WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2015 SPORTS Evergrande ready for Osaka in ACL semis

SEOUL: Guangzhou Evergrande coach Luiz Felipe opment company, have spent over $130 million on feeling great, however, and are in good form.” confidence to fight until the end,” Usami said in com- Scolari is switching focus from his Chinese Super players since 2010 in a bid to become Asia’s premier Guangzhou will be without former Real Madrid and ments posted on the Asian Football Confederation League title race with old rival Sven-Goran Eriksson to club. The Chinese team comfortably disposed of AC Milan striker Robinho, who arrived in China in July website. prepare for the team’s upcoming match against Japan’s Kashiwa Reysol in the quarterfinals, but Scolari and has not been registered for the Asian Champions Whoever wins will face either Al Hilal or Al Ahli in Gamba Osaka in the first leg of the 2015 Asian is aware that Gamba, the 2008 Asian champions, will League. But that still leaves Paulinho and fellow Brazil the final in November. Al Hilal lost to the Western Champions League semifinal today. be a tougher opponent and he sees the first leg in international Ricardo Goulart, the tournament’s lead- Sydney Wanderers in the final of the 2014 Asian The 2002 World Cup-winning coach took over at Guangzhou as crucial. ing goal-scorer so far with eight goals, as well as Champions League despite dominating for much of the Chinese powerhouse in June and with three “We know that Wednesday’s game is extremely Elkeson. the 180 minutes, and the Saudi Arabian club is eager games of the domestic season remaining, his team is important,” Scolari told reporters after Guangzhou Gamba is unable to match the southern Chinese to go one better this time. It must first defeat Al Ahli of two points above Eriksson’s Shanghai SIPG. While the came back from two goals down on Saturday to beat team in terms of star power, but has strong players of the United Arab Emirates, led by former Al Hilal coach timing of the continental clash with the Japanese lowly Guizhou Renhe in a Chinese league match its own. Takashi Usami has scored 29 goals in his last Cosmin Olaroiu. league champions could be better, the Asian competi- thanks to a last-minute winner from Brazilian interna- 52 starts in the J-League. The 23 year-old former “I know them, they know me. We have a special tion is far from a distraction. tional Paulinho, who cost $20 million to sign from Bayern Munich player said his team is feeling confi- relationship, but the game is the game,” Olaroiu said. Guangzhou is going for a fifth consecutive Chinese Tottenham Hotspur in the summer. dent after defeating Jeonbuk Motors of South Korea in “They have the pressure of the public and they have a title but is desperate to add a trophy to its 2013 “We do not want to concede an away goal and the final seconds of their quarterfinal. lot of supporters.” Champions League victory and be able to represent have to fully concentrate in order to go to the second “The team is definitely in a good mood now, and “At this point in the competition nobody is superior the continent in December’s FIFA Club World Cup. The leg with an advantage,” he added. “We know that we have continuously had matches where we play to anybody. Whoever performs better in the match will owners of the club, a wealthy Chinese property devel- Gamba is a strong team with a good coach. We are hard until the last minute and this has given us a lot of qualify for the final.” — AP FIFA bans Warner as calls grow for change

LAUSANNE: FIFA imposed a lifetime ban on one of its most notorious former leaders yesterday amid calls for an emergency task force to be sent in to run the scan- dal-tainted body. Jack Warner-an ex-FIFA vice president and former ally of the body’s president Sepp Blatter-was barred from all football activities by FIFA’s ethics committee over repeated misconduct. “He was a key player in schemes involving the offer, acceptance, and receipt of undisclosed and ille- gal payments,” a committee statement said of the 72- year-old Warner, who previously led CONCACAF, the confederation of North and Central America and the Caribbean. The latest judgement against the thoroughly-tar- nished Warner came as the Swiss justice ministry approved the extradition of former Costa Rican feder- ation boss Eduardo Li to the United States, where he faces a range of charges linked to corruption. Warner and Li were both named in the US justice department indictments that were announced in May and which ignited an unprecedented crisis within world football. With the scandals continuously widen- Wayne Rooney ing, there are growing calls for immediate change at the top. South Korean former FIFA vice president Chung Rooney tells of Mong-Joon, who is a candidate to replace Blatter, called for a task force to run football’s world body after Switzerland placed Blatter under criminal investiga- SURREY: A picture taken on June 11, 2015 shows former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner . — AFP Ferguson clashes tion for mismanagement. Blatter, 79, told FIFA staff on Monday that he will transfer to US jurisdiction, although the Costa Rican which should be preparing for the 2018 World Cup in has 30 days to file an appeal. Warner’s name has also Russia, is in “total meltdown”. LONDON: England captain Wayne Rooney “It was touch-and-go as to whether I stay on as president while cooperating with Swiss become central to the Swiss probe targeting Blatter, Days before Blatter was placed on notice by Swiss has opened up about his clashes with would be fit,” he said. “And then Sven put prosecutors. He has said he would stand down when a new election is held in February. which is focused in part on a 2005 television rights authorities, FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke was Manchester United manager Alex me in the squad. “Looking back, I probably sale to the Caribbean Football Union, allegedly at a suspended over allegations of involvement in tickets Ferguson, how having children calmed him would have sat out the World Cup. It was a Michel Platini, the powerful head of European governing body UEFA has been implicated in the hugely deflated price. sold at inflated prices. down and why he should not have gone to big ask to get fit after six weeks out. I was Swiss investigators are also looking at a two mil- Although Blatter has insisted he will stay in office the 2006 World Cup for a new BBC televi- never going to have that match sharpness.” Swiss probe, but has insisted he did nothing wrong as he tries to preserve his hopes of replacing Blatter. lion Swiss franc ($2 million) payment made by FIFA to until February, FIFA’s ethics committee could force him sion film. His performances at two World Cups Platini in 2011 for a work reportedly done a decade out at any time. There has been unconfirmed specula- Rooney denies that he put in a transfer have been one of the disappointments of WANTED IN THE US earlier. Both Blatter and Platini, still the two most tion that the panel is set to hear evidence against the request just before Ferguson retired in May Rooney’s career, which he suggests may Warner and Li were both among the 14 people- powerful men in world football, insist the payment Swiss national, possibly leading to suspension, a 2013 but admits that he broached the pos- stem from “putting too much pressure on nine FIFA officials and five sports marketing execu- was legitimate although neither has explained why it process that could also implicate Platini. The former sibility of leaving the club he had joined myself”. tives-charged in the US over bribery in football deals took so long to finalise compensation. French star’s involvement in an ethics committee from Everton nine years earlier. “I went in to Insights into his personal life include an worth more than $150 million dating back to 1991. review would further complicate the FIFA presidential see him and just said, ‘If you are not going admission that “having children has calmed Warner is facing 12 charges of wire fraud, racketeering ‘TOTAL MELTDOWN’ vote that he had been favored to win. to play me, it might be better for me to me down a bit” and that he was deter- and money laundering, while Li is accused of taking Chung, a strong candidate to replace Blatter, called Aside from Chung, another leading candidate in move on’,” Rooney said. “Then, all of a sud- mined those children should be born in his bribes in connection with the sale of sports marketing Tuesday for an extraordinary executive committee the race is Prince Ali bin al Hussein, a former FIFA vice den, it was all over the press that I had put native Liverpool rather than Manchester. rights. meeting which could establish an emergency task president from Jordan. Chung said Monday that if a transfer request in, which I never did.” Other contributors to the hour-long pro- Warner is fighting extradition from his homeland force “that will enable the FIFA secretariat to function elected he will stand for only one term to carry out Three years earlier Rooney did request a gramme include Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan in Trinidad and Tobago to the US, with a hearing set without interruption”. reforms. “The most urgent task at hand is to root out transfer and questioned the club’s ambi- Ibrahimovic, Steven Gerrard, Frank for December. Li appeared to lose that fight on He described the allegations against Blatter as corruption from within FIFA,” he said. “Justice must be “another sad day” for FIFA and said the organisation, served.” — AFP tion. “Wayne let himself down,” former Lampard and Ryan Giggs. Tuesday, when the Swiss justice ministry approved his team-mate Gary Neville told the pro- It is presented by Gary Lineker, whose gramme of that incident. “Me and Ryan 48 goals for England have been beaten Giggs had a word and he apologised the only by Bobby Charlton’s 49 and now next day.” Rooney’s 50. Talking about his international career, Rooney hopes to add to that total when the current England captain admits that he England, who have already qualified for should not have agreed to go to the 2006 Euro 2016, play their remaining group World Cup under Sven Goran Eriksson after matches shortly, against Estonia and breaking his foot. Lithuania. — Reuters Palestinians slam FIFA for moving Saudi qualifier RAMALLAH: FIFA’s decision to move the will use all legal and international tools to Palestinian team’s World Cup qualifying revoke this injustice.” match against Saudi Arabia to a neutral site FIFA said the decision was “final and was “unjust and reprehensible,” the head of binding,” leaving the Palestinians to decide the Palestinian Football Union said yester- whether to play in Jordan or forfeit the day. Jibril Rajoub accused FIFA of bowing match. to Saudi pressure by agreeing to relocate The Saudi Arabian Football Federation the second-leg Oct. 13 match from the commended FIFA for accepting its request - West Bank to neighboring Jordan. In a let- saying it “understands the justification” - ter to FIFA President Sepp Blatter, Rajoub without explaining the reasons behind it. said he was “shocked” by the decision after Tayseer Nasrallah, a spokesman for the the first leg was held in Riyadh. Palestinian union, said the Palestinians had “Resorting to FIFA in this way reflects offered the Saudis options of bypassing insistence on not coming to Palestine Israel, including flying the players in from under any circumstances,” Rajoub told The Jordan by helicopters but said the Saudis Associated Press, “The Palestinian Union refused for “political considerations.”—AP Packers too hot for Chiefs GREEN BAY: Aaron Rodgers has turned The Packers were stung in last sea- his home Lambeau Field into a personal son’s NFC championship by a final sec- WEST BROMWICH: A combination of pictures (anti-clockwise from top right) shows Everton’s Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku doing a flip and playground, leading the Green Bay ond road loss to Seattle, a game they felt backwards somersault as he celebrates scoring Everton’s winning goal during the English Premier League football match against West Packers on a perfect streak there may have been different had they earned Bromwich Albion. — AFP approaching two years. home field. Rodgers, the league’s reigning MVP, is But they are well on their way to prone to shredding defenses at any loca- another playoffs campaign. Rodgers is Lukaku inspires Everton late show tion but in the friendly confines of Green already in rare form and is just the sec- Bay he has proved unstoppable as the ond player ever to start his first three minutes left. Lukaku’s first Premier League goals for six Without injured England defender John Stones, Packers have won 11 straight at home games with 10 TDs and no interceptions, weeks came against the club he played for on loan in Ramiro Funes Mori stepped in for his full league debut including the post-season. behind Peyton Manning in 2013. West Brom 2 the 2012-13 campaign and lifted Everton to fifth in but the Everton centre-back was at fault for Albion’s The latest was a 38-28 victory over the The Packers offense is humming the table following their third league win of the sea- first goal. Mori had enjoyed a untroubled half but Kansas City Chiefs on Monday that gave despite the absence of leading receiver son. “We were very disappointed with the first half. We imploded when he lost the ball near the halfway line the Packers a 3-0 start to the season. “It’s Jordy Nelson, out for the season with a were off, every single individual,” Martinez said. after trying to run out of defence. It found James the crowd. We have a great crowd. And I knee injury. The team also lost pass Everton 3 “The mountain we had to climb, it would have Morrison and his excellent through-ball for Berahino can use my cadence and go with audi- catcher Davante Adams on Monday to an been easy to lose focus but we got three goals against saw the striker slip in a low shot via Tim Howard’s legs. bles without using hand signals,” Rodgers ankle injury, not that it mattered as they the best defensive structure in the Premier League. Darren Fletcher had a header turned wide by “Every three points is huge but it feels extra good.” It Howard as Albion pressed after the interval and they told reporters after he torched the Chiefs were once again dominant in front of WEST BROMWICH: Romelu Lukaku’s double strike for five touchdown passes and 333 yards. their home fans. was the perfect preparation for Everton’s Merseyside doubled their lead from the resulting corner. inspired a remarkable fightback as Everton recovered derby date with Liverpool on Sunday, while Albion’s Phil Jagielka and Ross Barkley got in a mess trying “It’s a big advantage for us.” “It definitely makes everything easier from two goals down to win 3-2 at West Bromwich Rodgers’ Lambeau advantage is (playing at home),” said Packers wide third league defeat of the season left Tony Pulis’s team to pick up Dawson and Jonny Evans, which allowed Albion on Monday. Roberto Martinez’s side looked languishing in 15th place. “The first goal kills us. We Dawson to nod in Chris Brunt’s deep delivery. Everton becoming unfair as he has now tossed 48 receiver Randall Cobb, who hauled in destined for a defeat when Craig Dawson added to should deal with it,” Pulis said. “The other two goals hit back immediately when Lukaku headed Deulofeu’s touchdowns at home since his last inter- three touchdowns on Monday. “We can Saido Berahino’s first half opener to put Albion 2-0 up are poor goals, the second one looks offside.”We cross past Boaz Myhill and Kone levelled in the 75th ception there. Green Bay last suffered a verbally communicate and don’t have to with 54 minutes gone at the Hawthorns. switched off and Everton will punish you.” minute, just three minutes after coming off the bench. home defeat in Jan. 2014 when they fell signal. “(And) when you’re playing with a But Belgium forward Lukaku gave Everton a crucial There was little hint of the eventual drama, which Lukaku did brilliantly on the edge of the box to to San Francisco in a wild card playoff great player like (Rodgers) it makes it lifeline when he netted one minute late and Ivory left Albion winless at home in the league this season, spot Kone’s run and threaded the ball through to the game. easy for you.” — Reuters Coast striker Aruna Kone equalised in the closing during a wretched first half which was only lit up by former Wigan forward, who was just onside, to drill stages before Lukaku bagged the winner with only six Berahino’s opener. past Myhill. —AFP