Soccer briefs

Rogers comes out as gay and quits football

United States international Robbie Rogers has come out as gay and says he is stepping away from soccer.

The 25-year-old, who recently played in England for Leeds United and Stevenage and has 18 caps for the USA, wrote on his website - under the title “The Next Chapter” – that he had been afraid to raise the issue.

“Secrets can cause so much internal damage. People love to preach about honesty, how honesty is so plain and simple. Try explaining to your loved ones after 25 years you are gay,” he wrote yesterday.

“For the past 25 years I have been afraid, afraid to show whom I really was . . . Now is my time to step away. It’s time to discover myself away from football.”

Clark omits Zigic following striker's pitiful effort at training

Nikola Zigic has been omitted from Birmingham’s matchday squad for today’s Championship clash at home to Watford after manager Lee Clark accused him of turning in “the worst training session . . . I have ever come across”.

Clark has been angered by Zigic’s poor work ethic and attitude at the club’s Wast Hills training base and has criticised the towering Serbian striker, who still earns a reported €58,000-plus per week at the club.

Clark said: “I witnessed possibly the worst training session in terms of a professional footballer I have ever come across on Thursday . . .

I think the fans deserve more than that, the football club deserves more than that. I am an honest man and I need to be honest with everyone.”

Fifa announces plans to introduce biological profiling

Fifa plans to use biological profiling of players at this year’s Confederations Cup and next year’s World Cup in its efforts to tackle doping, soccer’s governing body confirmed yesterday.

“Fifa is developing plans to introduce this new tool, including a steroid profile through urine and a blood profile, for the Confederations Cup and 2014 World Cup Brazil, where in- and out-of-competition tests would be conducted on all participating players,” the Fifa statement read.

Fifa began a pilot project in 2011 to capture players’ individual steroid profile with tests on the participants at the World Club Cup in Japan. It said that 178 out-of-competition tests were conducted in 2011 and 184 at the same tournament in 2012.

Fifa added that it was developing the hormonal profiling project, a new initiative in co-operation with the Wada-accredited laboratory in Switzerland.