wilderness and their carcasses never found.
The increase has led many wildlife experts to declare the current situation a crisis worse even than the mass slaughter of Africa's elephants in the 1970s and 1980s, which led to a global ivory trade ban in 1989.
“Now the situation is far graver, because we have fewer elephants left, but the demand for ivory is far greater," says Iain Douglas-Hamilton, founder of Save The Elephants. “The only thing that will radically alter the situation now is somehow to lower that demand.”
Two average 10-lb. tusks from an adult female elephant are now worth more than $20,000 in China, close to double their value a decade ago. The new demand is driven by the country’s booming middle class, for whom carved ivory and tusk trinkets are a sign of wealth.
Occasional “one-off sales” to China and Japan of stockpiled ivory from Southern Africa, most recently in 2008, are also blamed for restarting a market that had been dormant since the trade was banned.
In the past year, several Chinese celebrities, including former NBA player Yao Ming, have lent their voices to campaigns encouraging Chinese consumers to avoid ivory products. And dozens of African religious leaders gathered late last year outside Nairobi to discuss how to use their moral clout to discourage poaching.
"Africa has a half-million elephants left, but all together we know they are not enough to satisfy the demand for their ivory," adds Udoto, of the KWS. "We must all pull in one direction to stop that demand."

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SPORTS BRIEFS: Disc golf tournament in Pooler this weekend

LOCAL

Disc golf tournament in Pooler this weekend

The ninth annual Savannah Open Disc Golf Tournament will be held Saturday and Sunday at Tom Triplett Park in Pooler.

A field of 90 players is expected for the event, including defending champion Michael Johansen and four-time winner Brian Schweberger.

The tournament format will be two rounds of 18 holes on Saturday and one round on Sunday, followed by a six-hole shootout for the top four pros.

There will be competition in ten divisions and organizers are still seeking sponsors. Potential sponsors should contact George Shaw at 484-7821.

For more information on the tournament, go to savannahdiscgolf.com.

NATIONAL

BCS blowout hurts television ratings

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The BCS title game’s television rating was up from last season, but the lopsided score kept viewership down.

Alabama’s 42-14 rout over Notre Dame drew a 15.1 fast national rating Monday on ESPN, the network said Tuesday. The 26.4 million viewers were up 9 percent from last year’s game, another blowout Crimson Tide victory, 21-0 over LSU.

But that’s down from the 27.3 million for ESPN’s first BCS championship two years ago, Auburn’s win over Oregon that was decided in the final seconds. This year’s game posted the second-largest audience in cable history behind the 2011 championship.

The matchup between traditional powerhouses in Alabama and Notre Dame created the potential for a record-setting audience. But once the Crimson Tide went up 28-0 by halftime, viewers had reason to skip the second half. Ten previous BCS title games drew a higher rating.

Ratings represent the percentage of U.S. homes with televisions tuned into a program. The game was on in 17.5 percent of homes that get ESPN.

The first half was watched by 20.4 percent, significantly higher than 17.9 for Auburn-Oregon. Typically viewership increases throughout a game if it is competitive. But on Monday, the rating peaked between 9 and 9:30 p.m. EST — midway through the first half — and decreased from there as Alabama pulled away.

NHL owners to vote on agreement today

NEW YORK — NHL owners will vote today on the tentative labor agreement reached with the players’ union.

If a majority approves, as expected, the NHL will move one step closer toward the official end of the long lockout that began Sept. 16.

As of Tuesday afternoon, a memorandum of understanding of the deal hadn’t been completed, so the union has yet to schedule a vote for its more than 700 members. A majority of players also must approve the deal for hockey to return to the ice.

“We continue to document the agreement,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Associated Press in an email Tuesday.

If there are no snags, ratification could be finished by Saturday and training camps can open Sunday if approval is reached on both sides. A 48-game regular season would then be expected to begin on Jan. 19.

U.S. Doping chief claims Armstrong offered donation

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The chief of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency tells CBS’s “60 Minutes Sports” that a representative for Lance Armstrong offered the agency a “donation” in excess of $150,000 several years before a USADA investigation led to Armstrong being stripped of seven Tour de France titles.

In an interview on the show’s premier airing tonight, USADA CEO Travis Tygart said he was “stunned” when he received the offer in 2004 and USADA didn’t hesitate to turn it down.

Armstrong’s attorney, Tim Herman, denied such an offer was made.

“No truth to that story,” Herman wrote Tuesday in an email to The Associated Press. “First Lance heard of it was today. He never made any such contribution or suggestion.”

Tygart did not immediately respond to requests from the AP for comment.

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