Roberto Firmino clinched Liverpool’s first Club World Cup title on Saturday, scoring in extra time to seal a 1-0 victory in the final over Flamengo to assert Europe’s footballing dominance over South America.

Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson’s defense-splitting pass picked out Sadio Mane who squared for Firmino to net in the 99th minute and become Liverpool’s savior again in the Qatari capital for the second time in three days.

The Brazilian forward also struck in the semifinal victory over Monterrey, giving him two goals in as many games in the 2022 World Cup test-event tournament, having only netted once in the previous 16 games for Liverpool in all competitions.

Unlike on Wednesday, when Firmino scored in stoppage time, Liverpool was denied a chance for a 90th-minute winner against Flamengo when a decision to award a penalty was overturned in a moment of confusion.

Qatari Abdulrahman Al Jassim pointed to the spot when Rafinha clipped Mane’s heel before going over to reassess the incident on the touchline monitor. Flamengo fans who dominated the 45,000-crowd at Khalifa Stadium were delirious when the internationally inexperienced referee determined the incident had happened outside the penalty area.

Brief reprieve

The reprieve was only brief as Fabinho allowed Liverpool to avenge the loss to Flamengo in the 1981 single-game version of this competition.

Liverpool added the world title to its sixth European Cup collected in June to qualify for the Club World Cup. At the same time, a continent away back in England, Liverpool’s pursuit of the Premier League was aided by Leicester losing to Manchester City.

An English title drought stretching back to 1990 for the 18-time English champions is well-placed to end with Liverpool holding a 10-point lead over Leicester ahead of Thursday’s game at the second-place rival.

While Liverpool’s year is ending on a high, a 2019 of tragedy and triumph ends on a low on the field for Flamengo.

A first Copa Libertadores title since 1981 followed a domestic title triumph for Brazil’s most successful club. But it came against the backdrop of grief and agony following the deaths of 10 academy players – all between 14 and 16 years old—in a fire in a dormitory.

(AP)

Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil has been deleted from Chinese versions of the popular Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) mobile game, the title’s China distributor has said, as the fallout continued over his criticism of the country’s treatment of its Uighur minority.

US-listed Chinese internet company NetEase said it removed Ozil from the game due to his “extreme comment about China.”

Ozil, a German national of Turkish origin, condemned China’s crackdown on Muslim minorities in the western region of Xinjiang in a tweet last Friday and criticised Muslim countries for failing to speak up about the alleged abuses.

Arsenal has distanced itself from his comments, while China said his tweets were “untruthful” and that he was “deceived by fake news”.

China has faced growing international condemnation for setting up a vast network of camps in Xinjiang, where critics say Uighurs are pressured to renounce Islam, support the ruling Communist Party, and integrate with China’s majority Han culture.

Rights groups and experts say more than one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been incarcerated, part of a long-term government response to tame years of persistent violent unrest against Beijing’s control of Xinjiang.

Ozil had tweeted in Turkish: “Korans are being burnt… Mosques are being shut down… Muslim schools are being banned… Religious scholars are being killed one by one… Brothers are forcefully being sent to camps.”

“The Muslims are silent. Their voice is not heard,” he wrote against a blue backdrop with a white crescent moon — the flag of ‘East Turkestan’, the term many Uighur separatists use for Xinjiang.

Shortly afterward, NetEase announced on its verified Chinese social media accounts that Ozil’s comments had “hurt the feelings of Chinese fans and violated the sport’s spirit of love and peace”.

“We do not understand, accept or forgive this comment.”

China at first denied that the camps existed but, under growing pressure, later acknowledged them, saying they were vocational training centres.

Following his comments, Chinese state television dropped plans to broadcast the English Premier League club’s match last Sunday, and discussion of the topic is now heavily censored in China.

In a similar episode, China moved in October to punish the NBA’s Houston Rockets after its general manager Daryl Morey tweeted support for Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters.

Ozil has been praised on Twitter for speaking out, with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also weighing this week.

“China’s Communist Party propaganda outlets can censor @MesutOzil1088 and @Arsenal’s games all season long, but the truth will prevail,” Pompeo wrote on Twitter, chastising China for its “gross” rights violations against Uighurs.

Turkey, which shares linguistic and ethnic ties with the Uighurs, has been outspoken on the issue but most Muslim-majority countries have been muted in the face of China’s commercial and diplomatic power.

Source: AFP

Anthony Joshua has offered to be Tyson Fury’s sparring partner if it helps his fellow British fighter beat WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder.

Joshua has been left frustrated in his attempts to lure America’s Wilder into the ring as he bids to unify the division following his victory over Andy Ruiz Jr last weekend.

The 30-year-old, who regained the WBA, IBF and WBO belts, feels he has a better chance of landing a blockbuster unification showdown with Fury than with Wilder.

Fury faces a re-match with the American on February 22, having drawn their first encounter, and Joshua told Sky Sports News: “I think honestly he might beat Wilder next time.

“I think Fury would fight me quicker than Wilder would, so, if that’s the case, I want him to win. Imagine that fight on British soil.

“If Tyson needs me, I’ll go out and spar with him to get him ready for Wilder.”

Joshua remains desperate for a showdown with Wilder that would see both men attempt to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis.

“It still puzzles me as to why it’s so difficult to pin this man down,” Joshua said. “This is the man I need to pin down to get the last ring and conquer this division.”

“You’ve got the two lords of the rings here,” he added. “The last one to unify, undisputed, the division. I’ve got four (including the IBO belt), he’s got one. I just need one more.”

Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev is the IBF’s next mandatory challenger for Joshua, while the WBO has ordered the Londoner to fight Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk.

And speaking about a potential third meeting with Ruiz Jr, the Mexican-American who stunned the boxing world by beating Joshua in June, the British boxer said: “One trillion per cent.

“I always said I’d fight him in Tijuana, with his uncle as referee. Me and Andy will soon see each other in the ring again.”

Source: AFP

Chinese state media warned Monday that Mesut Ozil’s criticism of the country’s treatment of its Uighurs will have “serious implications” for Arsenal, stirring a backlash that saw the English football club’s weekend match pulled from Chinese TV.

A Global Times editorial slammed what it called a “clownish performance” from Ozil, describing him as “confused” and “reckless” and saying he had abused his position as a public figure.

Ozil, a German national of Turkish origin, condemned China’s crackdown on Muslim minorities in the western region of Xinjiang in a tweet on Friday and criticised Muslim countries for failing to speak up about the alleged abuses. Arsenal has distanced itself from his comments.

The row, which has potential repercussions for Arsenal and the Premier League in the lucrative Chinese market, follows the opprobrium heaped on basketball’s NBA in October after Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted his support for Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters.

The response to Ozil’s criticism has been swift in China. On Sunday, state broadcaster CCTV pulled the live Premier League game between Arsenal and Manchester City from its programming.

Leading streaming service PPTV also appeared to have cancelled its screening of the match, which Arsenal lost 3-0.

In its editorial, the Global Times — one of the ruling Communist Party’s mouthpieces — accused the 31-year-old Ozil of being “a person who is confused, reckless in abusing (his) influence, easily incited and willing to incite others”.

“Ozil’s move has ruined his image among Chinese fans and will have serious implications for Arsenal,” warned the newspaper.

“Chinese people should see clearly that what Ozil did this time was a ‘clownish performance’.”

– ‘Hurt Chinese feelings’ –

The English-language edition of the Global Times carried a statement from the Chinese Football Association saying that “Ozil’s comments not only hurt his Chinese fans but also hurt the feelings of the Chinese people”.

China has faced growing international condemnation for setting up a vast network of camps in Xinjiang aimed at homogenising the Uighur population to reflect China’s majority Han culture.

Rights groups and experts say more than one million Uighurs and people of other mostly Muslim ethnic minorities have been sent to the camps in the tightly controlled region.

“Korans are being burnt… Mosques are being shut down… Muslim schools are being banned… Religious scholars are being killed one by one… Brothers are forcefully being sent to camps,” Ozil tweeted in Turkish.

“The Muslims are silent. Their voice is not heard,” he wrote on a background of a blue field with a white crescent moon — the flag of ‘East Turkestan’, the term many Uighur separatists use for Xinjiang.

Arsenal posted on Weibo, China’s leading social media platform, that the comments were “Ozil’s personal opinion”, adding that the club had a policy of “not involving itself in politics”.

But some Weibo users expressed delight at the team’s heavy home defeat to City, which left the London club ninth in the Premier League.

Ozil played for only an hour before being substituted to boos over his performance in the match.

“I’m an Arsenal fan and today I cheered for City’s victory,” posted one user.

“Manchester City is a good friend of the Chinese people,” added another.

Source: AFP

Britain has one of the worlds most renowned and watched football competitions in the form of the Premier League. With billions of pounds invested in the sport by multiple backers from multiple nations, it is a dominant force to be reckoned with on the pitch, however, can football influence politics?

Arsenal footballer, Mesut Ozil, has caused uproar in China after Tweeting comments regarding the Uighur Muslims in China. Ozil, himself a Muslim, has broken ranks with the protocol of mixing opinion with sport, and as such, China has removed the scheduled game between Arsenal and Manchester City today from their airtime.

Arsenal were quick to distance themselves from the controversial comments made by Ozil, stating that the club will always remain an apolitical organisation, the Global Times described Ozil’s comments as false, and the Chinese, who have a large Arsenal fan base, both in China and abroad, have been left disappointed by the Germany star’s unprecedented comments.

Sports personalities have caused further controversy in the past, notably in the US where the Houston Rockets manager, Darly Morey, caused tensions by Tweeting his support for the Hong Kong protesters. This again sparked a backlash from the Chinese, who again questioned why a sporting icon should involve himself in politics.

The underlying notion behind this involvement may be deeper than first meets the eye. The UK are bitterly sore at losing Hong Kong to the Chinese, and further more, the UK’s reliance on China, is far greater than China’s reliance on the UK.

Hence, from every possible angle, from sport to sympathy with protestors, from human rights to criticism of the Chinese military, the UK is doing is upmost to smear China, and albeit from a football star playing for Arsenal, the UK has once again come under the spotlight as it unofficially agitates the waves of social media from within.

Culled from Presstv

Tiger Woods has won 15 majors and a record 82 US PGA Tour events all over the world but the US superstar admitted Sunday there was something extra special in winning the Presidents Cup.

Woods became only the second playing-captain to lift the biennial matchplay trophy after Hale Irwin in the inaugural Presidents Cup in 1994, juggling both roles seamlessly.

The 43-year-old won all three matches he played, skipping only the Saturday fourballs and foursomes to focus solely on his captaincy duties.

Competing in his ninth Presidents Cup, Woods said it was an emotional moment when he realised all the hard work had paid off as his team edged Ernie Els’ Internationals 16-14 at Royal Melbourne after a stirring comeback.

“I’ve been a part of teams before where we have won. Also been a part of, unfortunately, this Presidents Cup when we lost 21 years ago,” he said, referring to the US team’s only defeat in 1998, also in Melbourne.

“So to come here and to do it in this fashion, to do it with this team, in particular, it was an honour for me as a player and even more of an honour to be their captain.

“I’ve cried in pretty much every Cup we’ve won,” he added.

“I’ve been doing this a long time. Any time you have moments where you’re able to do something that is bigger than us as an individual, is so much more meaningful and so much more special.”

Woods went out first in the singles matches Sunday and once more led from the front, beating battling Mexican Abraham Ancer 3 and 2 as his team began to reel in the Internationals’ 10-8 overnight lead.

In doing so he passed Phil Mickelson to become the most successful Presidents Cup golfer in history with a 27-15-1 win-loss-tie record to his countryman’s 26-16-13.

Woods was keen to deflect attention from himself, insisting it was team effort despite his individual exploits.

“We did it together. We came here as a team. My teammates and my boys all played well,” he said.

“The (vice) captains did an amazing job of just being there for every little detail,” he added, referring to Fred Couples, Zach Johnson and Steve Stricker.

“I couldn’t have done it without all their help and all my boys. They did it.”

Source: AFP

The World Anti-Doping Agency on Monday banned Russia for four years from major global sporting events including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar over manipulated doping data, prompting an angry response from President Vladimir Putin.

WADA’s executive committee, meeting in Lausanne, handed Russia the “robust” four-year suspension after accusing Moscow of falsifying data from a doping testing laboratory that was handed over to investigators earlier this year.

The toughest ever sanctions imposed on Russian state authorities will see government officials barred from attending any major events, while the country will lose the right to host or bid for tournaments.

“For too long, Russian doping has detracted from clean sport,” WADA president Craig Reedie said.

“Russia was afforded every opportunity to get its house in order and rejoin the global anti-doping community for the good of its athletes and of the integrity of sport, but it chose instead to continue in its stance of deception and denial.”

Under the sanctions, Russian sportsmen and women will still be allowed to compete at the Olympics next year and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, but only as neutrals and if they can demonstrate that they were not part of what WADA believes was a state-sponsored system of doping.

Russia will still be allowed to compete in qualifiers for the 2022 football World Cup, but WADA director general Olivier Niggli added that should they progress to the finals in Qatar, “the team there will not be representing the Russian federation”.

Russia’s participation in Euro 2020 — and Saint Petersburg’s hosting of four matches — is not affected by the ban because it is not defined as a “major event” for anti-doping purposes.

Speaking in Paris, Putin slammed the decision as a “politically motivated” ruling that “contradicted” the Olympic Charter.

“There is nothing to reproach the Russian Olympic Committee for and if there is no reproach towards this committee, the country should take part in competitions under its own flag,” Putin said.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev also said the ban was politically motivated. “This is the continuation of this anti-Russian hysteria that has already become chronic,” Medvedev told domestic news agencies.

‘A tragedy’ 

The significant extent of state-sponsored doping in Russia, notably between 2011 and 2015, was revealed in the independent report by sports lawyer Richard McLaren, released in 2016.

It led to the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) being suspended for nearly three years previously over revelations of a vast state-supported doping programme.

Full disclosure of data from the Moscow laboratory was a key condition of Russia’s controversial reinstatement by WADA in September 2018.

RUSADA’s supervisory board is set to meet on December 19 to take a decision on whether to appeal against the ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Yury Ganus, the head of RUSADA, told AFP Monday that his country had “no chance” of winning an appeal.

“There is no chance of winning this case in court,” Ganus said.

“This is a tragedy,” he added. “Clean athletes are seeing their rights limited.”

Documents released Monday show WADA’s Compliance Review Committee (CRC) believes “deletions and alterations” to Russia’s doping data “materially prejudiced the ability to pursue cases against 145 of the 298 athletes” whose doping controls between 2011 and 2015 WADA thought to be suspicious.

About one third of the 145 athletes are still active, WADA chief of investigators Gunter Younger said Monday.

The WADA decision was widely predicted, with Reedie having made a presentation Saturday to the Olympic Summit, participants of which “strongly condemned those responsible for the manipulation of the data from the Moscow laboratory”.

“It was agreed that this was an attack on sport and that these actions should lead to the toughest sanctions against those responsible,” the IOC said, asking that the Russian authorities deliver the “fully authenticated raw data”.

Positive doping tests contained in data leaked by a whistleblower in 2017 were missing from the laboratory data supplied in January 2019, which prompted a new inquiry.

Source (AFP)

Former Argentina playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme has won a three-way battle with bitter rival Diego Maradona and Gabriel Batistuta after his group won the elections at Boca Juniors, striking a big blow against his old foe Maradona.

The list headed by Jorge Ameal, who was club president between 2008 and 2011, won 52.8 percent of the vote from Boca’s 84,000 members, bringing Riquelme into the 33-time Argentine champions’ hierarchy.

The 41-year-old stood alongside Ameal as prospective second vice-president and helped see off the faction supported by Maradona and powerful outgoing president of Argentina Mauricio Macri, which was led by Christian Gribaldo and only gathered 30.6 percent of the vote.

The list supported by Batistuta came in a distant third with 16.1 percent.

“It was a big party. Our fans voted for the love of the club colours, I’m satisfied,” said Riquelme after his side’s victory.

There has been bad blood between the pair since Riquelme snubbed Maradona, then Argentina’s coach, by refusing to come out of retirement for the 2010 World Cup, making it clear the refusal was personal.

Maradona, who is a hero in Argentina but won little with Boca, warned fans against voting for Riquelme’s faction, saying results would worsen on the pitch.

There was also a concerted effort by the previous club administration, backed by Macri, to block out Riquelme’s presence in the campaigning.

A photo showing him wearing the Boca number 10 was banned from the ballot paper, and the club warned fans ahead of election day that anyone wearing a Riquelme T-shirt would not be allowed to vote at the club’s Bombonera stadium.

However Riquelme’s support was key to Ameal’s victory as a highly successful playmaker for the capital city club.

He scored three times in the 5-0 aggregate win over Gremio to win their last Copa Libertadores in 2007, Riquelme’s third for the club and Boca’s sixth overall.

Boca reached the Libertadores final again last year only to lose to fierce rivals River Plate in a controversial final that saw the second leg moved to Madrid following fan trouble. River also eliminated Boca in this year’s semi-finals.

The new board’s priority will be to bring back the international lustre that Riquelme experienced as a player for one of South America’s biggest clubs.

The loss was second defeat for Macri in less than two months. He was Boca president from 1995 to 2006 and used that as a springboard to nationwide political success.

He became president of Argentina in 2015 as the head of his centre-right Cambiemos party, but his rule will end on December 10 after losing October’s presidential elections to leftist Alberto Fernandez.

Source: AFP

Joshua won by unanimous decision! The judges had it 118-110, 118-110 and 119-109. The two men hugged in the centre of the ring, it’s clear they have tremendous respect for each other and Joshua chatted with Ruiz for 30 seconds.

Joshua made a point of thanking the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and members of the royalty after his victory, which will not go down well with those who see the fight as little more than an exercise in sportswashing.

Qatar has postponed to next year the opening of Education City stadium, its second newly built venue for the 2022 football World Cup, FIFA said on Saturday.

The venue was due to be inaugurated when it hosted the semi-final of the Club World Cup between Liverpool and an as yet undetermined side on December 18.

But delays to the certification of the stadium by the authorities will mean that the fixture will instead be played at Khalifa International Stadium which was already due to host several Club World Cup fixtures.

Education City will now be opened in 2020 although the world football governing body did not give an exact date.

“Construction at Education City stadium is complete and the venue is now operational,” FIFA said in a statement.

“However, the necessary certification process took longer than expected and therefore the stadium was unable to host the required test events prior to the semi-final and final of the FIFA Club World Cup at full capacity.

“The priority is to ensure an enjoyable experience for all fans so it was decided to open the stadium at a later date.”

Three years ahead of the start of the 2022 tournament, Qatar has already launched the brand new 40,000-capacity Al-Janoub stadium and the refurbished Khalifa International ground.

Five new stadia remain under construction. On Tuesday, Qatar will open the remaining line and stations on its new three-line metro system.

Source:  AFP