World Sports Information Thursday

No baby break for Strauss
Agence France-Presse . London
England opener Andrew Strauss intends on playing throughout the first Test against South Africa even if his wife gives birth to the couple’s second child.
Ruth Strauss is due to give birth next week and, with the opening match of a four-Test series starting at Lord’s today, her husband could be placed in a tricky position. However, the left-handed opener is adamant he will remain at Lord’s rather than dash across London should his wife give birth while he is playing cricket.
‘My wife is due some time during the Test match, the doctor doesn’t feel it’s going to come for a week or so but I won’t be leaving the field or anything like that,’ Strauss said at Lord’s on Tuesday.
‘If I’m not batting I might nip off but if I’m on the field I’m concentrating on the cricket,’ the left-handed batsman added.
‘I just feel that if I’m going to play the game I owe it to my team-mates to be focussed on the game. My wife completely understands the situation and hopefully it will work out that she’ll do it after the end of play or something like that - if I’m playing I’ve got to be switched onto the cricket.’


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Eden Garden groundsmen
threaten suicide
Reuters/Bdnews24.com . New Delhi
Groundsmen at Kolkata’s famous Eden Gardens have threatened to commit suicide if the cricket authorities do not meet their financial demands, including five months’ back pay, Indian media reported on Wednesday.
About 20 groundstaff who are on the payroll of a private company, have written to the regional cricket body threatening they would have to ‘take some extreme step like committing suicide’, according to Kolkata’s daily The Telegraph.
A groundstaff supervisor, Anadi Khatua, said they were daily wage employees of Cricket Association of Bengal until the private company hired them, the PTI news agency reported.
He blamed cricket officials for not keeping their promise to settle the groundsmen’s claims after the lucrative Twenty20 Indian Premier League competition, which ended in May.
But a cricket official said the protest was merely designed to bring pressure on the CAB to include them on its payroll.


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‘Lampard will see out
Chelsea contract’
Agence France-Presse . London
Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon insists Frank Lampard will not be allowed to leave the Premier League club before the end of his contract - even if they can’t persuade him to sign a new deal.
Lampard has been unable to agree an extension to his contract, which expires at the end of next season, with Chelsea reportedly unwilling to meet his demand for a five-year deal.
Inter Milan manager Jose Mourinho is keen to take advantage of the situation and lure Lampard to the San Siro. But Kenyon confirmed Chelsea had rejected an offer for 7.95 million pounds (9.9 million euros) from the Italian champions and he is adamant there is no chance Lampard will be sold.
‘The situation is ongoing. We have always maintained that we want Frank to stay and an offer was made to that effect,’ Kenyon said.
‘That offer is still on the table. Frank is under contract and he still has one year to run on that.
‘We’d like to hope we can reach an agreement but if we can’t we have always worked on the basis that Frank sees out the terms of his contract.
‘Chelsea has made its position very clear to Internazionale and they have come back now with a financial offer. That will be rejected.’
Even if Lampard does stay, there will be plenty of departures from the Bridge as Scolari cuts his squad from 32 players down to 25. Steve Sidwell is set to join Aston Villa, with Claudio Pizarro, Tal Ben Haim and Shaun Wright-Phillips among the other likely sales.
Kenyon admitted a smaller squad was important because it would allow Scolari to blood some of the club’s youth academy graduates.
‘Players will be leaving such as Steve Sidwell and some joining, either new players or those coming up from the academy, so we will be closer to the ideal figure,’ he said.
‘Felipe has made that very clear that he is prepared to give youth a chance, and that has got to be positive and a great incentive for the academy.
‘He has a track record in his previous jobs of doing that and there are a lot of top players now who were given their chance by him as youngsters either at club or international level.’
Scolari has taken charge of a club completely transformed from the one Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought in 2003. Kenyon believes Abramovich’s desire to turn Chelsea into a global force has revolutionised the Premier League.
‘Obviously in football terms it has been the most successful period in terms of trophies in the history of the club, back to back Premier titles, cups and a first ever Champions League final, the duopoly of Manchester United and Arsenal was broken and we have attracted some of the world’s best players to Chelsea and therefore to the Premier League,’ Kenyon said.
‘The most credit for those achievements has to go to Roman because without him it’s extremely unlikely any of it would have been possible.
‘If you look at our main rivals they have also had to respond to Roman and Chelsea’s situation and they have needed to analyse what they do, so overall things have become more competitive and that can only be a good thing for the Premier League generally.’


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I was ready to boss
England: Scolari
New Age Desk
Phil Scolari has revealed how he would have been England boss — if the FA had shown more bottle.
The new Chelsea manager was interviewed by FA chief executive Brian Barwick for the Three Lions hotseat two years ago.
But Big Phil was adamant he could not accept the post while in charge of Portugal.
His fear was there would be a conflict of interest should England meet the Portuguese during the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany.
The two teams did play each other — with Scolari’s side eliminating Sven Goran Eriksson’s men in the quarter-finals.
Barwick oversaw the disastrous appointment of Sven’s No 2 Steve McClaren as boss.
And Chelsea’s new Brazilian gaffer went to great lengths yesterday to point out he would have been honoured to take the job under the right circumstances.
Scolari said: ‘Both teams went to the World Cup and it was the case that we might have met.
‘Our paths did cross. I said to England it was impossible for me to sign a contract if I have one with Portugal and we might play each other.
‘Am I for both teams? No. If they agreed, I would have signed a pre-contract before the World Cup and, after the competition when one of the teams was out, we could say, ‘OK, you are the coach’.
‘But at that time they didn’t agree about that because they needed to tell the Press who the coach would be.
‘The Press pressured the FA and, at that time, it was just impossible for me to sign.’
Big Phil insisted he would have taken the job after the World Cup was over, even though he is now pleased England went for his old pal Fabio Capello.
The Chelsea chief said: ‘I would have said yes, after the tournament.
‘But after the first round Portugal met England. The timing was wrong — but they tried.
‘I am a straight-forward guy. At that time, the national team needed to know the name of the future coach, and every day the Press were asking who was going to be the next manager.
‘We could go one way but we did not follow the correct way so, in Germany, I said no.
‘I’m not sad. I follow my life and the England team follow their life. Brian Barwick was correct with me. They tried to do the best for England.
‘I’m friends with Brian and all the people in the English national team and now more.
‘Now it is Fabio and he is my big friend — my best friend in the world.
‘I wish him and the national team all the very best.’


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Trezeguet quits internationals
Reuters/Bdnews24.com . Milan
France striker David Trezeguet said on Wednesday he was quitting international soccer.
The Juventus player was left out of France’s Euro 2008 squad and had an uneasy relationship with coach Raymond Domenech, who was told last week he could stay in the job.
France were dumped out of the finals at the group stage last month after drawing one and losing two of their games at the tournament in Austria and Switzerland.
‘The awful Euros and the confirmation of the coach have led me to this irreversible decision,’ the 30-year-old told reporters at Juve’s pre-season training retreat.
‘I see soccer differently from how they see it in France. The Euros were very negative but what annoys me more is that Domenech is staying,’ he said.
‘At the moment, more political decisions are being taken than football ones and they don’t respect public opinion, which favours me.’
Trezeguet was second top scorer in Serie A last season with 20 goals but could not force his way into Domenech’s plans.
The France coach had called on him only five times since the 2006 World Cup final, which France lost to Italy on penalties with Trezeguet missing the crucial spot kick.
The forward, who helped France lift the World Cup on home soil in 1998 and scored the golden goal in the final to win Euro 2000, has netted 34 goals in 71 internationals.


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Laporta fighting to steady
Barca ship
Reuters/Bdnews24.com . Madrid
Barcelona president Joan Laporta’s defeat in a confidence vote by club members on Sunday has left him with a divided board and facing continued calls for his resignation.
A referendum on Laporta’s administration, instigated by Oriol Giralt, saw those critical of his management win 60.6 per cent of the approximately 40,000 votes cast by club members, which fell just short of the two thirds necessary to force a new election.
‘I have no intention of resigning. We have a legitimate mandate (until 2010), we overcame the motion against us, and we are enthusiastic about the future,’ Laporta was quoted as saying in the Spanish media on Wednesday.
On local media reports that certain members of his board were pressuring him to step aside, or to resign themselves, Laporta added: ‘I have the support of most of the directors but understand that some might be affected by the situation at a personal level.
‘If there are changes in the board it will be understandable.’
All bar one of the Barca board met at a director’s house on Tuesday night to discuss a situation that has dominated the city’s sports media since the weekend.
‘The meeting formed a part of the process of reflection and dialogue that we started after Sunday’s vote,’ Barca vice-president for sport Marc Ingla was quoted as telling daily El Periodico as he left in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
As Laporta left, he was quoted as saying: ‘It was a meeting of friends. Many opinions were expressed and debated and we will continue with it on Thursday.’


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No worries about WC
preparations: FIFA
Agence France-Presse . Johannesburg
Organisers of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa insisted Wednesday preparations remain on track after the city of Port Elizabeth was stripped of the right to stage matches for the dress rehearsal.
The decision on Tuesday to drop the southern coastal city from the line-up for the 2009 Confederations Cup means none of the five stadia being built from scratch will be showcased for the traditional warm-up event.
However FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke told reporters Wednesday the move should not be seen as a vote of no confidence in South Africa’s ability to have everything ready for the kick-off in just under two years’ time.
‘Nothing is ready (yet) but everything has to be ready and will be ready for the World Cup,’ said Valcke. ‘There was a red light for the PE stadium and that is why we had to take a decision. There is no other red light and things are either on orange or green.
‘It is normal. We are exactly where we have to be.’
The Confederations Cup has traditionally been used to test a host country’s state of preparedness for the World Cup and the decision may fuel claims that South Africa is struggling to meet its deadlines.
The axing of Port Elizabeth from the Confederations Cup roster was made after FIFA president Sepp Blatter revealed he has a Plan B should South Africa be unable to host the World Cup, although he stressed it would only become active in the event of a natural disaster.
Valcke said ‘we do not know what is Plan B today or that we have worked on Plan B.’
‘The World Cup will take place in South Africa and has to take place in South Africa,’ he said.
‘The decision was taken to give back to Africa an event. African players are more in Europe than in the rest of the world. You have to give back, in recognition of what Africa has brought to the game.’
In the absence of Port Elizabeth, the Confederations Cup—which features South Africa, Italy, Spain, the United States, Brazil, Iraq and Egypt—will be staged in the northern cities of Johannesburg, Pretoria, Bloemfontein and Rustenburg.
The decision was made after a report compiled by a technical team which said the stadium, one of 10 which are due to stage matches in the 2010 tournament, would likely miss a deadline in March next year for health and safety tests.
South Africa is building five new stadia while another five are being upgraded for the first ever World Cup to be staged in Africa.
The arena in Port Elizabeth was the only new stadium to have been earmarked to stage Confederations Cup matches.
‘The technical team made a recommendation that ... it is very likely that it will go beyond March 2009 deadline and on that basis, the board had to take a decision,’ said Danny Jordaan, CEO of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee.
‘We did not want to take any risk in hosting the Confederations Cup.’


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European clubs opposed to FIFA’s
6+5 foreigners quota
Reuters/Bdnews24.com . Berne
The newly-formed European Club Association has used its first meeting to oppose FIFA’s controversial 6+5 proposal aimed at restricting the number of foreign players in starting line-ups.
The ECA said in a statement on Tuesday that its 103 members had ‘strongly endorsed the stance’ taken by chairman
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
and vice-chairman Joan
Laporta after talks last month with EU Commissioner Vladimir Spidla.
‘In ECA’s view, there is no necessity for a 6+5 rule, and the organisation favours instead UEFA’s ‘home-grown’ approach,’ the statement added.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter has personally championed the 6+5 proposal which would limit clubs to fielding just five foreign players at the start of a match.
Blatter has argued that his idea would strengthen national teams and prevent wealthy clubs from hoarding the best international players.
UEFA, which governs European football, has repeatedly argued that the proposal is in conflict with EU labour laws on the free movement of workers within the bloc.
UEFA’s rival ‘home-grown’ plan, which is already in force in its own Champions League competition, instead requires every club squad to include a minimum number of locally trained players.
Unlike FIFA’s proposals, the UEFA version does not place any restrictions on those players’ nationalities.
The ECA, which was created in January as a more representative replacement for the contentious G-14 group of leading clubs, also announced the line-up of its own executive board on Tuesday with Rummenigge being confirmed as chairman.
The 52-year-old two-time European footballer of the year had been acting chairman since the founding of the ECA but was voted in officially by the body’s new 15-member board on Tuesday.
The ECA comprises 103 clubs selected purely on their UEFA ranking with at least one member from each national association.
Higher ranked associations send more representatives, with England, Spain and Italy all having five clubs in the body’s general assembly.


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Atletico offer 15 million euros
for van der Vaart
Agence France-Presse . Madrid
Atletico Madrid has offered 15 million euros ($23.5 million) for Hamburg midfielder Rafael van der Vaart, Spanish sports daily AS reported on Wednesday.
The 25-year-old Dutch international ‘is the man who Atletico are looking for to close the chapter on their recruitment,’ the newspaper wrote.
Atletico’s sports director Jesus Garcia Pitarch confirmed the club’s interest in the midfielder on Tuesday during the official presentation of their latest recruit, French keeper Gregory Coupet from Lyon.
‘There could be interest in other players like van der Vaart but these are players with strong potential who are very expensive,’ he said, adding there had been some contact with Valencia over its striker David Villa.
Van der Vaart said in an interview published in January that he would like to join a Spanish club at a time when Italian side Juventus Turin appeared well positioned to recruit him.
‘Spain is my preference because my mother Lolita is Spanish,’ he told Focus magazine.
Last week Hamburg’s new coach, Dutchman Martin Jol, said he was counting on the striker for the next season which gets underway in mid-August.
Van der Vaart joined Hamburg in 2005 and has a contract until 2010. Atletico has sought to refresh its squad after finishing fourth in the Spanish first division last season and will therefore return to the Champions League after an 11-year absence.


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