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Sport
SUNDAY, APRIL 17, 2016
Enrique: Barca haven’t gone into hiding
DAY’S WATCH FOOTBALL SONY SIX 12:40AM Serie A TIM 2015/16
n Reuters, Barcelona
Sampdoria v AC Milan
SONY ESPN 12:30AM Spanish La Liga Barcelona v Valencia
STAR SPORTS 1 English Premier League 5:50PM Leicester City v West Ham United 9:00PM Arsenal v Crystal Palace
STAR SPORTS 2 English Premier League 6:30PM AFC Bournemouth v Liverpool
STAR SPORTS 4 German Bundesliga 7:30PM Borussia Dortmund v Hamburger 9:15PM FSV Mainz 05 v FC Koln
TEN 2 6:30PM I-League 2016 Bengaluru v Salgaocar 12:50AM French Ligue 1 Monaco v Olympic Marseille
TEN 3 12:30PM A-League 2015/16 Eliminator: Melbourne v Perth 9:00PM French Ligue 1 Stade Rennais v De Guingamp
NEO PRIME 4:30PM Dutch League 2016 AFC Ajax v FC Utrecht
CRICKET SONY SIX Indian Premier League 4:30PM Punjab v Pune 8:30PM Bangalore v Delhi
FORMULA 1 STAR SPORTS 4 12:00PM F1: Main Race Shanghai Grand Prix
TENNIS NEO SPORTS 4:00PM Fed Cup 2016 Doubles and Singles Semi-finals Switzerland v Czech Republic
Barcelona goalkeeper Claudio Bravo takes part in a training session at the FC Barcelona Joan Gamper Sports Centre in Sant Joan Despi yesterday on the eve of their La Liga match against Valencia CF today AFP
Barcelona are still the best side in La Liga despite their poor recent form, coach Luis Enrique said yesterday. The leaders have not won any of their last three La Liga games and on Wednesday were eliminated from the Champions League by Atletico Madrid, ending hopes of an unprecedented two successive trebles. “There is no team that has been better than Barca. I wouldn’t swap with any other team in the league,” Luis Enrique told a news conference ahead of today’s home match with Valencia. “We haven’t gone into hiding. We said we were the favourites to win every competition, another thing is whether we deserve to win them.” Barca have lost three of their last four matches since returning from the international break, before which they had gone 39 games undefeated in all competitions, but Luis Enrique did not offer an expla-
nation for his team’s sudden slump. “Everyone wants to talk about the negatives but, I’m sorry, for me it’s in the past,” he said. “It’s not down to one thing, there’s an infinite number of factors that determine whether a team wins or loses. “We have dealt with the defeat with the utmost dig-
LA LIGA FIXTURES Malaga Sevilla Rayo Vallecano Atletico Madrid Barcelona
v v v v v
Athletic Bilbao Deportivo Villarreal Granada Valencia
nity. It’s risky to make conclusions with six games and a cup final to play (against Sevilla next month).” Enrique declined to say whether the club were planning to punish Dani Alves for posting an Instagram video after the defeat by Atletico where the defender imitated his girlfriend, wore a wig and said, “It’s only a football match, it doesn’t matter”.l
Defiant Blatter regrets he did not reform FIFA n Reuters, Basel Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter acknowledged on Friday that he failed to reform the scandal-ridden world soccer organisation but asserted he was not responsible for corruption in its regional organisations. Blatter spoke to more than 400 people at the University of Basel, where a student group has been preparing proposals on how FIFA should address the scandal. The disgraced FIFA head appeared at the event with Luis Moreno Ocampo, a former International Criminal Court prosecutor who accused the 80-year-old Swiss citizen
of turning a blind eye to corruption within regional soccer organisations. Dozens of officials, including former members of FIFA’s executive committee, have been indicted in the United States and Blatter has been banned for six years by its ethics committee. “I regret I have not done enough to bring back FIFA on the right track,” Blatter told the meeting. But he insisted that while he led FIFA, the actions of leaders of regional soccer organisations did not fall under his purview. “Those things they did within their confederations,” he said. “I don’t have any power to intervene
in their confederations.” Blatter was banned from soccer activities for ethics violations in December along with Michel Platini, a former French national player who rose to become head of the European football association UEFA. The pair were suspended in October pending an investigation into a 2 million Swiss franc ($2.07 million) payment to Platini that FIFA made to European boss Platini in 2011. Platini has said the payment was for work he did as a FIFA advisor between 1999 and 2002 and the nine-year delay in payment was due to FIFA’s financial situation.
Real tie not personal for Pellegrini n AFP, London Manuel Pellegrini has slammed suggestions he will be motivated by revenge when Manchester City face his former club Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals. Pellegrini’s side were handed a daunting showdown with Real in Friday’s draw after defeating Paris Saint Germain on Tuesday to reach the last four of Europe’s elite club competition for the first time. City will host the 10-time European champions in the first leg on April 26 before heading to the Bernabeu for the return a week later. Pellegrini was sacked by Real in 2010 after just one season and re-
placed by Jose Mourinho following early elimination from the Champions League and the disappointment of losing out on the La Liga title to Barcelona. However, on Friday the 62-yearold insisted there will be no desire for retribution against his former employers, who are looking to win the tournament for the second time in the last three years. “No, it is not an extra motivation. Always the motivation is to play the semi-final of the Champions League,” said Pellegrini, who will be replaced as City boss by Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola at the end of the season. “It is a difficult draw. It didn’t
matter which of the three teams we had to play, the three were difficult. “I think the options to continue are the same for the teams and we will expect to do a very good game against a big team.” “I think always for a big team it is important to arrive to the last stage of the Champions League and try to win it, but also not to leave out their domestic games,” he said. “Real Madrid know every year they must win titles and be involved in all the competitions. “In this moment I think they are playing the semi-final of the Champions League and they still have options in the Spanish league, so as always it is a team that is involved in all.”l
Blatter was unapologetic about the payment, saying it was an unwritten “gentleman’s agreement,” though he conceded the transaction should have been documented earlier. “This is a debt, and we paid the debt,” he said. “Perhaps it should have been indicated at the very beginning that we had something due to him. But this is an administrative and financial procedure and this had nothing to do with ethics.” Blatter appealed his six-year ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne in March, seeking to have the penalty revoked. Platini has also appealed to this court.l