S P O R T S

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2014
S P ORTS
KUWAIT: Kuwait handicapped basketball team defeated Italy’s Torino team by three points, following an exciting match that was held yesterday, as competition of the third international forum began. The match was held in the presence of Forum President, Shafi Al-Hajiri and a large number of officials. Kuwait’s team was led by coach Hussam Abbas and assistant Ahmad Al-Shatti. Players Nizar Ramadhan, Hamad Al-Adwani, Yousuf Khalaf, Ahmad Naqa, Fahad
Nabi, Al-Failakawi, Mohammad Al-Ghareeb, Mohammad Al-Shimmari and Essa Al-Fadhly were all outstanding during the match. The match ended with the score of 51-48.
Balotelli returns
to Italian fray
MILAN: Mario Balotelli’s return to the Italy
fray was met with mixed reviews as the
misfiring Liverpool striker prepares to end
his enforced exile with a potential appearance against Euro 2016 opponents Croatia
next week. Balotelli has not played for Italy
since their first-round exit from the World
Cup in Brazil and until his call-up on
Sunday was left on the sidelines by new
Italy coach Antonio Conte for their first
three Group H qualifiers.
The 24-year-old striker is no stranger to
controversy, having spent two and a half
well-documented years in the English
Premier League with Manchester City,
where he missed 11 domestic games after
taking the club to a tribunal following their
decision to fine him two weeks’ wages for
his poor disciplinary record.
After returning to Italy in January 2013
for an ill-fated 18-month spell with AC
Milan, Balotelli signed for Liverpool in the
summer but has been pilloried since having failed to spark and, worse, failed to
score in the league. Conte’s decision has
left more than a few observers scratching
their heads in wonder. “Balotelli was only
called up by Italy because of the injury suffered by Lorenzo Insigne,” claimed
Francesco De Luca, chief editor of Il Mattino
newspaper, on the football talk show Il
Processo di Lunedi. Another guest on the
show, former Inter player Evaristo
Beccalossi, gave an equally unflattering
appraisal of Balotelli, who played for the
Nerazzurri before his move to City.
“We’ve always said that Mario’s presence
should depend on how he is playing, but
it’s evident that at Liverpool he’s not performing well,” said Beccalossi.
“He’s found it difficult from the start
there, but Conte has selected him. In the
coach’s defence, you have to say the strikers we have are not all top notch.” Whether
on or off the field, Balotelli has courted
controversy at almost every club he has
played. Reports from England on Tuesday
said Balotelli was seen out partying at a
London nightclub until 4:30a.m. following
Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat to Chelsea, a game in
which Balotelli was conspicuously under
par. Several weeks ago he was pilloried by
fans and the unforgiving British tabloids
after he swapped shirts with Real Madrid
player Pepe as they walked off at half-time.
Liverpool lost 3-0 and Balotelli was
replaced at half-time.
While Liverpool manager Brendan
Rodgers said he would “deal with the incident internally”, former Reds great Jamie
Carragher hit out: “I’d be surprised to see
him here next season if I’m being honest.”
Asked by Rai Sport on Monday for his opinion on Balotelli, former Ajax and Barcelona
hero Johan Cruyff said: “It’s a problem of
education, if he had been educated well he
would not be like he is now.” Few commentators got behind Balotelli, although in
Tuttomercatoweb.com former Milan and
Rangers striker Mark Hateley called for
Liverpool fans to show patience.
“Conte was right to call him up because
at international level you get the best out
of Balotelli,” said Hateley. “Mario is suffering
from the fact he is being compared to Luis
Suarez and I think that’s wrong. Suarez
scored a lot of goals and was driving force
behind Liverpool and you can’t replace guy
like that.
“Of course, he (Balotelli) isn’t scoring,
he’s not playing well. But Liverpool are not
playing well and it’s not easy for Balotelli.
“He’s lacking confidence and maybe this
call-up will be the spark that gets him
going again.” Conte, meanwhile, said he
has not taken Balotelli’s Liverpool woes into
consideration. “Personally, I don’t pay attention to what’s being said about his club situation,” Conte said Monday when the Italy
squad congregated at their Coverciano
training base near Florence.
“Today he’s here and he has to answer to
me. I will judge him by what he does in the
next seven to nine days.” Italy sit second in
Group H behind Croatia on goal difference
after winning their three opening qualifiers. They host the Croats at Milan’s San
Siro ground on Sunday.—AFP
Old haunt, new start
for Tevez, Argentina
LONDON: Carlos Tevez will end his three-year
international exile in the familiar surroundings of Upton Park when World Cup runnersup Argentina tackle Croatia in a friendly in
London today. Tevez has not played for
Argentina since their quarter-final defeat on
penalties by Uruguay on home soil at the
2011 Copa America, when he was the only
player to miss a spot-kick. Frozen out by former coach Alejandro Sabella, who stood
down after steering Argentina to second
place at the World Cup, Tevez has been
recalled by Sabella’s successor, Gerardo
Martino.
By happy coincidence, the 30-year-old
stands to make his international return at the
east London home of West Ham United, the
club he rescued from Premier League relegation in 2007. Tevez spent only one season at
Upton Park, but he is fondly remembered
there after scoring a winning goal at
Manchester United on the season’s final day
that spared West Ham from slipping into the
second tier. He subsequently joined
Manchester United, winning two league titles
and the Champions League, before going on
to enjoy comparable success at Manchester
City and his current club, Juventus.
However, Sabella’s belief that he and
Lionel Messi could not be successfully accommodated in the same team meant that
Tevez’s international career slipped into limbo. The squat, bustling striker with the distinctive neck scar demonstrated his ability
with a brace in Juventus’s 7-0 rout of Parma
on Sunday, including a thrilling solo goal that
saw him run from inside his own half. But
with Messi having developed a fruitful understanding with Gonzalo Higuain and Sergio
Aguero during Tevez’s long absence, Martino
has warned that he may have to wait for
opportunities to add to his 64 caps and 13
international goals.
Croatia leave stars behind
“It’s a fact that Lionel plays very well with
Higuain and Kun (Aguero), and we forget that
he played with Tevez in a previous time,” said
the former Barcelona coach, whose team face
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal in another
friendly game in Manchester next week.”I
can’t guarantee he will be in the 11 or on the
bench, but it will happen in some moment of
the games that both (Messi and Tevez) can be
together on the pitch.”
With World Cup defenders Marcos Rojo,
Ezequiel Garay and Federico Fernandez all
unavailable due to injury, Martino has added
Sunderland’s Santiago Vergini and uncapped
Sporting Lisbon defender Jonathan Silva to
his squad. Argentina have played three
friendlies since their 1-0 extra-time loss to
Germany in the World Cup final, gaining a
measure of revenge against Joachim Loew’s
side with a 4-2 win in Duesseldorf in
September before losing 2-0 to Brazil in
Beijing and crushing Hong Kong 7-0. Croatia
failed to make it past the group phase in
Brazil, but they have hit the ground running
in qualifying for Euro 2016, winning their first
four games against Cyprus, Malta, Bulgaria
and Azerbaijan without conceding a goal.
They lead Italy on goal difference at the top
of Group H and with a meeting against
Antonio Conte’s side to follow in Milan on
Sunday, coach Niko Kovac will field a secondstring team against Argentina.
First-team stars such as Real Madrid’s Luka
Modric and Barcelona midfielder Ivan Rakitic
have been left behind in Zagbreb, but Kovac
says his team will not prove mere cannon fodder for Messi and co. — AFP
ROMFORD: Argentina forward Carlos
Tevez takes part in a training session in
this file photo. —AFP
GREECE: Tottenham Hotspur’s Jan Vertonghen controls the ball in this file photo. —AFP
Tottenham Spurs seeking to
rebuild on and off the pitch
LONDON: Almost all the old buildings have
been demolished, diggers are in place and a
perimeter fence displaying images of Tottenham
Hotspur’s shiny new stadium borders the vast
open space next to the North Stand at White
Hart Lane. But like most things in Tottenham’s
recent history, it’s not as simple as all that. Some
nondescript light industrial buildings housing a
sheet metalworking company remain and while
they do the start of construction work on a new
58,000-seater stadium remains delayed with the
High Court deciding early next year what compensation is due to the company who have
refused to leave the site.
The stadium is not the only Spurs construction job that has failed to get off the ground in
London N17. New manager Mauricio
Pochettino’s ambitious plans to rebuild Spurs as a
team that can not only challenge for a top four
finish but for the Premier League title have yet to
produce any tangible signs of getting past the
foundation stage. Indeed there are growing signs
that his foundations are not even in place yet.
But whether Tottenham are in a serious crisis,
as some in the British media are claiming this
week, is open to doubt. They are certainly in a
period of transition-but that is hardly news.
Spurs have been in transition since trigger-happy Daniel Levy became chairman in February
2001. Managers George Graham, Glenn Hoddle,
Jacques Santini, Martin Jol, Juande Ramos, Harry
Redknapp, Andre Villas-Boas and Tim Sherwood
have all come and gone with varying degrees of
success. Now ex-Southampton manager
Pochettino is in the manager’s chair with a mis-
firing team, full of players the Argentine did not
sign, who have made an uninspiring start to the
season.
TABLE TOPPERS
After winning their opening two league
games and topping the table for a week in
August, Spurs have lost five of their nine league
matches since, culminating in dire displays
against Aston Villa last week and Stoke City on
Sunday. They scored two late goals to steal a 2-1
win at Villa Park, but there was no escaping a
fourth home loss of the season when they went
down 2-1 to Stoke on Sunday, a result that has
left them 12th in the table.
After the defeat striker Emmanuel Adebayor,
criticized the Spurs fans saying: “It’s kind of hard
when you know the first bad ball you make the
fans are going to boo you. “When you are playing in front of your own crowd you want them to
support you. I think it might be better to play
away from home at the moment because at
least we know beforehand we are guaranteed to
be booed because they want their home club to
win,” he said. “I was on the bench against Stoke
and... I could see that nobody wanted the ball.
Right now, to tell you the truth, I think a lot of
players when they put on the shirt and go out
on to the pitch are finding it hard in the head.”
KEY PROBLEMS
Former striker Garth Crooks, who won the FA
Cup with the club in 1981 and 1982, told Reuters
it was imperative that Tottenham did not panic
just because the season had not started as well
as expected under Pochettino. “There has been
too many changes at Spurs, Levy must stick with
his convictions and show some faith in the new
manager. There is no such thing as immediate
success in football. Spurs have to build it.”
Right now, that’s on the pitch as well as off it.
One key problem is that Tottenham never adequately replaced three great players who left
within a year of each other: Croatian Luka
Modric, Dutchman Rafael van der Vaart and
Welshman Gareth Bale, sold for a total of about
125 million pounds. Spurs attempted to shore
up the gaping hole left by the departure of Bale
to Real Madrid for a world record fee of 85 million pounds in August last year by buying seven
new players, most of whom have flattered to
deceive.
Argentina midfielder Erik Lamela,
Tottenham’s club record 30 million signing from
AS Roma, has yet to score a Premier League goal
while Spanish striker Roberto Soldado, who
joined for 26 million from Valencia, has scored
just twice this season-once in the Europa League
and once in the Capital One (League) Cup.
According to the annual Deloitte Money List,
Spurs are the 14th richest club in Europe and
their list of domestic and European honors is
impressive-but it was all achieved a long time
ago. Spurs have the resources and the history
behind them plus an ambitious young manager
who is anxious to do well. Pochettino excelled at
Southampton last season and might well be the
man to rebuild Spurs in the next few years, but
unless Levy holds his nerve no-one will ever
know.— Reuters
Depression remains despite Enke suicide
BERLIN: Five years after German international
Robert Enke’s suicide, his widow says attitudes towards depression have softened in
Germany, but national football chief Wolfgang
Niersbach insists little has changed. Enke,
who was Germany’s first-choice goalkeeper at
the time, took his own life on November 10,
2009 by throwing himself under a commuter
train after a six-year battle with depression.
He was just 32 and it later emerged he had
kept his illness secret, partly through fear of
losing custody of the daughter he had adopted with his wife.
Following the tragedy, the Robert Enke
Foundation was established by his former
club Hanover 96, the German Football
Association (DFB) and the German Football
League (DFL).
Part of its work involves offering advice
and help to those suffering from mental illness, especially sportsmen and women.
An exhibition “Robert Enke-our friend and
goalkeeper” opened on Friday in Hanover
showing off memorabilia from a playing
career which also included stints at
Moenchengladbach, Benfica, Barcelona,
Fenerbahce and Tenerife.
His widow Teresa Enke says the foundation’s work is making a difference and public
opinions towards psychological illness has
changed since her husband’s suicide.
“Many things have been achieved (by the
foundation), such as an advice service. This is
a huge step forward, Robert and I were often
alone and out on a limb,” said Teresa.
“Depression is something which is spoken
about far more openly now and those affected are more able to ask for and receive help
and treatment.”
One example is Hanover 96’s reserve goalkeeper Markus Miller who took two months
away from playing in 2011 to be treated for
depression and was given full support by
Enke’s former club.
But the 32-year-old says he has experienced little sympathy towards his illness.
“Anyone who falls down to the left or right
isn’t really currently a concern in our society,”
said Miller in an ARD interview. Just five days
after Germany won the World Cup this year,
goalkeeper Andreas Biermann, who had
played for second division sides Union Berlin
and St Pauli, committed suicide at the age of
34. Biermann had announced he was suffer-
ing from depression in November 2009, in the
immediate wake of Enke’s suicide, but later
said he regretted going public.
“The fears I had, before I went public with
my illness, were confirmed,” he told magazine
Stern two years before his death.
“I wouldn’t recommend any professional
footballer suffering from depression to go
public with their illness.” Niersbach says little
has altered in terms of attitudes on the terraces of Germany’s top-flight football, but it is
something the DFB are working on.
“It hasn’t seriously changed anything, we
keep coming back to the point where we are
still some way from a healthy sporting rivalry,”
DFB president Niersbach told broadcaster
ARD.
“We live through these things and set a
code of conduct, but ultimately there are
80,000 spectators in the stadium and everyone follows their own interpretation of these
standards.
“This has always been the case and will
always remain so. But fairness must not be a
concept just gathering dust in our society and
in sport. “It’s something we are committed to
at the head of the association.”—AFP