SPORTThursday 21 September 2017

Infantino says time to reform transfer rat race

Nadal, Federer to spearhead Europe

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PAGE | 30 PAGE | 31 PAGE | 36Benzema extends Madrid contract to 2021

Former champs Al Gharafa eager to pick up first points Rizwan RehmatThe Peninsula

Former champions Al Gharafa are eager to pick up their first points fol-lowing last week’s 1-1 unexpected draw against

Al Ahli in the opening round of the QNB Stars League.

Coach Jean Fernandez, how-ever, said his squad is willing to be patient as the Cheetahs look to build a strong side for the future.

“We are looking to make our young side stronger. These (young) players will have a big role to play in the league (matches),” Fernan-dez said during a press conference yesterday.

“This is the vision of the Presi-dent and this is the long-term project at Al Gharafa,” the Al Gharafa coach added.

The Frenchman said Umm Salal - who beat Al Kharaitiyat 3-1 last week - won’t be pushovers in the round two clash to be played at Al Gharafa Stadium.

“Umm Salal we are playing a good brand of football. They are a strong and well organised side - a team won the opening game of the season last week,” Fernandez said.

“They will have plenty of moti-vation to win back-to-back games. Having said that, I feel that we played well against Al Ahli and come into the game in a positive spirit,” he added.

Meanwhile, new recruit Diogo Amado said his team remains capa-ble of producing a positive result in a match to be played on home soil at Thani Bin Jassim Stadium.

“We have been training well in the week. Umm Salal are a strong side, but we our focusing on our own performance and we are

aiming for a win. We did really well in the first game. We should of won the match against Al Ahli,” Amado said yesterday.

Umm Salal, on the other hand, will be targeting their second win of the season following their com-prehensive 3-1 opening day victory over Al Kharaitiyat.

Umm Salal coach Mahmoud Jaber, however, admitted that his side is wary of their opponents.

“We are in good form and did well against Al Gharafa but we must be careful when taking on Al Gharafa. They did well against Al Ahli and they will be hungry to get their first victory of the season. We will have to play well to get the result we need,” Jaber said during a pre-match press conference yesterday.

“We have more strength and depth in the side this season. This was one of our major problems last season and we have addressed this in the transfer window. I think this will really help us this season,” added the Egyptian coach.

To a question, Jaber insisted that his side will not be changing their playing style to counter Al Gharafa.

“Our positive result against Al Kharaitiyat shows that we are doing things right. We will continue to play our football in the best pos-sible way,” Jaber said.

In other matches this week Al Kharaitiyat take on Al Rayyan, Al Sailiyah face Al Sadd, Qatar SC bat-tle Al Markhiya, Al Duhail play Al Arabi while Al Khor have a date to keep with Al Ahli.

QNB STARS LEAGUE FIXTURESToday

Al Gharafa Vs Umm Salal At Al Gharafa Stadium (8.00pm)

TomorrowAl Kharaitiyat Vs Al RayyanAt Al Khor Stadium (5.50pm)

Al Sailiya Vs Al SaddAt Al Ahli Stadium (8.00pm)Qatar SC Vs Al Markhiya

At Al Duhail Stadium (8.00pm)On Sturday

Al Duhail Vs Al ArabiAt Al Duhail Stadium (5.50pm)

Al Khor Vs Al AhliAt Al Khor Stadium (8.00pm)

Al Gharafa coach Jean Fernandez (left) and Umm Salal coach Diogo Amado speak during press conferences held yesterday, ahead of their QNB Stars League match which will be played at Al Gharafa Stadium today.

The Peninsula

Al Duhail captain Yusef Msakni is confident that his side can challege for the QNB Stars League title come

the end of the season. Ahead of his team’s round two match against Al Arabi which is set to take place on Saturday evening at Al Duhail stadium, Msakni stressed that Al Arabi will be eager to get a result against the Red Knights.

“Arabi will be looking for a victory against us on Saturday. They lost in their first match, and will be wanting to mak-ing it up to their fans.”

“I don’t want to discuss our strengths heading to the match. As a team we are not afraid of Al Arabi, as with any team in the league and we are focused for the game.”

“Of course we will be fighting for the league this season, along with Al Sadd and Al Rayyan who have signed many impres-sive players in the transfer window. We taking each game at a time, and the whole squad is focused on winning the first league title as Duhail.”

Duhail focused on winning the first QSL titile

Hairane wins gold as Qatar bag fifth medal in Ashgabat

Chinthana WasalaThe Peninsula

The 2016 Asian Indoor Cham-pionships silver medallist, Jamal Hairane grabbed hon-

ours as he secured Qatar’s second gold medal at the Ashgabat 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games yesterday.

The 24-year old athlete, who trailed for the better part of yes-terday’s final, later picked up pace when it mattered the most to leave a shell-shocked Sri Lankan Ind-unil Herath in the second spot and Iranian Amir Moradi in third place as he surged past them in the last 50m to take gold in 1:49.33.

Later, Hairane and Qatar’s golden boy from Tuesday, Abdale-lah Haroun teamed up with Mohamed Nasir Abbas and Ali Hassan Al Jassim in the men’s 4x400 metres relay team to secure the bronze in a keenly contested final.

Rashid Ahmed Al Mannai secured Al Annabi’s second bronze medal of the day when he leapt 15.99 metres in the men’s triple jump behind the gold medallist, India’s Arpinder Singh and Thai-land’s Tepparak Pratchaya.

Kazakhstan topped the med-als chart with six gold, one silver and three bronze medals as cur-tain came down on track and field events at the Indoor Athletics Arena yesterday evening. Next were India with five gold, two sil-ver and one bronze.

Earlier, Qatar secured a bronze medal in men’s Taek-wondo through Ali Juma Al Aaraimi who beat South Korea’s Kim Seyoung in the 80kg weight class. The Qatari martial artist lost to Iranian Erfan Nazemi in the semi-final and later, Nazemi went on to secure the gold medal when he beat China’s Chen Linglong in the final.

With two gold medals, a silver

and two bronze, Qatar are cur-rently placed 16th in the medals tally.

They also have high hopes from their 3x3 basketball team which is one of the favourites at the Ashgabat Games.

Qatar beat Samoa 21-11 in a Pool C game in the men’s 3x3 Basketball tournament at the 3x3 Basketball Arena yesterday. After the win, Qatari team

member Abdulrahman Saad said: “When you win, everything is fine. It happened and we feel good.

“Since we didn’t play together in the last months, our priority is to find our chemistry and play at our level. We will need one or two games to reach our level.”

“I like it here. Everything looks perfect so far. The venues, the people, the atmosphere. It is a very well organised event,” Saad com-mented on the Ashgabat 2017 Games.

Samoan cager Theodore McFarland was disappointed after losing to Qatar.

“I am disappointed because we made a lot of mistakes and when you do so against a strong opponent, you pay for them,” he said.

“We knew that Qatar are very good and they proved it. I think they can go all the way,” McFar-land commented.

QATARI MEDALLISTS IN ASHGABAT

Gold medal: Men’s 400 metres:

Abdalelah Haroun

Gold medal: Men’s 800 metres:

Jamal Hairane

Silver medal: Men’s 4x400m: Jamal

Hairane, Abdalelah Haroun, Mohamed Nasir

Abbas and Ali Hassan Al Jassim

Bronze medal: Men’s triple jump:

Rashid Ahmed Al Mannai

Bronze medal: Men’s Taekwondo

(80kg): Ali Juma Al Aaraimi

Qatari athlete Jamal Hairane celebrates

after winning an event in this file photo

Yusef Msakni

tends ract

30 THURSDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2017SPORT

Benzema extends Madrid contract to 2021Madrid

AFP

Karim Benzema became the latest Real Madrid star to sign a new bumper

four-year contract with the European champions to 2021, the club announced yesterday.

“Real Madrid and Benzema have agreed to extend the con-tract of the player, who will remain tied to the club until June 30, 2021,” Madrid said in a statement.

Vice-captain Marcelo, Isco and Dani Carvajal all extended to 2022 over the past week as Real reward key members of the squad that became the first side to retain the Champions League trophy in June.

Coach Zinedine Zidane’s renewal is also imminent after the Frenchman repeated on Tuesday that his deal is “done”.

Benzema is currently side-lined by a hamstring injury that is expected to keep him out for another month.

The 29-year-old has won 14 trophies, including three Cham-pions League and two La Liga titles, since joining Real from Lyon as one of Europe’s most promising strikers in 2009.

The Frenchman’s eight-year stint at the Santiago Bernabeu has been filled with highs and lows.

Jose Mourinho complained of his meek nature claiming he wanted a “hunter” whilst describing Benzema as a “cat” when Real boss, and Benzema has often found himself whis-tled by the demanding Bernabeu crowd for his lack of killer instinct.

“When you play at a big club and you are a big player, you will always receive criticism. If you are never criticised, it is because you are a small player,” Benzema said in May.

However, it is his unselfish play that has seen him form a perfect partnership with Cris-tiano Ronaldo and see off the challenge of Gonzalo Higuain and Alvaro Morata among oth-ers to be Madrid’s number nine.

“Morata plays so little under Zidane because Ben-zema is the best striker to play with Cristiano,” another of Benzema’s former Madrid coaches Carlo Ancelotti told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera before June’s Cham-pions League final.

As well as helping Ronaldo

to smash Madrid’s all-time goal-scoring records, Benzema has also been a prolific scorer himself.

His 181 Madrid goals at just under a goal every two games is the eighth best in the club’s history and just one off club leg-end and six-time European Cup winner Paco Gento.

The Champions League is where Benzema has most con-sistently shone as his record of 51 goals in the competition is only bettered by Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Raul and Ruud van Nis-telrooy, excluding the qualifying rounds. Benzema has been ostracised by France at interna-tional level since 2015 due to his alleged role in a sex-tape plot aimed at blackmailing former international teammate Math-ieu Valbuena.

However, he has always received the full backing of Zidane and in particular Madrid president Florentino Perez throughout the lengthy legal battle in his homeland.

That faith has been rewarded on the field as Ben-zema was a pillar of Real’s first La Liga and European Cup dou-ble last season for 59 years -- scoring the goal that sealed the league title at Malaga on the final day of the season.

“For me, he’s one of the best strikers in the world,” said Zidane last month.

Real Madrid forward Karim Benzema celebrates after scoring during the second leg of the Spanish Supercup football match against FC Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid, in this August 16, 2017 file picture. Benzema became the latest Real Madrid star to sign a new bumper four-year contract with the European Champions to 2021, the club announced yesterday.

Liverpool rocked; Alli lifts SpursLondon

AFP

Leicester’s Shinji Okazaki sent Liverpool crashing out of the League Cup, while

Tottenham edged past Barnsley to reach the fourth round on Tuesday.

Okazaki came off the bench to fire Leicester ahead in the sec-ond half of their 2-0 win at the King Power Stadium.

The Japan forward, on as a second-half replacement for Leonardo Ulloa, broke the dead-lock in the 65th minute of the third-round tie.

Vincent Iborra headed into Okazaki’s path in the penalty

area and he controlled well before scoring with a deflected strike.

Reds boss Jurgen Klopp had made eight changes to his start-ing line-up, giving a first start to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, while Philippe Coutinho played the first 45 minutes before coming off at half-time.

But Liverpool’s disappoint-ing recent form showed no signs of improving and Islam Slimani finished them off 12 minutes from full-time.

Slimani took Okazaki’s pass and drove a fine strike into the roof of the net from the edge of the penalty area.

Klopp’s side have now gone

four games without a win after frustrating home draws with Burnley and Sevilla followed a 5-0 thrashing at Manchester City.

At Wembley, Tottenham won for just the second time at the national stadium since mov-ing into their temporary home at the start of the season.

With White Hart Lane being redeveloped, Tottenham had been suffering from home sick-ness after failing to win any of their three Premier League games there.

Mauricio Pochettino admit-ted this week that his priorities are the Premier League and Champions League, with success

in the English domestic cups largely irrelevant for the Totten-ham boss.

But Pochettino still sent out a strong side featuring Dele Alli, Son Heung-Min, Mousa Dem-bele and Jan Vertonghen, while Argentine defender Juan Foyth made his debut and Fernando Llorente got a first start.

- Stoke shocked -Tottenham once again

looked uncomfortable in their new abode as second-tier Barns-ley held out for 65 minutes before succumbing to a 1-0 defeat. England midfielder Alli finally broke the deadlock with a smart finish from Kieran Trip-pier’s cross to give Tottenham win number two at Wembley following last week’s Champi-ons League success against Borussia Dortmund.

Elsewhere in the third round, Premier League side Stoke slumped to a surprise 2-0 defeat at second-tier Bristol City.

Famara Diedhiou headed City in front in the 50th minute and Matt Taylor added the sec-ond on the hour. Roy Hodgson got his first win as Crystal Pal-ace manager as Bakary Sako sealed a 1-0 win against Huddersfield.

The former England coach’s first game had ended in a 1-0 home defeat against Southamp-ton in the Premier League at the weekend.

But Sako nabbed the first goal of the Hodgson era with a close-range header from a 13th-minute corner at Selhurst Park.

It was Palace’s first goal since August 22 and Mali for-ward Sako’s first since August 2015.

German FA investigate Baier for obscene gestureBerlin

AFP

Augsburg captain Daniel Baier (pictured) could face a heavy German

Football Association (DFB) fine after being investigated for making an obscene gesture during a televised Bundesliga match.

When Baier was tackled near the RB Leipzig bench late in Augsburg’s 1-0 victory dur-ing Tuesday’s bad-tempered match, the 33-year-old spat in the direction of RB coach Ralph Hasenhuettl.

The television camera caught Baier also making an obscene gesture.

The DFB confirmed yester-day they will investigate, referee Daniel Siebert not hav-ing seen the incident.

Baier claims he twice tried to apologise, both after the final whistle on the pitch and again in the dressing room, but that Hasenhuettl rejected the apology.

“He should have been shown a red. It was a pity that the fourth official didn’t see it. He (Baier) did not apologise,” fumed Hasenhuettl.

Immediately after the match, Augsburg’s skipper saw no reason to say ‘sorry’.

“What should I apologise for?” he told Sky.

“My god, it’s a football match and emotions are involved.

“I made a gesture, what

more can I say?” However, he apologised in a statement posted on social media chan-nel Instagram yesterday.

“Out of the emotion, I let myself be swept into making a gesture that I don’t know how I got to,” Baier wrote.

“I apologise to all those who interpreted it as offensive.

“I apologised to the team before training, because the senseless gesture pushed our great performance into the background.

“I hope that those at RB Leipzig will also think differ-ently following last night, when I tried to apologise on the pitch and later in their dressing room t o c l e a n u p t h e misunderstanding.”

There is a history of bad-blood between the pair after Hasenhuettl previously com-mented on Baier’s behaviour.

Augsburg are having a stel-lar start to the season with 10 points from their first five league games to go third in Ger-many’s top flight.

In contrast, Champions League side RB Leipzig are struggling to recapture last sea-son’s form, which saw them finish second to reigning cham-pions Bayern Munich.

Malaysia and North Korea to play in PyongyangKuala Lumpur

AFP

An Asian Cup qualifying match between Malaysia and North Korea that was

delayed by a row over the mur-der of Kim Jong-Un’s half-brother will be played in Pyongyang, officials said yesterday.

The Asian Football

Confederation (AFC) had already confirmed that the match, orig-inally scheduled for March, would finally go ahead on Octo-ber 5 after twice being postponed.

But the venue had not been finalised amid concerns about player safety.

However AFC secretary-gen-eral Windsor John told AFP it would take place in the North

Korean capital after officials judged that recent matches in Pyongyang went smoothly.

“At this moment, it will go ahead on October 5 in Pyongyang as decided by the AFC competi-tions committee,” he said.

The match, originally sched-uled for March 28, was postponed during a furious dip-lomatic row over the murder of Kim Jong-Nam, half-brother of

the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, in Malaysia in February.

The killing sparked a diplo-matic crisis which saw both countries banning each other’s citizens from leaving, and with-drawing their ambassadors. Tensions have since cooled.

South Korea accuses the North of masterminding the murder, which was carried out

using a towel soaked with nerve agent at Kuala Lumpur Interna-tional Airport. The president of the Football Association of Malaysia, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, raised concerns earlier this year about players being deliberately poisoned if their qualifier went ahead in Pyongyang. However Tunku Ismail on Tuesday met Kim Yu-Song, a North Korean envoy in

Malaysia. They discussed the safety of players and team offi-cials, according to a statement on Facebook, accompanied by a picture of the men smiling and shaking hands. It also said that Tunku Ismail -- the crown prince of the southern state of Johor -- would be allowed to travel directly through North Korea’s airspace anytime he wants to visit the nuclear-armed nation.

Tottenham Hotspurs midfielder Dele Alli (left) vies with Barnsley’s defender Angus MacDonald during the English League Cup third round football match at Wembley Stadium in London on Tuesday.

Contract till 2021Real Madrid star signs a new bumper four-year contract with the European champions, the club announced

31THURSDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2017 SPORT

Geneva

Reuters

FIFA president Gianni Infantino appealed to European football bosses

yesterday to help reform the sport’s transfer system and described the current set-up as a “rat race” which had cast foot-ball in a negative light.

“It is the responsibility of all of us to tackle the transfer sys-tem,” Infantino said in a speech at the extraordinary congress of European soccer body UEFA.

“We have to come up with some positive solutions for agents, transfer regulations, for loans and transfer windows, (salary) caps and all these items which are somewhere in the air but which have never been addressed... in a significant way.”

Later, Infantino told report-ers from international news agencies of his ideas for new regulations governing the roles of agents, limits on the sizes of c l u b s q u a d s a n d

the co-ordination of transfer windows so they closed before major championships start.

“We have to make sure that transfers don’t affect the integ-rity of the competitions, they should indeed stop before the start,” he said.

Referring to the way teams could strengthen their squads after a poor start to the season, he added: “When you run a marathon, you don’t run for 10 kilometres and then take a bike.”

Infantino, who was elected FIFA president in February of last year, said that spending on international transfers had totalled around 4.6bn euros during the northern hemisphere summer compared to 3.6 bil-lion euros for the same period the year before.

These included Brazilian forward Neymar’s record-shat-tering 222m euro move from Barcelona to Paris St Germain, plus 18-year-old French for-ward Kylian Mbappe’s move to the same Ligue 1 club.

He also said that the trans-fer market “doesn’t necessarily reflect very well” on the sport, although he still believed it played an important role in redistributing resources.

“What is worrying is the inflation that these transfers trigger and the rat race that this entails with all the other clubs,” he said.

“All these negative head-lines bring the whole football movement into a negative light. From a perception point of view, it doesn’t feel right.”

The Swiss, who previously saids in an interview last November that he wanted to reform the transfer system, said that leagues and clubs felt the same way.

“I see it from the discus-sions I had with players, clubs, leagues, associations,” he said.

“I have never felt it is as strongly as I do now. It’s not limited only to Europe and we need to have a framework at worldwide level.”

Infantino says time to reform transfer rat race

FIFA President Gianni Infantino speaks during the 13th Extraordinary UEFA Congress in Geneva, Switzerland, yesterday.

Atletico Madrid Stadium to host 2019 Champions League finalMadrid

AFP

Atletico Madrid’s new 68,000 capacity Wanda Metropolitano Stadium will host the 2019

Champions League final, European football’s governing body UEFA announced yesterday.

As the only other candidate for the final, Azerbaijani capital Baku receives the 2019 Europa League final as a con-solation for missing out on the main event.

Budapest will host the women’s

Champions League final, whilst the UEFA Super Cup between the Cham-pions League and Europa League winners will take place at Besiktas’ Vodafone Park in Istanbul.

Backed by Chinese conglomerate Wanda, who bought a 20 percent stake in Atletico in 2015, the club opened the 310 million-euro ($370m) Wanda Metropolitano for the first time on Saturday as Atletico beat Malaga 1-0 in La Liga.

“For me it is the best stadium I have played in, and I don’t just say that because it is my club,” said Antoine

Griezmann after scoring the opening goal at the new ground.

“As a player or a coach I have never seen anything like it,” added Atletico coach Diego Simeone.

According to a report from Span-ish sports daily Marca, Madrid’s hotel capacity and that of the nearby Bara-jas international airport swung the decision in Madrid’s favour.

“Everyone from the world of foot-ball will look towards our new stadium in the 2019 Champions League final,” Atletico said in a statement.

Messi hits four as Barca maintain perfect startMadrid

AFP

Lionel Messi added four more goals to his soaring early season tally as a

much-changed Barcelona main-tained their 100 percent start to La Liga by routing Eibar 6-1 on Tuesday.

Paulinho and Denis Suarez also netted for the second con-secutive game as Barca stretched their lead at the top of La Liga to seven points over Real Madrid.

Earlier, Valencia moved up to third as Simone Zaza scored a seven-minute hat-trick in a 5-0 thrashing of Malaga.

Barca boss Ernesto Val-verde heavily rotated his side for the first time since taking charge with six changes from Saturday’s hard-fought 2-1 win at Getafe.

And contrary to their for-tunes last season, Barca’s back-ups proved Valverde can take the luxury of resting some of his star names with Paulinho particularly impressive on his first start.

The hosts had goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen to thank early on for not falling behind though as he made a smart save when one-on-one with Sergi Enrich just four minutes in.

Messi opened the scoring in nonchalant fashion from the penalty spot on 21 minutes after Nelson Semedo had been felled by an ungainly challenge from Alejandro Galvez.

Paulinho’s 40-million-euro ($48 million) signing from Guangzhou Evergrande was one of a series of moves that drew stinging criticism for Barca’s board following Neymar’s world-record departure for Paris Saint-Germain.

However, after coming off the bench to score the winner at Getafe, Paulinho powered home his second Barca goal from Sua-rez’s corner seven minutes before half-time.

Paulinho also played his part in Barca’s third with a cute dummy that freed Messi and, when his shot was parried by

Marko Dmitrovic, Suarez fired home the rebound. Enrich reduced the arrears when he capitalised on some sloppy Barca defending to slot home David Junca’s cross.

However, Messi quickly restored Barca’s three-goal lead with a lovely measured finish from the edge of the box.

The five-time world player of the year completed his 43rd career hat-trick just after the hour mark by prodding through Dmitrovic’s legs from Paulinho’s pass.

And he added his 12th goal in just eight games this season

three minutes from time after a neat one-two with Aleix Vidal.

Barca lead second-placed Sevilla, who host Las Palmas on Wednesday, by five points with Valencia now just a point further adrift as their unbeaten start to the season under new coach Marcelino Garcia Toral continued at Mestalla.

By contrast, a fifth straight defeat to start the season sees Malaga slip to bottom of the table and plunges coach Michel into further danger of becoming the second La Liga boss to be sacked this term.

Barcelona’s forward Lionel Messi (left) celebrates with team-mates after scoring during the Spanish league match against SD Eibar at the Camp Nou Stadium in Barcelona on Tuesday.

A view of the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium after the Spanish League match between Club Atletico de Madrid vs Malaga CF in Madrid on Sunday.

Close shave as Icardi rescues Inter MilanMilan

AFP

Shaven-headed skipper Mauro Icardi rescued a 1-1 draw for Inter Milan at

Bologna on Tuesday that ended his side’s perfect start to the Serie A season.

Luciano Spalletti had been looking to make it five wins from five but had to settle for just one point in Bologna.

Simone Verdi’s superb long range first-half goal was just the second conceded by Inter before Icardi -- with a new dis-tinctive shaved-head look -- stepped up to convert a con-tentious spot kick with 13 minutes to go at the Stadio Dall’Ara.

“We had to take advantage of the last quarter of an hour,” said Icardi after his sixth goal this season. “We could have done something more, but we were not able to finish.

“Now against Genoa (on Sunday) we have to go back and win at home. With our fans we have an extra player. We have to go back to continue the pos-itive streak.”

Inter have emerged as one of the title challengers to rival Juventus and Napoli who also had maximum points after four matches.

Now with 13 points, Inter move provisionally top but Juventus and Napoli can pull ahead when they play Fioren-tina and Lazio respectively on Wednesday.

A win by Lazio -- sitting fourth -- would however put the Romans equal on points with Inter.

“There are two lost points, we will see what went wrong this week,” said Inter striker Eder.

“We have to look at our-selves not Napoli and Juventus, our goal is the Champions League and we have to fight at all costs.”

Spalletti had made just one change to the side that beat Crotone on Saturday with Jap-anese defender Yuto Nagatomo in for Brazilian Dalbert.

But Inter suffered in the first half with Icardi just failing to get on the end of an Ivan Peri-sic cross before Verdi got on the scoresheet after 32 minutes after half a dozen early shots at goal.

Inter gained momentum after the break but failed to find a way through until the contro-versial foul by Ibrahima Mbaye on Eder which was confirmed by the video assistant referee.

Eder won the spot-kick, as he was running away from goal when Mbaye tripped and acci-dentally landed with his arm on the forward’s heel.

“He scored tonight, so we’ll shave his head every day now,” joked Spalletti of Icardi who had failed to find the net against Crotone.

“It’s not a scandal for a team to draw,” added the Inter boss. “We were slower than usual, unable to make the ball move well in vertical lines, especially in midfield, so we gave Bolo-gna the chance to close down our channels.”

Bologna move up two spots to 11th as they bounced back from the weekend defeat at Fiorentina.

32 THURSDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2017SPORT 33THURSDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2017 SPORT

Not in a bad place with my captaincy, says Smith

Kolkata

AFP

Skipper Steve Smith yesterday dismissed suggestions that his

captaincy was under threat after a string of disappointing per-

formances by the once all-conquering Australian side.

Smith’s men were recently tested in a two-match Test series against low-

ranked Bangladesh that ended 1-1, after going down 2-1 to India in March.

Their form in the 50-over-game also seems to

have taken a sharp dip, with the team failing to make it to the semi-

final of the Champions Trophy in England early this year.

And currently the team is looking to level the five-ODI series after losing the

opener to India on Sunday despite a flying start.

Former captain Michael Clarke, who is part of the TV commentary team for the current series, on Tuesday said Smith’s captaincy was under the scanner although his batting had been outstand-ing all through.

“I don’t think so. I’m not in a bad place with my captaincy,” Smith told reporters when asked to comment on Clarke’s remark.

“Obviously results haven’t been the way we would have liked and that’s something we are

trying to rectify,” he said ahead of today’s second match in Kolkata.

“It was a disappointing start to the series the other day (but) we’ve got the other game tomorrow to turn things around.”

Australia had India reeling at 87-5 in Chennai before Hardik Pandya struck back with a blazing fifty. The spinners then ensured an easy win for the hosts in the rain-hit tie.

The tourists finished at 137-9 in 21 overs while chasing a revised target of 164.

“Obviously, the other day it was more like a T20 game for us, especially while we were batting,” said Smith. “I think if we had 50 overs, the guys would have had a chance to get into their groove and play with the right tempo.

“(But) we still believe in these guys. We think they’ve got a lot of talent and we’ve got a team here that can hopefully challenge India in the next cou-ple of games,” he added.

Australia, once called the Invincibles for their domination of all rivals, won the 2015 World Cup but have since struggled to make a mark.

The upcoming ODI will be Smith’s 100th match since he made his debut in 2010 as a leg-spinner before making his mark as one of the best batsmen in world cricket.

“I’ve been batting at No. 3 now for a while now. I had to find the right tempo for the game, whether it’s hitting boundaries or finding the right time to hit a right boundary.

“You learn as you play. It’s pretty exciting to play my 100th game,” the 28-year-old said.

Smith, who has a Test average of just under 60, has accumulated 3,188 runs in 99 ODIs with the help of eight centuries.

Re lief for Tharanga as Windies loss sees Sri Lanka into World Cup Manchester

AFP

Sri Lanka captain Upul Tharanga backed his side to uphold the island’s proud World Cup record after their

automatic qualification for the 2019 edi-tion in Britain was assured by West Indies’ seven-wicket loss to England on Tuesday.

With September 30 set as the cut-off date for automatic qualification for the International Cricket Council’s showpiece 50-over tournament, two-time champi-ons West Indies (78 points) now cannot move ahead of Sri Lanka (86 points) in the ODI team rankings regardless of other results in the remainder of their five-match series in England.

As a result 1996 World Cup winners Sri Lanka -- also the losing finalists in 2007 and 2011 -- have become the eighth and last team to qualify directly, joining Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa.

The confirmation that Sri Lanka had gained direct entry to the next World Cup came after their recent hammering at home to India in all three formats, the vis-itors winning Test and one-day series 3-0 and 5-0 respectively before triumphing by seven wickets in a lone Twenty20 international earlier this month.

“It’s no secret that we have been going through a tough time,” said relieved Sri Lanka ODI skipper Tharanga in an ICC statement released shortly after England’s win in a day/night clash in Manchester.

“But I want to say a big, big thank you to our fans who’ve kept faith with us when things looked bleak.”

He added: “ICC events have always brought out the magic in Sri Lanka cricket, and I look forward to proving that once again.

“We have a clear plan toward the World Cup, and we will work hard at achieving each step.

“I know you will see Sri Lanka’s spe-cial brand of cricket out there once again soon.”

Only a 5-0 series win or 4-0 with a tie or no-result against England would have seen West Indies pip Sri Lanka before the cut-off point.

But having failed to qualify for the elite Champions Trophy tournament in Brit-ain earlier this year, West Indies suffered a 13th defeat in their last 14 completed

ODIs against England in the series opener at Old Trafford on Tuesday.

“We knew it was always going to be a tough ask,” said West Indies batting coach Toby Radford after a convincing loss.

“But we are very positive as a group and we are trying to develop in all our formats of cricket, so every game that comes now we will be positive and if that means qualifiers next year, it’s qualifiers next year and we’ll build our way back up.”

West Indies, who won the first two World Cups -- both staged in England -- in 1975 and 1979, could still take part in the main 10-team 2019 tournament if they are one of the top two sides in next year’s qualifying competition.

That event, also featuring 10 teams, will see West Indies joined by the bottom three sides in the ODI rankings - Afghan-istan, Zimbabwe and Ireland - as well as the top four sides from the ICC World Cricket League and the top two from Divi-sion Two of the WCL.

The next World Cup, the fifth to be staged in Britain, takes place from May 30-July 15 2019.

Lahore, PakistanAFP

Pakistan cricket’s anti-corruption tribunal yesterday banned opener Khalid Latif for five years and fined him one million rupees ($9,489) over a spot-fixing case,

the second casualty after teammate Shar-jeel Khan was banned late last month.

“Latif is banned for five years and fined one million rupees after the proceedings of the case,” the three-member tribunal announced.

The 31-year-old has played five one-day internationals and 13 T20Is, the last of which was against the West Indies in Abu Dhabi in September 2016.

In August, Sharjeel was banned for five years, with two-and-a-half years sus-pended, for his role in the spot-fixing scandal.

Latif had been charged with breach-ing six clauses, including the serious offense of luring other players to take part in fixing.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) pro-visionally suspended Latif and Sharjeel after they found evidence of spot-fixing during a Pakistan Super League (PSL) match between Islamabad United and Peshawar Zalmi in Dubai in February.

The board said Sharjeel and Latif met an alleged bookie and struck a deal. Based on the plan, Sharjeel -- an aggressive bats-man who scores quickly -- agreed to play two dot balls after the first over in the match.

Although Latif did not play in that game, he was later charged with luring Sharjeel into the deal and not reporting the matter to the PCB anti-corruption unit.

Spot-fixing involves bets on the out-come of a particular passage of play, unlike match-fixing in which there is an attempt to prearrange the result of the match.

Both players were suspended provi-sionally at the time and withdrawn from the PSL.

The minimum punishment for the charges which Latif faced was a six-month

suspension with a maximum of a life ban.Under the PCB code players can appeal

rulings before an independent arbitrator within 14 days of the decision.

Four other players -- Mohammad Irfan, Shahzaib Hasan, Nasir Jamshed and Mohammad Nawaz -- were also included in the investigation on multiple charges.

Irfan and Nawaz admitted not report-ing the bookie’s offer. Irfan was banned for one year with six months suspended and fined one million rupees. Nawaz was banned for two months, with one sus-pended, and fined 200,0000 rupees.

Both are now free to play, while the cases against Hasan and Jamshed are continuing.

Latif’s lawyer Badre Alam repeat-edly raised objections during the proceedings, and also filed a peti-tion in the Lahore high court against the tribunal. But the pleas were rejected by the court.

Alam, who like Latif did not attend the announcement, rejected the verdict.

“The short decision proves that the tribunal is not impartial,” Alam told media. “They had made up their mind to pun-ish Latif. We will decide our plans only after the detailed judgement comes.”

Lat i f had shown tremen-dous promise at an early age but has failed to make an impact at international level.

H a v i n g made his first class debut at 15, he led Pakistan to victory at the Junior World Cup in Bangladesh in 2004.

But once drafted to the Pakistan side for a one-day match against

Zimbabwe in 2008, Latif could not cement his place on the national team.

Last year he appeared to have become a regular player in the Twenty20 squad, having scored a rapid 59 not out against England last year.

But the latest punishement looks set to all but end a career which had only briefly taken off.

Pakistan bans Latif over spot-fixing

Rain threatens second ODI Kolkata

AFP

Heavy rain that lashed the eastern city of Kolkata yesterday forced the Aus-tralian and Indian teams to skip net

practice on the eve of their second one-day international.

The ground staff at Eden Gardens have covered the playing area for the last three days due to the seasonal downpour.

The first match of the five-game series in Chennai was also hit by rain before India won by 26 runs.

Australian skipper Steve Smith said his side was ready for Thursday’s game despite being unable to train outdoors yesterday.

“I don’t think it (lack of net practice) will have a big impact. Guys have worked hard since we’ve been here in India. We’ve obviously had a game not that long ago so the guys are in a fine space,” Smith told reporters.

Eden Gardens has been under the scanner since a Twenty20 International between India and South Africa in 2015

was abandoned without a ball being bowled.Ground authorities failed to clear puddles

caused by a 30-minute downpour five hours before the scheduled start.

The stadium has since upgraded its drain-age system, hosting a World T20 game between India and Pakistan in 2016 just hours after rain hit the West ben-gal city.

More rain and thun-derstorms are predicted today.

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h a maximum of a life ban.CB code players can appealan independent arbitrator of the decision.layers -- Mohammad Irfan, an, Nasir Jamshed and waz -- were also included tion on multiple charges.awaz admitted not report-s offer. Irfan was banned ith six months suspended

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Zimbabwe in 2008, Latif could notcement his place on the nationalteam.

Last year he appeared to havebecome a regular player in theTwenty20 squad, having scored a rapid 59 not out against England last year.

But the latest punishement looksset to all but end a career which had only briefly taken off.

Bairstow proud to crack ODI hundred barrier at last Manchester

AFP

Jonny Bairstow said he was delighted to have joined an “elusive club” after finally scoring his maiden one-day international hundred as England beat West Indies by

seven wickets in their series opener at Old Trafford on Tuesday.

Bairstow finished on exactly 100 not out, getting to three figures six years after playing a winning hand on debut against India in Cardiff.

That Tuesday’s match was just Bairstow’s 28th ODI is a reflection both of the difficulty he has had in establishing himself in the white-ball set-up and England’s uncertainty over how to best deploy the man now firmly established as their Test wicket-keeper in the 50-over game.

But having brought in Bairstow as an opener in place of the struggling Jason Roy for their previous ODI, an eight-wicket Champions Trophy defeat by Pakistan in Cardiff in June, a match where the Yorkshireman’s 43 was a rare high-light for the hosts, they retained him as a specialist batsman at the top of the order on Tuesday, as Jos Buttler again kept wicket.

The selectors’ decision was rewarded by an expertly-paced innings from Bairstow, who ensured England made light work of chasing down West Indies’ below-par total of 204 for nine in a match reduced to 42 overs per side by a wet outfield.

“I’m really pleased,” said Bairstow, who put on 125 for the second wicket with Yorkshire colleague and England Test captain Joe Root (54).

“It seems a long time ago since I made my debut at Car-diff,” added the 27-year-old son of the late former Yorkshire and England wicket-keeper David Bairstow.

“I’m delighted to have scored my first one-day hundred for England.

“There aren’t many people who’ve done it -- and to join that elusive club is something, when you make your debut at Cardiff against India, you want to do.

“So you’ve got to enjoy it when you do.”Just over a month ago, Bairstow was dismissed for 99

during a Test against South Africa at Old Trafford.When he slipped going for a third run that saw him com-

pleted his 97-ball century on Tuesday there were, just briefly, fears he might once more be denied an international three-figure score at the Manchester ground.

“When I slipped coming back for the third, I thought ‘Oh no, not again!’,” said Bairstow after England went 1-0 up in this five-match series with more than 11 overs left.

“But luckily enough, it was slippy enough on the bound-ary for him (the fielder) to slip too.”

Ben Stokes, in the middle when Bairstow made his maiden Test century, was also the Yorkshireman’s batting partner when he got to three figures on Tuesday.

“He was in the middle when I made my first Test hun-dred, and he said ‘Don’t worry, I’m backing up for two on this one’,” added Bairstow.

The series continues at Trent Bridge today.

India’s Dhoni nominated for Padma Bhushan Agencies

The BCCI has nominated MS Dhoni for the Padma Bhushan, the country’s third-high-est civilian award, PTI has reported.

“Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been nominated by the BCCI for the Padma Bhushan award,” said BCCI’s acting president CK Khanna.

“It was a unanimous decision by the mem-bers. He has been one of the greatest names in contemporary cricket and the most appropri-ate choice of the Indian cricket board.”

Dhoni could become the 11th cricketer to receive the award, after Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Chandu Borde, Lala Amarnath, Prof DB Deodhar, Col CK Nayudu, Raja Bhalindra Singh and Maharajah of Vizianagram (Vizzy).

Dhoni has been one of India’s most success-ful captains, having led them to victory in the 2007 World T20, the 2011 World Cup and the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. He has 10,949 runs from 380 matches in ODIs and T20Is, and 4876 runs from 90 Test matches. He also became the first wicketkeeper to affect 100 ODI stumpings, during the series against Sri Lanka this month.

MS Dhoni

Australia’s skipper Steve Smith

ICC events have always brought out the magic in Sri Lanka cricket, and I look forward to proving that once again. We have a clear plan toward the World Cup, and we will work hard at achieving each step. I know you will see Sri Lanka’s special brand of cricket out there once again soon, says Sri Lanka’s captain Upul Tharanga

Mathews out as Sri Lanka add three new faces for Pakistan Test series Colombo

Reuters

Sri Lanka all-rounder and former skip-per Angelo Mathews has been ruled out of the first Test against Pakistan

in Abu Dhabi next week with a calf injury, but the uncapped Sadeera Samarawick-rama, Roshen Silva and Lahiru Gamage are in the squad.

Middle order batsman Silva could be given the chance to make a late Test debut for his country at the age of 28, along with fast bowler Gamage, who is a year older. Silva was called up by Sri Lanka last year, but did not play.

At 22, wicketkeeper-batsman Sama-rawickrama is the youngest of the trio but has represented his country at the under-19 level.

Opener Kaushal Silva is back in the squad for the first time since January. The 31-year-old has not been called up since his first-ball duck against South Africa at the Wanderers on January 14.

Lahiru Thirimanne will add experience to Sri Lanka’s batting lineup in the absence of the injured Mathews after being given the nod for the first time since the tour of England in June last year.

There was also a recall for seamer Suranga Lakmal, who missed the second and third Tests against India last month with a back injury.

Sri Lanka will be hoping for a better showing in the two-Test series with

Pakistan after being whitewashed 3-0 by India at home last month, in what was one of the most one-sided Test series of recent times.

The first Test against Pakistan begins on September 28. The second starts on October 6 in Dubai and will be played in the new day-night format.

SRI LANKA SQUAD:

Dinesh Chandimal (captain), Lahiru Thirimanne, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kaushal Silva, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Roshen Silva, Niroshan Dickwella, Rangana Herath, Lakshan Sandakan, Dilruwan Per-era, Suranga Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep, Vishva Fernando, Lahiru Gamage.

TOUR FIXTURESFirst Test – September 28 to October 2 in Abu Dhabi Second Test – October 6 - 10 in Dubai (D/N)

First ODI – October 13 in Dubai Second ODI – October 16 in Abu DhabiThird ODI – October 18 in Abu DhabiFourth ODI – October 20 in Sharjah Fifth ODI – October 23 in Sharjah

First T20I – October 26 in Abu DhabiSecond T20I – October 27 in Abu DhabiThird T20I – October 29 in Lahore (Subject to Secu-rity Clearance)

The ground staff at Eden Gardens, Kolkata walk on the covers yesterday as it rains ahead of today’s second One Day International between India and Australia.

Pakistan cricketer Khalid Latif leaves after appearing before a tribunal in Lahore in this March 31 file photo. Pakistan cricket’s

anti-corruption tribunal yesterday banned Latif for

five years and fined him one million rupees ($9,489) over

a spot-fixing case.

Sri Lankan cricket captain Upul Tharanga

34 THURSDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2017SPORT

Legendary Phelps has ‘no desire’ to return to pool

New York

AP

Michael Phelps wondered if watching others com-pete at the world championships would pique his desire for

another comeback.Nope.Phelps said on Tuesday he has “no

desire” to return to competitive swim-ming, but he is eager to stay involved with the sport and cheer on those who follow in his enormous wake.

In an interview with The Associ-ated Press while promoting a healthy pet food campaign, Phelps said he is excited about having his second child and building a life beyond swimming.

“For me, it’s about being happy where I am and happy where my fam-ily is,” Phelps said.

“We have more goals we want to accomplish outside the sport.”

It was around this time four years ago when Phelps got serious about ending his first retirement, but he now seems content with his decision to step away again after the Rio Olympics.

His wife, Nicole, is about four

months pregnant. The couple already have a 16-month-old son, Boomer.

“I’ve got no desire — no desire — to come back,” the 32-year-old Phelps said flatly.

Phelps has attended a handful of swimming meets since the Rio Games, where the winningest athlete in Olym-pic history added to his already massive career haul by claiming five gold medals plus a silver.

A few months ago, he conceded to that he wasn’t sure how he would feel about a possible comeback after watching the worlds in Budapest, Hungary.

“We’ll see if I get that itch,” he said in April .

Turns out, it had no impact.Phelps said the second-biggest

meet after the Olympics “truly didn’t kick anything off or spike any more interest in coming out of retirement again.”

He is excited to follow the devel-opment of his heir apparent, Caeleb Dressel, who emerged as the sport’s newest star by winning seven gold medals at Budapest .

The 21-year-old Floridian joined Phelps and Mark Spitz as the only swimmers to accomplish that

feat at a major international meet.“I’m happy Caeleb decided to go

off this year instead of last year,” quipped Phelps, who won 23 golds and 28 medals overall in his Olym-pic career. “I’m kind of happy to see him swimming so well when I’m not there.”

While he still travels extensively for his many sponsors, Phelps said he’s much more involved in his wife’s second pregnancy than he was before Boomer’s birth, when he was

consumed by full-scale training for the Olympics.

“It’s definitely different going through it again,” he said.

Boomer, meanwhile, is a chip off the old block.

“He skipped the walking part and went right to running,” Phelps said, chuckling.

“He just scoots around the house. It’s funny when we get him in the pool. He basically just splashes around the whole time. He’s literally nonstop. As soon as he wakes up from a nap or his night’s sleep, he’s just go, go, go. There’s no time for slow moving in our fam-ily. He likes to go fast. I guess that’s a good thing.”

Boomer is even starting to show some good form in the pool. His mom and Phelps’ longtime coach,

Bob Bowman, have detected a bit of the stroke that was his father’s strongest. “Nicole and Bob both say he’s got a good butterfly technique that he’s working on,” Phelps said.

“I guess he’s seen his dad doing it a couple of times and kind of picks it up. He’s also now in a stage where it’s like all five senses are coming together. He feels everything, recognises every-thing. It’s really fun to watch, as a dad,

just watching these transitions in his life.”In his latest business endeavor,

Phelps is spearheading a marketing campaign for Nulo Pet Food , which he describes as a healthy alternative for dogs and cats. He’s an investor in the company and accompanied in ads by his French bulldogs, Juno and Legend.

“Our bodies are like a high-per-formance car. You have to make sure you’re putting the correct fuel in your body,” Phelps said.

“We obviously treat our pets like human beings. I’d like my animals to be fed in the right way, with good nutrition and healthy foods. If we can do that with a company that’s putting good, natural ingredients into a pet food, it makes sense for me with what I’m doing in my own life. It’s some-thing that goes hand in hand,” said the legendary Olympian.

With Dressel and Katie Ledecky now leading the American team, the US is expected to remain the world’s dominant swimming country head-ing into the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Even without Phelps.“It’s time to kind of move on,” he

said, “and watch other people come into their own.”

It’s time to kind of move on and watch other people come into their own, says Olympic superstar Phelps

The 18-time Olympic gold medallist Michael Phelps

competes in the men’s 200 metre butterfly final at the

Skyline Aquatic Center in Mesa, Arizona, in this April 2016 file

photo.

Spieth eyes FedEx Cup jackpot Atlanta

AFP

World number two Jor-dan Spieth (pictured) says he will be target-

ing victory at the season-ending Tour Championship this week as he bids to pocket another multi-million-dollar jackpot.

Spieth heads into today’s first round at East Lake Golf Club in pole position to claim the $10m bonus on offer to the win-ner of the FedEx Cup series, leading second placed Justin Thomas by 340 points.

That healthy points cushion means Spieth could afford to fin-ish second in Atlanta this week and still win the title, provided none of the other players in the top five win this week’s event.

Mathematically, Spieth could even take the FedEx Cup title with as low as a 29th-place fin-ish, depending on the performances of his rivals.

The 24-year-old Texan how-ever insists he will not be tempted into trying to play for position when the action begins on East Lake’s 7,385-yard par-70 layout.

“If you start playing for posi-tion that’s when you take your foot off the gas pedal a little bit, and that’s not how we normally play,” Spieth said.

“I’m comfortable at East

Lake, and I’m in a great position.”

Spieth, who won the FedEx Cup two years ago, has not yet registered a victory in the play-offs this year.

He would be the first player to win the title without winning a tournament if he takes the FedEx Cup this week, and only the second player after Tiger Woods to win the title twice.

Spieth finished 10 shots behind BMW Championship winner Marc Leishman on Sun-day, but a final round 65 has left the three-time major winner confident heading into the sea-son finale.

“I was pumped to have the round I did on Sunday, to gain some momentum, to maintain the number one spot,” Spieth said.

“I was a little bit off at the start of the week in my striking. But I feel pretty close right now to where I was in the first two playoff events. Things feel good. If this were a major champion-ship I’d be p r e t t y pleased w i t h h o w

things are feeling on the Tuesday.”

Spieth said the key to a suc-cessful final event of the year has been learning to conserve energy.

“In 2014 and 2016 I remem-ber being completely worn out by the time I got to the Tour Championship,” Spieth said Tuesday. “There’s a lot on the

line. It’s essentially a major after coming off a pretty hectic sched-ule in the last six or seven weeks.”

Spieth will partner close friend Thomas in the first round. The latter is aiming to crown a successful season with victory in Atlanta after recording five wins this year including a maiden major title at the PGA Championship.

Like Spieth, Thomas could win the FedEx Cup title with a top-three finish this week, depending on how his rivals fare.

World number one Dustin Johnson meanwhile will aim to make up for his near-miss last season, when he was pipped to the title by Rory McIlroy.

Johnson won the opening leg of the FedEx Cup when he

beat Spieth in a playoff at the Northern Trust in New York last month.

Since then though Johnson has failed to challenge, tying

for 18th at the Dell Technol-ogies before settling for

a share of 33rd at the BMW

Champi-onship l a s t week-end.

a tou a e t e ta es t eFedEx Cup this week, and only the second player after Tiger Woods to win the title twice.

Spieth finished 10 shotsbehind BMW Championshipwinner Marc Leishman on Sun-day, but a final round 65 has leftthe three-time major winner confident heading into the sea-son finale.

“I was pumped to have theround I did on Sunday, to gainsome momentum, to maintainthe number one spot,” Spiethsaid.

“I was a little bit off at thestart of the week in my striking.But I feel pretty close right now to where I was in the first two playoff events. Thingsfeel good. If this were a majorchampion-ship I’d bep r e t t y pleasedw i t hh o w

by t e t e got to t e ouChampionship,” Spieth said Tuesday. “There’s a lot on the

t a ta a te eco d g vewins this year including amaiden major title at the PGAChampionship.

Like Spieth, Thomas couldwin the FedEx Cup title with a top-three finish this week, depending on how his rivals fare.

World number one DustinJohnson meanwhile will aim tomake up for his near-miss lastseason, when he was pipped tothe title by Rory McIlroy.

Johnson won the openingleg of the FedEx Cup when he

beat Spieth in a playoff at the Northern Trust in New York last month.

Since then though Johnson has failed to challenge, tying

for 18th at the Dell Technol-ogies before settling for

a share of 33rd atthe BMW

Champi-onshipl a s tweek-end.

Star McIlroy adds British Masters to his schedule London

Reuters

Rory McIlroy (pictured) will play in next week’s British Masters after

the four times major winner failed to qualify for the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

The European Tour con-firmed on Monday that the Northern Irishman will join tournament host Lee West-wood and US Masters champion Lee Garcia at the Close House course near Newcastle upon Tyne.

It will be McIlroy’s fourth appearance at the British Masters, which he previously played in 2005, 2007 and 2008 before the tournament went off schedule for five years from 2009.

“I kind of had it in the back of my mind that if I didn’t make the Tour Cham-pionship then there was a chance to tee it up at Close House, so I have decided to do that before finishing my season off the next week at the Dunhill Links,” he said.

“Teeing it up next week gives me one more chance to end 2017 on a high as well,” he added.

“If I can sign off the year with a win or two in Newcas-tle and then St Andrews I would take so many positives into my six-week recovery period when I am going to reset mentally and physically and concentrate on getting myself in the right shape for next year.”

McIlroy has slipped to eighth in the latest world rankings after what is look-ing like becoming only his second winless season since turning professional.

35THURSDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2017 SPORT

Gordon hits record-settinghome run of MLB season Toronto

AP

Kansas City’s Alex Gor-don broke Major League Baseball’s (MLB) season home run record with 12

days to spare, hitting the 5,694th long ball of 2017 on Tuesday night.

Gordon’s home run off Toronto reliever Ryan Tepera broke a mark set in 2000 at the height of the Steroids Era. The drive, which drove in the last run in the Royals’ 5-2 loss, was his eighth this season and the 159th of his 11-year big league career.

“A pretty cool thing to be a part of,” Gordon said. “I didn’t hit many this year, but I guess I made one count.”

It was the 17th home run of the night in the major leagues and came just after Detroit’s Alex Presley tied the record when he connected at home against Oak-land’s Daniel Gossett.

Gordon said he heard talk of the record on a clubhouse tele-vision after Toronto’s Darwin Barney homered in the sixth.

“I was kind of aware that we were getting close to it,” he said. “After I walked back to the dug-out. I kind of forgot about it.”

Holding the ball he hit over the right-field wall, Gordon said he didn’t plan to keep the his-toric memento or anything else from the game.

“I’m going to give it to Coop-erstown,” Gordon said .

“I figured they’d probably have much more reason to have it than I do. I don’t really want to remember too much about this season, so I’ll probably just give it away and let them take care of it.”

There were 5,610 homers last year, an average of 2.31 per game, and this year’s average of 2.53 entering Tuesday’s action projects to 6,139. That would be up 47 percent from 4,186 in 2014.

“I don’t know what to make of it,” Royals manager Ned Yost said.

“Guys are bigger and guys are stronger. but so are the pitch-ers. There sure are a lot of home runs being hit.”

Blue Jays manager John Gib-bons has noticed the surge in homers but doesn’t have an explanation.

“It really looks like the ball is flying,” he said.

Power subsided after the start of drug testing with penal-ties in 2004. The home run average dropped in 2014 to its lowest level since 1992, then started rising during the second half of the 2015 season.

“My biggest take on it is that players are trying to hit more home runs,” San Francisco man-ager Bruce Bochy said.

When the previous record of 5,693 was set in 2000, Sammy Sosa led the major leagues with 50 home runs and Barry Bonds hit 49. Miami’s Giancarlo Stan-ton leads the major leagues with

55 home runs this year, followed by New York Yankees rookie Aaron Judge with 44.

Yost said he doesn’t believe more players are swinging for the fences than in years past.

“You’re always looking to elevate,” Yost said.

“You’re not going to make a whole lot of money hitting the ball on the ground in this league because the defenders are so quick and athletic. You’ve got to get the ball in the air, I think, if you’re going to be successful.”

Meanwhile, Collin McHugh made his first start in 11 days and nailed it. The right-hander pitched five steady innings in his return from a detached fingernail, and

the Houston Astros extended their winning streak to five games on Tuesday with a 3-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

Jose Altuve homered and Alex Bregman hit an RBI double for the AL West champions. McHugh (3-2) allowed one run and five hits with five strikeouts, an encouraging sign as the Astros prepare for the playoffs.

“He felt really good. He felt strong,” Houston manager A.J. Hinch said.

“I thought McHugh threw the ball really well. I thought his pitch-making ability was really good.”

It was the right-hander’s first outing since detaching a finger-nail on his pitching hand Sept. 8.

“Obviously when you’re warming up it was the biggest thing for me, making sure I wasn’t feeling it, I wasn’t com-pensating for my finger in any way,” McHugh said.

“It was all good today. I didn’t have any issues and I didn’t think about it when I was out there. Mentally getting over that was probably the biggest part.”

Will Harris, Luke Gregerson and Chris Devenski each threw a scoreless inning before Ken

Giles pitched the ninth for his 32nd save.

Altuve went the other way for his 24th home run, a solo shot to right field in the fourth. Breg-man knocked in Marwin Gonzalez later in the inning to give the Astros a 2-1 lead.

George Springer made it 3-1 in the eighth, just getting his fin-gertips on home plate and avoiding Kevan Smith’s tag. On the play, Altuve grounded out to third and was thrown out at first, but Smith never tagged Springer after taking the throw from first baseman Jose Abreu. After Springer was initially called out, the play was reviewed and the call was overturned.

“I thought I’d got the plate; the plate feels a little different than the dirt does,” Springer said. “I thought I had got it and obvi-ously did. It’s a good situation to go sometimes. The infielders aren’t really expecting it and I took a chance.”

Abreu hit an RBI double in the third to put the White Sox up 1-0. Yoan Moncada had three singles for the White Sox.

Lucas Giolito (2-3) threw well for a second straight start, giving up two runs and seven hits over 6 2/3 innings for Chicago.

Kansas City’s left fielder Alex Gordon hits a solo home run against the Cleveland Indians during

the third inning of their MLB game at Progressive Field in Cleveland on Saturday.

San Francisco 4 Colorado 3

San Diego 6 Arizona 2

Texas 3 Seattle 1

Cleveland 6 LA Angels 3

Houston 3 Chicago White Sox 1

Washington 4 Atlanta 2

Chicago Cubs 2 Tampa Bay 1

Miami 5 NY Mets 4

Oakland 9 Detroit 8

St. Louis 8 Cincinnati 7

Toronto 5 Kansas City 2

Boston 1 Baltimore 0

Philadelphia 6 LA Dodgers 2

Milwaukee 1 Pittsburgh 0

NY Yankees 5 Minnesota 2

BASEBALL RESULTS

Major League Baseball

5,610There were 5,610 homers last year, an average of 2.31 per game, and this year’s average of 2.53 entering Tuesday’s action projects to 6,139. That would be up 47 percent from 4,186 in 2014.

NBA’s Dragic retiring from Slovenia team after Euro win Ljubljana

AP

NBA guard Goran Dragic (pictured below) has confirmed he is retir-

ing from the Slovenia team that won the European bas-ketball championship.

Dragic said on Tuesday, “I achieved what I wanted, the gold medal, and this is the right time to bid farewell.”

The 31-year-old Dragic led Slovenia with 35 points to beat Serbia 93-85 in the final on Sunday in Istanbul, earn-ing the MVP award.

He says Slovenia’s quali-fying campaign for the 2019 world championship will start in November, and it would be impossible for him to play due to his professional duties with the Miami Heat in the NBA.

Tens of thousands of jubi-lant Slovenes greeted the new European champions on Monday in the capital of Ljubljana.

Meanwhile, Australian star Andrew Bogut has inked a one-year deal with the Los Angeles Lakers, the player’s agent said on Tuesday.

The deal, confirmed by agent David Bauman on Twitter, is reportedly worth $2.3m for the towering centre

Predators target NFL concussion victims, say lawyers Philadelphia

AP

Lawyers for former NFL players now eligible for payments under the

league’s $1bn concussion settle-ment said on Tuesday they’ve found evidence that unscrupu-lous third-party providers are trying to take advantage of play-ers with significant brain damage.

Christopher Seeger, a law-yer who represented the class of more than 20,000 former NFL players, and co-counsel TerriAnne Benedetto told the judge that some players entered contracts with exorbitantly high interest rates for advances on their eventual claims, while oth-ers agreed to high fees.

They have been investigat-ing groups like claims service providers and lenders at the request of US District Judge

Anita Brody. The hearing was to present their findings, and they asked the judge to extend her order so they could continue investigating, to see if additional action should be taken such as a criminal investigation.

“The last thing I want to happen is to watch these awards be cannibalized,” Seeger said.

Benedetto told the court one firm even touted itself as being able to coach former players on how to take neurological tests to get inaccurate results to qual-ify them for payments.

The settlement, which took effect in January, resolved thou-sands of lawsuits that accused the NFL of hiding what it knew about the risks of repeated concussions.

It covers retired players who develop Lou Gehrig’s disease, dementia or other neurological problems believed to be caused by concussions suffered during

their pro careers, with awards as high as $5m for the most seri-ous cases.

Participants had to register by August. 7, and Seeger told the court on Tuesday that over 20,000 had registered by the deadline.

A notice to eligible players, approved by the judge this year, said that some players had signed contracts with third-party providers for up to 15 percent of their eventual awards.

The providers offered to guide players through a claims process they advertised as dif-ficult. In reality, the notice said, “none of the steps are compli-cated,” and a court-appointed claims administrator helped players register or file claims free of charge.

Former NFL linebacker Brandon Siler, who runs the company Legacy Pro Sports,

which helps guide retired play-ers through the claims process, said on Monday that he’s pro-viding a valuable service to players who need it.

It was among the client services providers cited at the hearing.

Siler said the claims process wasn’t as easy as advertised, especially for men suffering cognitive impairment.

“I don’t mislead,” he said. “I don’t take advantage of my guys. I am there for them.”

Siler’s lawyer, Jeff Ostrow, said Tuesday Legacy Pro Sports has completely cooperated with the investigation, and their cli-ents are extremely pleased with the services.

David Willingham, a lawyer for RD Legal Funding, also named during the hearing, said his clients “acted in accordance with the law and vigorously dis-putes all the allegations raised.”

Meanwhile, Miami Dolphins linebacker Lawrence Timmons has been suspended indefinitely following his mysterious disap-pearance from the team last weekend, a statement said on Tuesday.

“We have suspended line-backer Lawrence Timmons indefinitely,” the Dolphins said in a brief statement on Twitter.Timmons, who joined the Dol-phins this season following 10 years with the Pittsburgh Steel-ers, was reported missing ahead of Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers in Cali-fornia when his hotel room was found to be empty.

The 31-year-old, a member of the Steelers’ Super Bowl-win-ning team in 2009, was reportedly found at Los Ange-les International Airport preparing to board a plane to Pennsylvania.

One report said Timmons

had been travelling to see his baby daughter.

Dolphins coach Adam Gase deflected questions about Tim-mons absence during a briefing with reporters on Monday, refusing to say whether the player would be available this weekend.

“Really just gathering a lot of information,” Gase said. “I’ve got a few other things I have to deal with the guys who played (Sunday).”

Asked if he expected play-ers to follow certain rules, Gase responded: “Be on time and play hard. I don’t know if that’s real hard.”

Timmons agent Drew Rosenhaus also declined to pro-vide details on the issue.

“I don’t know. It’s a private matter,” Rosenhaus said. “I’d love to be able to shed some light on it, but I’m not. It’s of a personal nature of Lawrence.”

36 THURSDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2017SPORT

Former star Blake testifies about his mistaken arrest New York

AP

Former pro tennis star James Blake testified on Tuesday that a plain-

clothes police officer wearing a T-shirt and jeans didn’t identify himself before throwing him to the ground and handcuffing him in a mistaken arrest in 2015 out-side a Manhattan hotel.

“He never said ‘NYPD.’ He never said ‘officer,’” Blake said at a disciplinary trial for Officer James Frascatore.

“He never said ‘freeze,’ like you’d see in the movies.”

In his own testimony Fras-catore told an administrative judge that once a superior mis-identified Blake as a target of a credit card fraud operation, he dashed through traffic across 42nd Street and sneaked up on Blake to keep “an element of surprise,” having been warned that the suspects could be armed with knives.

He said he waited to tell Blake “police don’t move” as he

took him down with an author-ised “arm bar” maneuver.

“I wanted to get control of the situation first,” he said in his first public account of the epi-sode. The officers also testified that he apologised to Blake once the blunder was discovered. Blake said that never happened.

The dueling accounts came two years after Blake’s arrest — captured in a security video — became another flashpoint in the national debate over police use of force against unarmed black men.

The 37-year-old American, once the No. 4 tennis player in the world, is the child of a black father and white mother; Fras-catore is white.

Frascatore, 40, rejected a deal earlier this year asking him to forfeit vacation days to resolve New York Police Department internal charges that he used inappropriate force on someone who never resisted or tried to flee.

The judge will recommend

a potentially more severe pun-ishment, including dismissal from the nation’s largest police force, to the police commissioner.

“This officer should not have a job,” Blake said later on Tues-day after joining a group of police reform activists gathered outside police headquarters.

Earlier in the day, Blake tes-tified that during the 10 minutes he was handcuffed, Frascatore told him, “You know you’re safe, right?” He said he responded: “I don’t know I’m safe. I don’t know why I’m here.”

When it was over, the officer offered a handshake, but didn’t apologize, Blake said. Blake said his first instinct was to “tough it out and walk it off,” but his wife changed his mind by asking what he’d do if the same thing happened to her.

“It shouldn’t happen to me. It shouldn’t happen to anyone,” he testified.

“There needs to be account-ability for everybody.”

The NYPD has said that Blake

matched a photo of a suspect sought in the case and that race wasn’t a factor.

It also initially claimed that Blake had only been detained for a couple minutes and was never manhandled or handcuffed, he says in his new book, “Ways of Grace.”

In the book, he describes seeking out hotel security per-sonnel, who showed him the video proving he was slammed down and kept cuffed at least 10 minutes.

He then spoke out about it on ABC’s “Good Morning Amer-ica,” which he says forced the department to release the video and change its story.

After the video was made public, city and police officials took the unusual step of apol-ogising and establishing in Blake’s name a fellowship aimed at helping people get full reviews of abuse allega-tions from a police oversight agency.

In an opening statement, attorney Stephen Worth argued

his client was being charged “because James Blake is a celeb-rity,” he said.

But outside the courtroom,

Blake told reporters there was another reason.

“I don’t think we’d be here if we didn’t have video.”

This September 2015 frame grab from a surveillance video released by the New York Police Department (NYPD) Office of the deputy commissioner of public information shows an undercover New York City police officer arresting former professional tennis payer James Blake ( in blue shirt) in New York.

Nadal, Federer to spearhead Europe against Team World Prague

Reuters

Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer will set aside their long-time rivalry when they play for Europe

against the Rest of the World in the inaugural Laver Cup tourna-ment which starts tomorrow.

Team Europe, featuring the world’s top two players, are overwhelming favourites to win the three-day tournament, which is named after Australian great Rod Laver, with a squad boasting a combined 36 grand slam titles against one for Team World.

The teams are captained by Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, whose own rivalry starting in the 1970s featured a contrast in tem-perament and style that made their matches the kind of must-watch events that Laver Cup organisers hope to showcase.

“I’ve been watching these guys play for so many years, it’s going to be a fun weekend,” Borg, now 61, told reporters yes-terday. “But make no mistake, we are here to win.”

Conceived by Federer and his sports management company Team8, the tournament is the latest to join a crowded calen-dar and comes on the heels of the Davis Cup semi-finals last

week. World number two Fed-erer played down the impact of another event, saying matches over a short period were man-ageable and gave players on the two teams the chance to build camaraderie.

“I don’t think it’s too much otherwise all the players wouldn’t be here,” the Swiss great told a news conference.

“The best (players) in the world are very picky in what (tournaments) they play, which (is why it) is great they made this a priority.”

“(We’re) looking forward to making friendships because we play together and not against each other for a change.”

Team Europe also includes German Alexander Zverev,

Croatia’s Marin Cilic, Austrian Dominic Thiem and Czech Tomas Berdych. Team World features Americans Sam Quer-rey, Jack Sock, John Isner and Frances Tiafoe plus Australia’s Nick Krygios and Canadian Denis Shapovalov.

With five players inside the world’s top 10, the Borg-led European squad is heavily favoured against a world team hit by Argentine Juan Martin del Potro’s late withdrawal due to injury.

“I’m expecting a lot of fun but at the same time I know it’s going to be very competitive,” the 22-year-old Krygios told report-ers. “We are the underdogs.”

The tournament, which will rotate between Europe and the rest of the world each year, fea-tures three singles and one doubles match each day. A win is worth one point on Friday, two on Saturday and three on Sunday.

In a bid to keep the pace humming, the indoor hard court matches at Prague’s O2 Arena will be best-of-three sets with a 10-point tiebreak deciding the final set. With no player featur-ing in singles more than twice during the first two days, Nadal

and Federer could see them-selves on the same side of the net in a mouthwatering doubles pairing.

“We don’t even know if cap-tain Borg is going to pick us but, of course, I would love to play with Rafa and see that forehand do damage on the other side (of the net),” Federer said.

“I’m sure that the crowd would go absolutely crazy and just because of that it would just be great to play us potentially.”

From left: Austrian tennis player Dominic Thiem, Croatian player Marin Cilic, Alexander Zverev (Germany), Swiss star Roger Federer and Spain’s Rafael Nadal greet the audience from the stage ahead of the Laver Cup in Prague, yesterday.

Inaugural Laver Cup starts tomorrow

Bjorn Borg, former tennis player of Sweden (left) and John McEnroe, former tennis player of United States pose on the stage ahead of the Laver Cup yesterday.

We’re looking forward to making friendships because we play together and not against each other for a change, says Federer

Muguruza crushes Puig to advance in Tokyo Tokyo

AFP

Newly crowned world number one Garbine Muguruza pulverised

Olympic champion Monica Puig 6-4, 6-0 yesterday to reach the quarter-finals of the Pan Pacific Open.

Earlier, second seed Karolina Pliskova, who held the top ranking briefly over the summer, crushed Poland’s Magda Linette 6-2, 6-1 as the Czech set up a potential date with another former world number one, Angelique Kerber.

Wimbledon champion Muguruza recovered from an indifferent start to reach the last eight in Tokyo, the top seed catching fire after a trade of early breaks to rattle off the last seven games.

A booming serve down the middle sealed the first set for the Spaniard, who seemed intent on hitting the fur off the ball in her first match since reaching the top of women’s WTA rankings last week.

Muguruza, chasing a third title of the year, roared through the second, a mur-derous backhand pass giving her a 3-0 lead to effectively kill off any hopes Puig had of mounting a comeback.

The Puerto Rican, the sur-prise gold medallist at last year’s Rio Olympics, fell apart thereafter as Muguruza con-tinued to torment her, bringing the match to a close with an ace after an hour and 14 minutes.

Pliskova likewise tore through her second-round match, the world number four taking exactly an hour to see off Linette.

A ferocious forehand gave the Czech an early break in the first set, which she pock-eted thanks to a clinical cross-court backhand.

The second set was almost a carbon copy as Pliskova again raced to a 3-0 lead before a thunderous backhand pass brought a double break.

The end came mercifully swiftly for a dejected Linette, who wafted a Pliskova serve wide on match point to sum up her contribution to a lop-sided contest.