Sports

19, September 2020

Football: FIFA head visits White House amid corruption investigation in Switzerland ⁰

FIFA president Gianni Infantino met President Donald Trump at the White House this week to discuss preparations for the 2026 World Cup in his third visit since the US was named co-host and amid an ongoing probe by the Swiss into corruption allegations in international football.

Infantino attended Tuesday’s signing ceremony for a diplomatic deal to improve relations between Israel, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, FIFA said Thursday.

Infantino also met Trump the following day at the White House, the federation said. It was their first meeting since a special prosecutor in Switzerland opened a criminal proceeding against the FIFA president in July as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged corruption in international football.

Infantino is a suspect in regard to meetings he had with Swiss attorney general Michael Lauber, who has since resigned in the fallout from the case.

The Swiss proceeding relates to Infantino potentially inciting Lauber to commit abuse of public office and breach of official secrecy. Infantino has denied wrongdoing and called the allegations absurd.

Also while in Washington, Infantino spoke with US Attorney General William Barr, FIFA said in a statement.

Their meeting on Wednesday appeared to seek the effect of normalising the right of FIFA officials to meet prosecutors overseeing investigations of soccer.

“I have had similar meetings in Switzerland, and FIFA’s lawyers are also in regular contact with prosecutors and law enforcement agencies wherever and whenever needed,” Infantino said in the FIFA statement. “In this way, I am fully convinced that the credibility and reputation of FIFA is being restored at the highest level.”

The Infantino-Barr meeting at the Department of Justice offices was “using the opportunity to personally thank the US authorities, and especially the DoJ, for their work in the fight against corruption in football,” FIFA said.

More than 40 soccer and marketing officials have been indicted, made guilty pleas or have been convicted in a sprawling US case unsealed in 2015 under the leadership of one of Barr’s predecessors, Loretta Lynch.

The fallout from the American and Swiss cases rocked FIFA and removed a swath of soccer leaders, including its then-president Sepp Blatter. It opened a path for Infantino to win election in February 2016.

Infantino’s visit to the US came ahead of hosting FIFA’s online annual meeting of 211 member federations on Friday. He previously first visited the White House in August 2018 — two months after the US, Canada and Mexico were picked as the 2026 World Cup co-hosts — and again last September.

He and Trump also had lunch together in Davos, Switzerland, in January at this year’s World Economic Forum.

Former FIFA officials on trial

Infantino’s US visit came just after former FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke and the chairman of Qatar-based media group BeIN Sports, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, went on trial in Switzerland over the awarding of television rights for the World Cup and Confederations Cup.

The 59-year-old Valcke, already banned by FIFA’s ethics committee for 10 years for ethics violations, has been charged with accepting bribes, aggravated criminal mismanagement and falsification of documents.

Al-Khelaifi, who is also president of French champions Paris St Germain and sits on the executive committee of European soccer body UEFA, has been charged with inciting Valcke to commit aggravated criminal mismanagement.

The trial in Switzerland, which is where FIFA is based, began on Monday, September 14, and is expected to last until September 25. Three Swiss federal judges are expected to deliver a verdict by the end of October.

Also on Monday, FIFA and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at fighting crime and corruption in sport.

Infantino and UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly signed the agreement during an event dubbed ‘Tackling Corruption and Crime in and through Sport’ in Vienna where the UNODC is headquartered.

A FIFA press release said the agreement was to foster cooperation to “address threats posed by crime to sport”.

FIFA also said the agreement meant the two bodies would “fight against corruption and crime in and through sport” while also providing a positive influence for youth.

(FRANCE 24 with AP and REUTERS)

17, September 2020

Football: Choupo-Moting has left PSG ⁰

The former Stoke City player will not be staying in Paris for the new season following the expiry of his contract at the end of August

Eric Choupo-Moting will not return to Paris Saint-Germain for the 2020-21 season after both parties failed to reach an agreement for a new deal, Goal can confirm.

Choupo-Moting’s two-year deal with the French champions had expired at the end of June, but he was handed a short-term extension until the conclusion of PSG’s Champions League campaign.

The Ligue 1 champions were defeated 1-0 by Bayern Munich in Lisbon on August 23, with Choupo-Moting featuring for the final 10 minutes of the contest.

Following Sunday’s 1-0 defeat by Marseille at the Parc de Princes, Thomas Tuchel admitted the French giants have lost the Cameroon captain alongside four other players this summer.

When asked about the Parisians’ transfer plans, the German tactician said; “Are there going to be new players? I really hope.

“It’s no secret, we lost five players including Choupo-Moting. It’s going to be complicated, we play a lot of matches. I don’t know if other teams that have played in the Champions League should play so much games.”

Since he moved to Paris from Stoke City in 2018, Choupo-Moting has been restricted to a substitute role in Tuchel’s team.

Out of the 31 Ligue 1 matches he played, the Indomitable Lions forward made 13 starts with 18 appearances as a substitute and he scored six goals in total.

Last month, the 31-year-old made a statement as a super-sub with the match-winning goal that sent PSG into the Champions League semi-final after their 2-1 victory against Atalanta.

Before Sunday’s league game, Tuchel revealed the ex-Schalke 04 star was offered a new deal which suggested he would play a similar role as last season.

“It’s one of the possibilities [a new contract for Choupo-Moting]. Everything depends on whether you want to stay and accept the club’s proposal,” Tuchel said.

Source: Goal.com

16, September 2020

Football: Bayern Munich no longer beat their opponents – they destroy them ⁰

European champions Bayern Munich begin the hunt for a ninth-straight Bundesliga title on Friday, but while their rivals ponder how to break their iron grip on the German league, the Bavarian giants have pressing issues to resolve on the eve of the new season.

Bayern host Schalke at the Allianz Arena to kick-off the Bundesliga season just 26 days after lifting the Champions League trophy in Lisbon to complete the treble.

They stand to play 57 games in a condensed 2020/21 fixture list, due to the knock-on effects of the coronavirus pandemic, but on Friday, Bayern will be able to play in front of a small number of fans for the first time since March.

However, they have already lost three of the Champions League-winning squad.

Ivan Perisic, Philippe Coutinho and Alvaro Odriozola have returned to Inter Milan, Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively after their loan deals expired.

“We have to make up for it,” head coach Hansi Flick admitted with Bayern facing Sevilla in the UEFA Super Cup and Borussia Dortmund for the German Super Cup in the coming fortnight.

Bayern want to sign a winger, to back up Sane, Kingsley Coman and Serge Gnabry with Chelsea’s Callum Hudson-Odoi again on their radar. They also want a defender.

– ‘They destroy them’ –

Flick’s star-studded squad finished last season on an all-conquering 21-game winning run, including the 8-2 thrashing of Spanish giants Barcelona in the Champions League’s semi-finals.

“The current team of Hansi Flick is perhaps the best Bayern team ever,” Hans-Joachim Watzke, chief executive of arch rivals Borussia Dortmund, declared last month.

“They no longer beat their opponents – they destroy them.”

Bayern’s last loss was at the hands of Moenchengldbach in December.

Watzke refuses to make any statements about Dortmund denying the Bavarians a ninth-straight Bundesliga title in 2020/21.

The messages are similar from the camp of Champions League semi-finalists RB Leipzig, who finished third in the Bundesliga behind Bayern and runners-up Dortmund.

“What Bayern did in Lisbon was impressive,” admitted Leipzig’s Germany defender Marcel Halstenberg.

“We are working to become even better and to reach their level.”

Bayern’s impressive run is down to the irresistible form of stars like Thomas Mueller and Robert Lewandowski.

Mueller managed a league-record 21 assists, making a mockery of Joachim Loew’s decision to end his Germany career in March 2019.

Lewandowski netted 55 goals in 47 games last season, leaving him as the top-scorer in both the Bundesliga, where he hit 34 goals, and the Champions League, where he scored 15 times in 10 games.

However, to preserve the harmony in the dressing room, Flick and the club’s bosses must quickly resolve the future of defender David Alaba and midfielder Thiago Alcantara. Both are stalling over signing contract extensions.

– ‘Money-hungry piranha’ –

“I don’t know who is going to leave us and who is going to arrive again. It’s not the best way to prepare,” Flick has admitted.

Alcantara has been heavily linked to a move to Premier League clubs Liverpool and Manchester United.

Alaba is said to want a big pay rise.

A war of words broke out over the Austrian defender at the weekend after former club chairman Uli Hoeness branded Alaba’s agent Pini Zahavi a “money-hungry piranha”.

More diplomatically, Alaba hopes a solution can be found soon “so that the club, my teammates, but also the fans know where they stand”.

On Tuesday, midfielder Leon Goretzka said the squad can “block out” off-field mud-slinging.

“We are all professionals enough and strong as a community”.

However, the central midfielder called for fresh signings alongside winger Leroy Sane, goalkeeper Alexander Nuebel and defender Tanguy Nianzou from Paris Saint-Germain.

“We have a top squad, but I do believe that at least every position should be filled twice,” said the 25-year-old with one eye on this season’s dense fixture list.

Source: AFP

10, September 2020

Football: Premier League clubs forget coronavirus crisis in transfer splurge ⁰

Just five months after Premier League clubs consulted their players about taking a 30 percent wage cut, the English top-flight is again blowing Europe’s other top leagues out the water when it comes to splashing the cash.

A return to the routine spending of tens of millions of pounds on players jars with the bleak forecasts often presented by the clubs themselves as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

At the height of the pandemic, Liverpool and Tottenham planned to use government money to pay non-playing staff, only to back down in the face of public anger, while Arsenal announced proposals to cut 55 jobs just last month.

If Premier League clubs require a reminder that Covid-19 remains a threat, they need only look to the empty stands that will accompany the start of the new season from Saturday.

Gate receipts may only account for 13 percent of the Premier League’s revenue, according to figures from UEFA’s latest benchmarking report, but the other major streams of income such as television rights and commercial sponsorships are also not immune to the crisis.

A rebate worth a reported £330 million ($429 million, 363 million euros) was due to domestic and international broadcasters because the 2019/20 season was not completed on time after a three-month stoppage to the campaign.

Last week the Premier League announced its deal with Chinese streaming platform PPTV, understood to be worth about $700 million, had been cancelled, with political tensions between Britain and China potentially making a new contract difficult to negotiate.

European Club Association chairman Andrea Agnelli said on Tuesday that rebates owed to Champions League and Europa League broadcasters totalled 575 million euros, warning football was in “crisis-management” mode.

Agnelli, who is also the chairman of Italian champions Juventus, said the overall value of the transfer market could plummet by up to one third.

– Big-spending Chelsea –

Yet no such downturn has been noticeable among Premier League clubs.

Chelsea have led the way with a £200 million rebuild, signing Kai Havertz, Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech and Ben Chilwell.

Manchester City have spent more than £60 million on two players in Nathan Ake and Ferran Torres who will struggle to start in Pep Guardiola’s strongest XI, while Donny van de Beek could end up costing Manchester United around £40 million.

Even more striking are the sums spent by non-Champions League clubs.

Wolves broke their transfer record on a 40-million-euro capture, Portuguese teenager Fabio Silva, who had scored three goals and started one league match for Porto.

After spells together at Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, James Rodriguez and Carlo Ancelotti have been reunited at Everton, who have also signed midfielders Allan and Abdoulaye Doucoure. The outlay for the three players is around £64 million.

Leeds announced their return to the Premier League by signing Spanish international Rodrigo and Germany’s Robin Koch.

Newcastle, Crystal Palace and Leicester are also among those to have spent around £20 million on a single signing.

By contrast, even giants across Europe such as Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus are selling and seeking to cut wage costs.

The Premier League’s lavish spending is due to a number of factors. Chelsea are making up for lost time after a transfer ban last summer, while they are also among the clubs seeking to make the most of a buyer’s market.

For others such as Everton, the relaxation of financial fair play rules gives wealthy owners more opportunity to back their clubs.

The Premier League’s TV deals worth around £3 billion a season are an even bigger economic advantage at a time when matchday and commercial revenue are shrinking.

But the rebates show how hundreds of millions can be wiped out, with the coronavirus threatening more disruption in the coming season.

Should a lack of caution in the transfer window come back to hurt Premier League clubs, there will be little sympathy shown from across the continent.

Source: AFP

9, September 2020

Football: Eto’o says Barcelona needs other players, Messi not enough ⁰

Former Cameroon striker, Samuel Eto’o, has advised Barcelona to bring in more players who can blend with the club’s playing style, so that they can be less dependent on Lionel Messi.

Messi tried to force a move away from Spain this summer, but has since made a u-turn and will be staying for the 2020/2021 season.

Eto’o, who played for Barca between 2004 and 2009, admits he is happy with the 33-year-old’s decision.

But he feels the LaLiga giants should do better with their recruitment.

“I am happy because my son Messi has stayed at his house, but at Barca, we need other players with Blaugrana DNA. Messi alone is not enough,” Eto’o said according to TuttoMercato.

“You need to look for players on the market with tiki-taka style and not box to box.”

The new LaLiga season kicks off on Friday but Barcelona, under the watch of new boss, Ronald Koeman, will tackle Villarreal on September 27.

Source: Daily Post

8, September 2020

Football: Mbappé to miss France-Croatia match after testing positive for Covid-19 ⁰

Kylian Mbappé has been ruled out of France’s Nations League game against World Cup runners-up Croatia on Tuesday after testing positive for Covid-19, national team management said Monday.

Mbappé, who took part in Monday evening’s training session before learning the result of his test, is the seventh Paris Saint-Germain player to contract the virus. Neymar was among the first to test positive last week.

“He was set aside from the group after receiving the results at the end of training before returning to his home in the evening,” French team management said.

“Like the rest of the squad, Mbappé had undergone a test prior to meeting up. The result was negative like the one on Wednesday” requested by UEFA ahead of the Sweden fixture on Saturday in Solna, management said.

Mbappé will also miss PSG’s opening game of the Ligue 1 season against Lens on Thursday, along with six other team-mates including Neymar and Argentine pair Angel Di Maria and Leandro Paredes.

He could also sit out Sunday’s clash with bitter rivals Marseille. According to the league’s health protocol, a player who tests positive must self-isolate for eight days.

Fourth player with Covid-19

Mbappé is the fourth player to be withdrawn from the France squad following a positive Covid-19 test.

Paul Pogba was omitted just before coach Didier Deschamps revealed his 23-man squad last month, with Houssem Aouar forced out a few days later.

Goalkeeper Steve Mandanda, who originally tested positive on August 16 with Marseille, also left camp following two further positive tests likely due to “residual” traces of the virus.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

7, September 2020

Tokyo Olympics will go ahead ‘with or without Covid’ ⁰

Tokyo’s postponed Olympics will go ahead next year regardless of the coronavirus pandemic, IOC vice president John Coates told AFP Monday, saying they would be the “Games that conquered Covid”.

The Olympics have never been cancelled outside of the world wars and Coates, speaking in a phone interview, was adamant that the Tokyo Games will start on their revised date.

“It will take place with or without Covid. The Games will start on July 23 next year,” said Coates, who heads the International Olympic Committee’s Coordination Commission for the Tokyo Games.

“The Games were going to be, their theme, the Reconstruction Games after the devastation of the tsunami,” he added, referring to a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan in 2011.

“Now very much these will be the Games that conquered Covid, the light at the end of the tunnel.”

In an historic decision, the 2020 Olympics were postponed because of the global march of the pandemic and they are now set to open on July 23, 2021.

But Japan’s borders are still largely closed to foreign visitors and a vaccine is months or even years away, feeding speculation about whether the Games are feasible at all.

Japanese officials have made clear they would not delay the Games a second time beyond 2021.

A recent poll found just one in four people in Japan want them to go ahead next year, with most backing either another postponement or a cancellation.

– ‘Monumental task’ –

Coates said the Japanese government “haven’t dropped the baton at all” following the postponement, despite the “monumental task” of putting the event back a year.

“Before Covid, (IOC president) Thomas Bach said this is the best prepared Games we’ve ever seen, the venues were almost all finished, they are now finished, the village is amazing, all the transport arrangements, everything is fine,” he said.

“Now it’s been postponed by one year, that’s presented a monumental task in terms of re-securing all the venues… something like 43 hotels we had to get out of those contracts and re-negotiate for a year later.

“Sponsorships had to be extended a year, broadcast rights.”

With much of that work underway, or accomplished, a task force has been set up to look at the different scenarios in 2021 — from how border controls will affect the movement of athletes and officials, to whether fans can pack venues.

The group, comprising Japanese and IOC officials, met for the first time last week.

“Their job now is to look at all the different counter-measures that will be required for the Games to take place,” said Coates, the long-time president of the Australian Olympic Committee.

“Some countries will have it (Covid) under control, some won’t. We’ll have athletes therefore coming from places where it’s under control and some where it is not.

“There’s 206 teams… so there’s a massive task being undertaken on the Japanese side.”

Source: AFP

6, September 2020

Italian Grand Prix red-flagged after Leclerc crash, Hamilton gets penalty ⁰

The Italian Grand Prix was red-flagged and brought to a halt on Sunday after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crashed heavily into the barriers after slewing off the track at the Parabolica.

The Monegasque driver was unhurt and walked away from the high-speed crash, but severe damage to the barriers required repairs.

Leclerc won last year’s race from pole position.

His exit after 25 laps of the 53 followed the earlier retirement of outgoing team-mate Sebastian Vettel with brake failure.

Ferrari’s premature exit completed a miserable weekend for the most decorated team in Formula One which failed to get one car in the top ten on the grid on home soil for the first time since 1984.

Lewis Hamilton set sail from pole and looked en route to his 90th career win but the Mercedes world champion picked up a 10-second drive through penalty for pitting when the pitlane was closed.

It will leave him at the back of the pack when the race led by Racing Point’s Lance Stroll restarts.

Source: AFP

6, September 2020

Football: Moment of Mbappe brilliance gives France victory in Sweden ⁰

Kylian Mbappe scored with France’s only shot on goal on Saturday in Solna to give the world champions a 1-0 victory over Sweden in the opening round of matches in the Nations League.

Mbappe picked up the ball wide of the goal in the 41st minute, squeezed past two defenders, waited for goalkeeper Robin Olsen to go down and then clipped the ball just inside the post from the narrowest of angles.

The strike was enough to give France victory in a cagey opener in Group 3 of the elite League A in the competition.

Sweden managed just three strikes on target in the 90 minutes, though one of those was a deflection off French defender Dayot Upemecano that Hugo Lloris had to save.

Antoine Griezmann had a chance to double the French lead with the last kick of the game after Anthony Martial was fouled in the box, but the Barcelona attacker blasted the penalty high.

For France’s first match since they beat Albania last November, manager Didier Deschamps recalled Juventus midfielder Adrien Rabiot for his first appearance since he refused to serve as a standby for the 2018 World Cup.

France face Croatia in a rematch of the 2018 World Cup final at the Stade de France in Paris on Tuesday while Sweden take on the fourth team in the group, Portugal, winners of the inaugural Nations League, in Solna.

AFP

6, September 2020

Tennis: Williams rallies to move into last 16 of US Open ⁰

Serena Williams overcame an early scare to defeat fellow American Sloane Stephens and move into the last 16 of the US Open on Saturday.

Williams, the third seed, lost the first set convincingly before rallying to dominate the next two, triumphing 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 inside a near empty Arthur Ashe Stadium.

“It was intense, I have to say. We always have some really incredible matches and it brings out the best of my fitness when I play Sloane,” said Williams.

Stephens, the 26th seed and 2017 US Open champion dumped Williams out of the 2013 Australian Open during her sensational run to the semi-finals as a 19-year-old.

And after dropping the opening set, Williams feared that she was about to fall victim to a major upset again.

“In that first set I don’t think she made any errors, honestly. She was just playing so clean and I just said, ‘I don’t want to lose in straight sets.’

“Next thing I know, I won the second set and I was like, ‘Okay, great,'” Williams added.

The 38-year-old, gunning for a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam singles title, will play Greece’s 15th seed Maria Sakkari for a place in the quarter-finals.

Sakkari stunned Williams in three sets at the Western & Southern Open, a US Open tuneup, in New York last week.

With spectators barred from this year’s Flushing Meadows event due to the coronavirus pandemic, several top players took advantage of suites they have been assigned to watch two of their rivals in action.

Sofia Kenin and Naomi Osaka — the second and fourth seeds respectively — took in the three-setter, as did fifth seed in the men’s draw, German Alexander Zverev, who could be seen munching on sushi.

The opportunity to watch some tennis is a rare perk this Grand Slam for competitors who would normally be swamped by fans if they appeared in the stands.

“Usually it’s impossible to watch a match in a kind of peace,” explained Williams. So it’s cool us players can watch each other. It’s interesting, I like it.”

Also among the few onlookers was Williams’ three-year-old daughter who was filmed clapping approvingly at one point.

“I hope she say her mama fighting,” said Williams, before adding, “I don’t think she was paying attention. She may have been playing with some princesses upstairs.”

It has been more than three years since Williams won her 23rd Grand Slam title at the 2017 Australian Open — when she was already pregnant with Olympia.

Williams has come close since, reaching four major finals only to come away empty handed.

Source: AFP