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.