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Home , 24th Arabian Gulf Cup, Arabian Gulf Cup, Hussein Saeed

Established 1961

Sport WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2019

Kuwaiti jet ski champion feted Stars top Knights for record Ancelotti’s future in spotlight as 25 for breaking world record 26 tying seventh straight victory 27 troubled Napoli visit Liverpool

Gulf Cup kicks off in to clash against today in Group B match

DOHA: Qatar’s forward Yusuf Abdurisag (L) vies for the ball with ’s forward Ibrahim Bayesh during the 24th Group A football match between Qatar and Iraq at the Khalifa International Stadium in the Qatari capital yesterday. — AFP

DOHA: The Arabian Gulf Cup kicked off yesterday in While there has been little public discussion from cially in place. The dispute led to football’s governing peting nations will travel in numbers to Qatar. When Qatar, with teams from its neighboring nations set to authorities of the possible impact of the tournament on body FIFA deciding against a possible expansion of the Qatar won the continental Asian Cup held in the UAE play, in a sign that relations with the host nation - which diplomatic ties, former Iraq forward , his 2022 World Cup which could have seen some games earlier this year, hardly any Qatari fans attended. also hosts Cup in 2022 - may be improving country’s all-time top scorer, said he had hopes for the held in neighbouring states, taking some of the hosting Qataris require a special permit to enter the UAE under after a two-year freeze. competition. pressure off Qatar. The UAE, Saudis and , did the embargo. The were in action yesterday “We hope that this tournament, being held here, not attend the draw for the previous Gulf Cup tourna- The Qatari team was subjected to abuse from a in Doha, with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain playing today in brings nations together. Qatar, as we know, welcomes ment two years ago in Doha and only competed after crowd hurling bottles and shoes at the players when the Qatari capital. All three countries, along with Egypt, everyone,” he said in an interview published on the offi- that tournament was moved to Kuwait. they faced the UAE in the semi-final. cut political, trade and transport ties with fellow Gulf cial website of Qatar’s World Cup organising commit- Qatar also hosts FIFA’s Club World Cup later in The UAE’s sports chief later apologised, and its foot- Arab state Qatar in mid-2017 over accusations that it tee. Arab media reports said the Saudi team flew December, with European champions Liverpool ball association was sanctioned by the Asian Football supported terrorism. Doha denies the charge and says directly to Doha from the kingdom-a rare direct flight involved in what will be an early dress rehearsal for the Confederation. Kuwait’s opening Group B match the embargo aims to impinge on its sovereignty. between the two countries given the boycott still offi- 2022 World Cup. It is not clear whether fans from com- against Saudi Arabia is today — Reuters

the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Moscow laboratory had planted fabricated WADA seeks Sport. The proposed punishments followed messages in a key database — between what WADA investigators described as “an November 2018 and January 2019 — in an extremely serious” case of non-compliance attempt to support a theory that doping four-year “with several aggravating features.” The whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov had recommended four-year ban comes after dripped false entries into the system as part Russia ban WADA investigators examined data from of an extortion plot. Russia’s doping-tainted Moscow laborato- The four-year sanction was one part of a ry, which was handed over to WADA in range of punishments the CRC has recom- MONTREAL: A key World Anti-Doping January. mended be approved by WADA’s ExCo Agency (WADA) panel has recommended Full disclosure of the data from the next month. As well as a ban from sporting Russia be barred from all sporting competi- Moscow lab was a key condition of Russia’s competition, the WADA committee had rec- tion for four years after accusing Moscow controversial reinstatement by WADA in ommended Russia be forbidden from host- of falsifying laboratory data handed over to September 2018. The Russian Anti-Doping ing or bidding for any major event. For investigators, the global anti-doping watch- Agency (RUSADA) had been suspended for events already awarded to Russia, hosting dog said on Monday. nearly three years previously over revela- rights must be removed unless “it is legally In a bombshell statement, WADA’s tions of a vast state-supported doping pro- or practically impossible to do so,” WADA KATOWICE: File photo taken on November 7, 2019 the logo of the World Anti-Doping Compliance Review Committee (CRC) gram. However WADA said in its statement said. That potentially could impact Saint Agency (WADA) is seen in Katowice, Poland. A World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) panel called for the sanctions, which would see on Monday that the data handed over was Petersburg’s staging of games at Euro has recommended Russia be hit with a four-year ban from sporting competition after Russia banned from next year’s Tokyo beset with problems, describing it as “nei- 2020. The Russian city is due to host three falsifying laboratory data handed over to investigators, the global anti-doping watch- Olympics, to be approved at a meeting in ther complete nor fully authentic.” group games and a quarter-final in the dog said. — AFP Paris on December 9. It said hundreds of adverse analytical tournament. Russian government officials The WADA committee has also recom- findings had been removed while underly- would also be barred from attending any mended Russia be barred from staging or ing raw data and PDF files had been delet- major events. compete under the special designation of state-sponsored system stretching back bidding for major international sporting ed. While some of the deleted findings had Individual Russian athletes may still “Olympic Athlete from Russia”, marching years. A 2016 report by WADA investigator events for a four-year period — potentially taken place in 2016 or 2017, when the compete in events such as the Olympics, under the Olympic flag. Richard McLaren said more than 1,000 placing Saint Petersburg’s status as one of Russian doping scandal first erupted, other but only if they are able to prove they are The proposed WADA sanctions are the Russian competitors across multiple sports the venues for the Euro 2020 football tour- information had been removed in December not implicated in the broader doping scan- latest chapter of a saga which first erupted had benefited from the scheme between nament in jeopardy. 2018 or January of this year — shortly dal. At the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter in 2015, when an independent WADA com- 2011 and 2015, a period which included the If the sanctions are approved by WADA’s before the data was delivered to WADA. Olympics, Russian athletes who could prove mission investigating allegations of Russian 2014 Winter Olympics held in the Russian Executive Committee, Russia can appeal WADA also said someone in the they were above suspicion were able to doping said it had found evidence of a vast Black Sea resort of Sochi. — AFP