The Solheim Cup, a biennial golf tournament for professional women golfers contested by teams representing Europe and the United States, is currently underway and all golf enthusiasts have their eyes glued on the developments. The Solheim Cup, which is named after Norwegian-American golf club manufacturer Karsten Solheim, who was a driving force behind its creation, is a major annual golf attraction.

So far Europeans are leading this year’s tournament. Swede Anna Nordqvist ended a major morning match on Saturday “with a hole in one using a 7-iron from 187 yards on the 17th hole, believed to be the first ace in the history of the competition.” Europe, which has never been in the lead in the U.S. out of six tries, now leads with an impressive 10.5-5.5 at Colorado Golf’s Club.

The USA, which requires 14.5 points to claim the Cup lost in 2011 in Ireland, haven’t lost Solheim Cup competition in continued series. The largest leap covered in Solheim Cup by any team is two points (1996 and 2002).

“Obviously, it was a very disappointing afternoon,” U.S. captain Meg Mallon said. “We have our work cut out for us (Sunday). It can be done. It’s daunting right now, but it can be done.”

” … Today was a magical day for the Europeans. For us, it was one of those days where the putts didn’t drop. It was literally shocking to see us lose all four matches in the afternoon,” he added.

Three veterans – Suzann Pettersen, Catriona Matthew and Nordqvist – were sat by Europe Caption Liselotte, who believed it was a bold move to send youngsters like Jodi Ewart Shadoff and Charley Hull in first afternoon. The two played well against Paula Creamer and Lexi Thompson (2nd youngest player in the Solheim history).

11 birdies by the teenagers along with a key one for Hull at 17th were the highlights of the match. Thompson made Creamer’s birdie putt to halve the hole. Caroline teamed twice, once with Nordqvist in 2-1 victory in morning and second time with Caroline Masson with 2-1 victory over Korda & Michelle Wie.

Europe had a 5-3 lead early day. Creamer and Lewis won the final hole. The anchor match was won by Wie and Lang. A 5-footer was hit on the 18th by Mathew. Caroline and her mate pulled out a half against Lizette Salas and Lincicome in the exciting series.

The 23-year-old defender has penned a five-year deal with the Europa League finalists, after being persuaded to join by compatriot Pablo Aimar

Benfica have completed the signing of Lisandro Lopez from Argentina outfit Arsenal de Sarandi.

The 23-year-old defender has signed a five-year deal for an undisclosed fee, with his contract believed to include a €35 million buy-out clause.

Lopez has frequently been overlooked for Argentina duty by coach Alejandro Sabella despite impressive performances for Arsenal, and he admitted his desire to break into the Albiceleste coach’s plans was a significant factor in his decision to move.

“I have chosen Benfica because they are one of the biggest clubs in Europe and many Argentines have succeeded here,” Lopez told Benfica’s official website.

“I am anxious to start. If I play well here I may get a chance in my country’s national team.”

Lopez revealed he had been persuaded to join the Europa League finalists after compatriot Pablo Aimar had extolled the benefits of life in the Portuguese capital.

“He said Lisbon was beautiful and Benfica was huge and magical. He told me to enjoy my stay here to the full,” Lopez added.

Lopez becomes Benfica’s seventh signing of a busy summer so far, following Stefan Mitrovic, Lazar Markovic, Miralem Sulejmani, Filip Djuricic and Uros Matic – as well as central defender Steven Vitoria.

Lopez’s arrival could cast further doubt over the future of Ezequiel Garay, who has been linked with a move to Manchester United this summer.

London: France’s Marion Bartoli has claimed the women’s singles title at Wimbledon with a crushing 6-1 6-4 victory over Sabine Lisicki.

The 28-year-old, a losing finalist against Venus Williams in 2007, swept aside her German opponent is one hour 21 minutes to claim her first Grand Slam title.

Bartoli becomes only the second French woman to win Wimbledon in the open era, following in the footsteps of Amelie Mauresmo who won in 2006.

“I’m so happy I am holding the trophy. It has been my dream since I was six years old. I would like to thank everyone in the crowd who supported me today,” Bartoli said.

For Lisicki, the vanquisher of Serena Williams in the fourth round and Agnieszka Radwanska in the semis, the disappointment was almost too much to bear.

“Marion has been in that situation before and she handed it perfectly. She deserves it. I hope I get the chance one more time as well.” Lisicki said fighting back tears.

Both women started the match nervously losing their opening service games, but it was Bartoli whose game suddenly gelled while Lisicki, appearing in her first Grand Slam title, wilted under the pressure on a sweltering Center Court.

With her game in top gear, Bartoli took the first set in just 29 minutes. A more composed Lisicki returned from a bathroom break and held her opening service game of the second set, before Bartoli reeled off five games in succession.

RIO DE JANEIRO: The crowd at Maracana Stadium was noisy, hoping for and maybe even anticipating a triumph by Brazil.

The Selecao rewarded the fans with a comprehensive victory over the best national team of the 21st century, an ego-boosting 3-0 smothering of world champion Spain in the Confederations Cup final on Sunday night.

Nice, yes.

But Brazil is focusing on the really big prize: the World Cup that it hosts next year.

“We know that the tournament that we will be playing next year will be a lot more difficult,” Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said. “Now we have more confidence. That’s what we needed.”

Brazil players celebrate with the trophy after winning the soccer Confederations Cup final between B …
In the stadium that will host the 2014 World Cup final next July 14, Fred put Brazil ahead in the second minute, Neymar doubled the lead in the 44th with his fourth goal of the tournament and Fred added his fifth in the 47th. While there was a crowd of 73,000 in the renovated stadium, outside protesters clashed with riot police on the final night of the two-week prep tournament.

“Brazil has shown to the world that this is the Brazilian national team and that we must be respected,” said 21-year-old Neymar, awarded the Golden Ball as the tournament’s top player. “I think that today we had a great victory against the best team of the world.”

In a matchup of new and old powers, the five-time world champion defeated the reigning world and European champion and ended Spain’s 29-game, three-year winning streak in competitive matches. Spain lost a competitive game by three goals for the first time since a 3-0 defeat at Wales in a World Cup qualifier in April 1985.

“We are happy with what we have done over the last few years,” Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque said. “But one loss — you have to look at it, but not overreact to it. We are not content with the loss. But when a team is superior, you have to accept it. It was a deserved defeat.”

Brazil won its third straight Confederations Cup, and is unbeaten in 57 consecutive home competitive matches since 1975. Yet, no reigning Confed Cup winner has gone on to capture the following year’s World Cup.

Surrounded by teammates Brazil’s Thiago Silva, center back, lifts the trophy after the soccer Confed …
Spain, which had not lost a competitive game since its 2010 World Cup opener against Switzerland, had a miserable night. Sergio Ramos sent a penalty kick wide in the 55th and defender Gerard Pique was ejected by Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers with a straight red card for fouling Neymar in the 68th.

“The first minutes and the last minutes of the halves are critical,” Spanish defender Cesar Azpilicueta said. “And they scored their three goals at the beginning and ends of the halves, which is the worst time. Those are the most demoralizing moments.”

Eliminated in the quarterfinals of the last two World Cups, the Selecao entered the tournament having not played a competitive match since the 2011 Copa America. Brazil had slipped to 22nd in the FIFA rankings, between Ghana and Mali.

PARIS (AP) — When police arrested Wilson Raj Perumal in Finland, it didn’t take long for him to realize that his criminal buddies had ratted him out.

He’s been exacting revenge ever since — by ratting on them, too.

Since his arrest in 2011, Perumal has been talking to police, prosecutors and journalists about the shadowy world of fixing soccer matches, in which he was an active participant, and the millions of dollars that can be made in betting on them.

The Singaporean was convicted in the Lapland District Court of bribing players in the Finnish league, forgery and trying to flee from officials guarding him, and was sentenced to two years in prison.

Perumal told police that he could be in danger for betraying his former colleagues. But Perumal also reasoned that by fingering him to the Finns, his associates broke the cardinal rule of criminals not cooperating with law enforcement.

“It’s not in my nature to sing like a canary,” he wrote in a letter from jail. “If I had been arrested under normal circumstances, I would have been back in Singapore to serve my time as a guest of the state with my mouth tightly shut.”

European investigators and prosecutors say Perumal has provided an invaluable window into the realm of match-rigging, which is corroding the world’s most popular sport. They say he has revealed who organizes some of the fixing in football, as the sport is known in most countries, and how money is made wagering on outcomes prearranged with players, referees and officials who have been bribed or threatened.

“He’s not the only operating match-fixer of this style or this size in the world, but he’s the first to be really captured in the way he was and now to cooperate the way he is,” said Chris Eaton, who was head of security of FIFA, soccer’s governing body, at the time of Perumal’s arrest.

“He put two and two together and realized he’d been traitored,” Eaton said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It took several days before he decided that it was in his best interests to cooperate.”

Police from Italy investigating dozens of fixed Italian games and a prosecutor looking into 340 suspect games elsewhere in Europe both traveled to Finland to question Perumal as a witness.

One investigator on those trips told the AP that Perumal provided “very good interviews,” that he is still cooperating even after his release from prison in Finland, and that evidence he provided has checked out.

Another investigator told AP that Perumal alerted authorities to two fixes in progress — the matches, the referees — and that his information was “100 percent” right in both cases. That investigator called Perumal “a massive help.”

Both investigators spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss their work publicly. Perumal declined an AP request for an interview.

In court filings, Italian prosecutors described Perumal as their “primary source of evidence” on Tan Seet Eng, also known as Dan Tan, a Singaporean they allege is the leader of the syndicate that fixed matches in Italy. Perumal detailed to authorities how the syndicate is structured, how it places bets, and how it moves bribe-money around the world, they said.

Italian prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant for Tan and listed him as the No. 1 suspect in their match-fixing investigation. Prosecutor Roberto Di Martino told the AP there are about 150 people under investigation, including Tan, but none of them has been indicted.

AP could not contact Tan in Singapore. Five phone numbers identified as his by Italian prosecutors were disconnected, and no one answered the door at an apartment the Italians listed as his address.

Perumal told Finnish police that the syndicate has six shareholders — including himself — from Singapore, Croatia, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Hungary, and he said they divide up income from gambling on fixed matches. The syndicate places bets mainly in China, Perumal said, according to a transcript of his May 18, 2011, police interview obtained by the AP.

He said the group fixed “tens of matches around the world” — in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas — from 2008 to 2010. He estimated the group’s total profits after expenses at “several millions of euros, maybe 5-6 million.”

“Perumal is key, because he provides a view into how it all fit together,” Di Martino told the AP.

Investigators said Perumal has a long history as a match-fixer and a broad array of contacts in soccer. He boasted in a letter from prison: “I can pick up the phone and call from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.”

When arrested, he had numbers stored in his phone for people in 34 countries. He carried a business card with a FIFA logo that described him as “executive manager.”

Perumal wrote from prison that he started fixing matches in Asia in the early 1990s.

“I grew up in a region where football betting and match-fixing was a way of life. Gradually I developed the ability and the expertise to execute the job myself,” he said.

He claimed to have paid off players in Syria and Africa and spoke of fixes in the U.S. and in Bahrain, as well as games involving teams from North Korea, Kuwait, Zambia, Bolivia, Venezuela and Togo. Zimbabwe linked him to widespread corruption and fixes involving its players and soccer association.

Perumal also is suspected of rigging games involving South Africa before it hosted the 2010 World Cup. FIFA determined that Perumal’s company, Football4U, was a front for his betting syndicate and infiltrated the South African Football Association.

In Finland, Perumal told police how he distributed bundles of cash — tens of thousands of dollars at a time — to corrupt Finnish league players, including a 56,000-euro bribe handed over in a stadium lavatory in 2010.

In a prison letter, he lamented that “all corrupt players and officials are like whores who will walk with the highest bidder. There is no loyalty in this business.”

But he felt no guilt about his role.

“I have had players thanking me for giving them this opportunity and telling me how much this money will change their lives,” he wrote. “The only people who get affected are the illegal bookmakers, and they dissolve their losses in the massive turnover of profits.”

Perumal had been in and out of jail repeatedly in Singapore. In 2010, he was given a five-year sentence for injuring a police officer. He appealed but then skipped town. Singapore police spokeswoman Chu Guat Chiew told the AP that Perumal is still wanted in Singapore.

In his prison letters, Perumal said he lived unnoticed in London while on the run, jogging daily around Wembley Stadium and attending Premier League matches on weekends. The handwritten prison letters were sent via Perumal’s lawyer to a journalist, Zaihan Mohamed Yusof of the New Paper in Singapore.

If not for peculiar circumstances in Finland, Perumal might never have talked.

His arrest came on a tip from an informant, also Singaporean, who walked into a police station in Rovaniemi in northern Finland in February 2011 and told the duty officer that Perumal was in the country on a counterfeit passport and staying at the Scandic hotel, Finnish police told investigators. But the informant gave police the wrong room number, so they detained the wrong man, who was later released.

Once armed with the correct room number, police tracked down Perumal and put him under surveillance to be sure that they had the right man, said Eaton, the ex-FIFA security chief who is now director of integrity at the International Centre for Sport Security, a Qatar-backed group funding research into match-fixing.

Finnish police followed Perumal to a game and saw him in heated discussion with a player. That piqued their curiosity and prompted them to contact soccer officials. They, in turn, got word to Eaton at FIFA, who already had Perumal on his radar and immediately recognized the significance of the Finnish catch.

“It was like a bell went off, an alarm went off, in my office,” Eaton told the AP. If the police hadn’t tailed Perumal and had just picked him up and sent him home for traveling on a fake passport, they might never have realized he was fixing matches and he might never have decided to cooperate, Eaton said.

“It would have been virtually a blip instead of the explosion it really was,” Eaton said.

Before his arrest, Perumal had been gambling heavily, built up debts and bilked his syndicate by pocketing money meant to be used to fix matches, Eaton added. He said Perumal also had become too high-profile for Tan, who is believed to be in Singapore.

Perumal “was on Facebook. He was on LinkedIn. He was on Twitter,” Eaton said. “Perumal’s attitude was, ‘This makes me more valuable, more known by players, more known by the people I want to corrupt and influence.’ Dan Tan wanted him to be more discreet.”

In a prison letter, Perumal alleged that the tip to Finnish police was an effort by his associates “to get rid of me.”

“I knew I was set up the moment they stopped me,” Perumal wrote.

“Seeking police assistance is a violation of code No. 1 in any criminal business. Dan Tan broke this code and stirred the hornets’ nest. And now he has to face the consequences,” Perumal wrote in another letter. “I hold the key to the Pandora’s box and I will not hesitate to unlock it.”

Investigators say Perumal’s decision to cooperate also was motivated by self-interest. As long as he remains useful to authorities in Europe, he delays the day he might be sent back to Singapore, where he faces a prison term and possibly vengeful former associates.

“He’d be in prison for five years and perhaps he wouldn’t come out of that prison,” Eaton said. “He progressively started giving information. Not at once, not in some great blurting splurge. He gave enough each time to ensure that he wasn’t extradited, that he wasn’t sent back to Singapore, to a point where he gave enough that they are now using him in other investigations.

“Progressively, he’s realized, ‘The only way out for me is to become an informant and to cooperate,'” Eaton added. “But I still don’t believe he’s given anywhere near 100 percent of the information.”

After serving half of his two-year jail sentence in Finland, Perumal was sent to Hungary, which had a European arrest warrant out for him, said Detective Chief Inspector Jukka Lakkala of the Finnish Bureau of Investigation.

Eaton said Perumal served as a “controlled informant” in Hungary, living in a safe house under police watch.

“And no doubt he’ll be in Italy, too,” Eaton added.

In declining the AP interview request, Perumal replied in an email that he did not want “to provide any more details.”

“My life is now settled,” he said, adding that he prefers that it “remains that way.”

___

Matti Huuhtanen in Helsinki, Pablo Gorondi in Budapest and AP Sports Writer Andrew Dampf in Rome contributed to this story.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of a months-long, multiformat AP examination of how organized crime is corrupting soccer through match-fixing, running over four days this week.