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Sports Wednesday, September 26, 2018 Ronaldo turns to Juventus challenge after FIFA best player award snub Inter Milan face a tough task against Fiorentina

MILAN: Cristiano Ronaldo turns his focus back to Turin, with an eye on their Champions League game Juventus’s quest for a treble this season today after los- against Liverpool in Naples. “We won there (Juventus) ing out in the FIFA’s best player of the year award. Five- last season and still finished second,” said Napoli strik- time Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldo skipped the awards er Lorenzo Insigne. ceremony in London on Monday as his former Real “If we don’t win the midweek game with Parma, then Madrid teammate Luka Modric beat him for the award. the result with Juve is irrelevant, so we have to take it The 33-year-old Portuguese star also lost out to one at a time.” Under-pressure Roma host promoted Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah for the Puskas Award for Frosinone looking for a boost after slipping to 14th with the best goal. He had been nominated for his superb their weekend defeat in Bologna. overhead bicycle kick for Real Madrid against Juventus Coach Eusebio Di Francesco has reportedly been in last season’s Champions League quarter-final, which given a week to save his job, starting against the new- even drew a standing ovation from Juventus supporters comers from outside Rome, before the city derby in Turin. Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri had against Lazio at the weekend. backed Ronaldo-who has scored three goals in his last Frosinone are second from the bottom of the table two league games-for the award, as he led the way in with 12 goals conceded, including two to Juventus last the Champions League with 15 goals to help Real to a weekend. “At the end of the year when the points are third straight title. counted the matches like the one in Frosinone you don’t “With no offence to Luka Modric, I’d give the Ballon remember immediately, but you know how important d’Or to Ronaldo for what he did last season. I think he they were,” said Allegri. Roma then host Czech club deserves it,” said Allegri. The Italian champions face a Viktoria Plzen in the Champions League next week, heavy week in Turin with three games in their Allianz having lost their opener to holders Real Madrid. Stadium in the space of seven days. Meanwhile, Inter Milan face a tough task against After today’s game against 18th-placed Bologna, Fiorentina in the San Siro with coach Luciano Spalletti who shocked Roma 2-0 at the weekend, Juventus play serving a touchline ban for his over-exuberant goal cel- Carlo Ancelotti’s Napoli in a top-of-the table clash on ebration against Sampdoria. Saturday. Juventus have had a perfect start to the sea- Inter have been struggling but their last-gasp win son with five wins and 15 points-three points ahead of against the Genoa side followed their come-from- Napoli. Allegri’s side also play Swiss club Young Boys behind 2-1 win in the Champions League against in the Champions League a week on Tuesday, a game Tottenham. Spalletti’s side travel to the Netherlands to which Ronaldo will miss after his controversial sending play PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League next off against Valencia in Spain. week. Fiorentina are third in the table five points adrift Cristiano Ronaldo Napoli host promoted Parma, before their trip to of Juventus, with Inter in ninth. — AFP

have played only two home games all season, but Pochettino won’t Pochettino is adamant that shouldn’t be used as an excuse for the team’s inconsistent performances. Match on TV “If there is one thing I didn’t want it is to give reason (Local Timings) let Spurs moan to the players to say, ‘If we don’t win it’s because of Milton Keynes, it’s because we don’t play at our stadium, about stadium woe it’s because we play at Wembley’,” he said. SPANISH LEAGUE “I understand that it is not the same as playing in your Athletic de Bilbao v Villarreal 21:00 home and the help from our fans will be fantastic in our beIN SPORTS HD 1 LONDON: Mauricio Pochettino has warned his new stadium and the energy is different playing in MK Leganes v Barcelona 21:00 Tottenham stars not to use the club’s delayed new stadi- than your own stadium. “That is our responsibility, it is not beIN SPORTS HD 3 um as an excuse for their spluttering start to the season. to blame the venue or the fans or the chairman. I try to Valencia v Celta de Vigo 23:00 Pochettino’s side have been forced to play their League avoid the players finding excuses.” Tottenham should have beIN SPORTS HD 1 Cup third round tie against Watford today in Milton settled into their new 62,000-seater stadium by now, had Sevilla v Real Madrid 23:00 Keynes due to the on-going problems with the rebuild- it not been delayed after failures to the alarm systems. beIN SPORTS HD 3 ing of White Hart Lane. Argentine coach Pochettino admits it is a frustrating Tottenham had hoped to open their redeveloped sta- situation, but he doesn’t want unhappy fans to create a Mauricio Pochettino ITALIAN CALCIO LEAGUE dium this season, but safety issues have severely delayed negative atmosphere while the delay drags on. “I am the Udinese Calcio v Lazio 20:00 the project, meaning the north London club have first that would like to finish the new stadium. If I have to beIN SPORTS HD 5 returned to playing their home games at Wembley. go to work after training and help the builders finish the lives and for the next generations and years and years Atalanta v Torino 22:00 With Wembley not ready to host a football match this stadium as soon as possible so the fans will be happy, and it is so important to finish (it) in the right way. beIN SPORTS HD 9 week after the Anthony Joshua boxing bout on Saturday, and all the players will be happy and the chairman will be “Maybe one or two months means a lot but in the end Juventus v Bologna 22:00 Tottenham arranged to play as the ‘home’ team against happy, I promise I (will) go,” he said. it is no time because the most important thing is to finish beIN SPORTS HD 4 Watford in Milton Keynes. “Of course we feel disappointed for our fans but they and in the future have a venue that is going to help us It is not an ideal situation, especially as Tottenham need to understand that is a venue for the rest of our win trophies.” — AFP Napoli v Parma Calcio 1913 22:00 beIN SPORTS HD 5 AS Roma v Frosinone Calcio 22:00 “We can’t worry about what Golden State is doing. beIN SPORTS HD 8 LeBron warns ‘long Golden State is Golden State and they’re the champi- Genoa CFC v Chievo Verona 22:00 ons. They’ve been together for a few years now. beIN SPORTS way’ before Lakers “We can only focus one what we can do to get bet- Cagliari Calcio v Sampdoria 22:00 ter every day as a Lakers franchise and hopefully some beIN SPORTS HD 7 day we can put ourselves in position where we can challenge Golden State compete for a championship as Golden State has done GERMAN BUNDESLIGA for the past few years.” Fortuna D¸sseldorf v Bayer 04 Leverkusen 19:30 James also rejected a suggestion that the Lakers beIN SPORTS HD 4 would need to win a championship to be deemed suc- Borussia Dortmund v Nuremberg 21:30 LOS ANGELES: LeBron James warned Los Angeles cessful. “I don’t believe that,” he said. “There’s only one beIN SPORTS Lakers fans not to expect an immediate challenge to the champion, but that doesn’t mean you’re not successful. dominance of the Golden State Warriors as the NBA There’s going to be wins and losses and things of that Borussia Monchengladbachv Eintracht Frankfurt 21:30 superstar addressed the media for the first time here nature. “But what you can control is how you prepare beIN SPORTS Monday. The 33-year-old four-time NBA MVP joined every day. How we prepare every day, try and get bet- FSV Mainz 05 v VfL Wolfsburg 21:30 the Lakers in July on a four-year $154 million deal ter every day. We’re a new ball club trying to get better. beIN SPORTS which was sealed just weeks after his Cleveland We’re all new to each other. Leipzig v VfB Stuttgart 21:30 Cavaliers were beaten by the Warriors for the third “We have to take our bumps and our bruises, there’s beIN SPORTS time in four years. going to be good times and bad times. That’s what hap- James arrives in Los Angeles with the Lakers des- pens with a team that’s new. “But if we continue to work FRENCH LEAGUE perately trying to regain their former glory after several the process, and sacrifice for each other and put in the Olympique Marseille v Strasbourg 20:00 years of steady decline which has seen them fail to work and the time everything will fall into place.” beIN SPORTS HD 6 reach the playoffs for five straight seasons. James however he admitted he was excited at the Caen v Montpellier HSC 20:00 The capture of James prompted bookmakers to slash prospect of donning the Lakers’ yellow jersey and fol- beIN SPORTS MAX 6 FR the odds on the Lakers winning another NBA title, with lowing in the footsteps of iconic figures such as Magic LeBron James Girondins de Bordeaux v LOSC Lille 20:00 Las Vegas betting market Westgate installing them as Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant and beIN SPORTS HD 7 7/2 favourites behind the Warriors. Shaquille O’Neal. Amiens SC v Stade Rennais 20:00 James however sought to put a lid on the expecta- Los Angeles-which puts him closer to the capital of the “I think we all know this franchise has been a histori- beIN SPORTS MAX 4 FR tions on Monday, warning that any challenge to their cal franchise in this league for years,” James said. “You entertainment industry where he has multiple television Dijon v Olympique Lyonnais 20:00 Western Conference rival Warriors was a long way off. talk about the championships, the players that have and movie projects-was based solely on basketball. “We’ve got a long way to go to get to Golden State,” come through this franchise, that have worn this uni- “My decision was based solely on my family and the beIN SPORTS HD 8 James said at the Lakers’ media day. form, that’s an excitement in its own right. Lakers,” James said. “I’m a basketball player. I play ball. Nimes Olympique v Guingamp 20:00 “They can pick up right where they left off, starting “It’s always humbling for me to be a part of some- That’s what I do. “As far as my business is concerned, beIN SPORTS HD 9 with training camp. We’re picking up from scratch. So thing special.” that stuff has been taking care of itself long before I Paris Saint-Germain v Stade Reims 22:00 we have a long way to go. James also emphasised that his decision to move to came out here.” — AFP beIN SPORTS HD 6

tool behind cryptocurrency Bitcoin, but many other possi- implications for ticket sales. European football governing become the world’s first football club to pay its players in From ticketing to ble uses from medical records to banking-and now sports- body UEFA used blockchain technology to sell all of the cryptocurrency while tiny Turkish club Harunustaspor are emerging. “Blockchain has the power to be the under- tickets for the Super Cup final in Tallinn in August between made global headlines at the start of the year by announc- lying infrastructure upon which sport functions,” Michael Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid over mobile phones, pre- ing it had carried out the world’s first football transfer of a salaries, football Broughton of Sports Investment Partners told AFP as the venting the duplication of tickets. player in bitcoins. two-day World Football Summit got underway in Madrid. In a sign of the growing interest of the football world in “It could bring transparency to world of football,” said “Much as mobile phones and apps are today a broader blockchain, Barcelona’s Argentine star Lionel Messi in Pablo Dana of Heritage Sports Holding which owns explores power expression of the underlying internet so sport can build December became a brand ambassador for Israeli start-up Gibraltar United and in August bought 25 percent of upon blockchain.” Sirin Labs which has developed an ultra-secure mobile Italian third division side Rimini using a digital currency. of blockchain After French champions Paris Saint-Germain phone that uses the technology. Broughton agreed, saying “having a player’s identify announced earlier this month that they were launching Former Liverpool and England striker Michael Owen and registration on the blockchain could provide greater their own cryptocurrency in partnership with Socios.com, earlier this year invested in Hong Kong-based Global transparency to the transfer and ownership systems”. MADRID: Football clubs are starting to tap the potential a blockchain company based in Malta, Italian giants Crypto Offering Exchange (GCOX), a global platform that The technology could also be used together with big of blockchain technology as an innovative way to deal with Juventus announced Monday they would do the same. allows celebrities to create and list their own “tokens”. data analytics, to identify future football stars, according longstanding issues such as ticket scalping, fan engage- Fans of the two clubs will be able to buy club-branded “I believe blockchain technology holds the future. It has to Olivier Jarosz, head of club affairs at the Switzerland- ment and the payment of players’ salaries. tokens that come with voting rights as well as access to limitless potential that we have yet to fully explore,” Owen based European Club Association. Considered by many as revolutionary as the internet, a exclusive content and rewards. said at the time. “You can through the data base try to find out the blockchain is a database that is shared across a network of biggest potentials without sending 200 scouts,” he said. hundreds of computers. Once a record has been added to ‘Limitles potential’ ‘Bring transparency’ But Sam Jones of the London Football Exchange the chain it is very difficult to tamper with. And to ensure English side Arsenal announced in January they had The technology is even starting-albeit on a very small warned that “you can’t insure yourself” against some of all copies of the database are the same, the network makes reached an agreement with California-based Cashbet to scale-to be used to pay players, which some believe could the new cryptpocurrencies that use blockchain. constant checks. launch their own cryptocurrency which would be used to help stamp out corruption in football. “You relying on hope and hope is the key ingredient of Blockchains have been used most prominently as the bet on matches. The technology could also have significant Gibraltar United announced in July that it would a bubble,” he said. — AFP