Sports

OVIEDO, Spain — Spain coach Vicente del Bosque has given strong backing to Diego Costa even after the Chelsea forward drew another blank in Saturday’s Euro 2016 qualifying victory at home to Slovakia.

Holders Spain leapfrogged the Eastern Europeans to the top of Group C thanks to a 2-0 success in Oviedo but Costa again failed to score and has netted just one goal in eight appearances since opting last year to play for La Roja instead of his native Brazil.

The 26-year-old did win a penalty, converted by Andres Iniesta after Jordi Alba’s early header, but otherwise struggled to make any impact on Slovakia’s well-drilled defence before making way for Paco Alcacer 15 minutes from time.

“Of course I would like him to score but he did some good work,” Del Bosque told a news conference.

LONDON — England’s early qualification for next year’s Euro 2016 finals in France has given manager Roy Hodgson the rare luxury of being able to experiment with his selections well ahead of the tournament kicking off.

England’s 6-0 win over San Marino on Saturday maintained their perfect record in Group E with seven wins out of seven and they became the first country to take their place alongside the French hosts in the expanded 24-team finals.

It was the earliest England have ever qualified for any major tournament apart from when they hosted the World Cup in 1966 and the European championship in 1996, and skipper Wayne Rooney now wants them to win every match in their qualifying group for the first time.

With a home game to come against Switzerland on Tuesday followed by October’s double-header against Estonia at Wembley before signing off with a visit to Lithuania, England could well make it 10 wins out of 10 and preserve their long unbeaten run in both World Cup and Euro qualifiers which dates back 26 matches to a 1-0 loss to Ukraine in October 2009.

Hodgson told the BBC: “I’m not sure early qualification gives us any particular advantage because we are going to take a lot of time to plan and improve anyway.

“What it could do is give me the opportunity for experimentation because we did not get that ahead of the World Cup when we had to win our last two qualifiers to get to Brazil.”

Although England failed to get out of the group stage in the World Cup last year, they are now unbeaten in their last 12 internationals.

They were always likely to emerge unscathed from a Euro qualifying group against the likes of San Marino, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Switzerland, but younger players have impressed Hodgson during the course of the campaign.

Liverpool defender Nathaniel Clyne, 24, looks like being England’s best right-back since Gary Neville while Jonjo Shelvey, 23, has played his way back into the squad after some fine performances for Swansea.

Everton defender John Stones and his club mate Ross Barkley, also 21, who scored his first goal for England against San Marino and now has 14 caps, look set for long international careers.

Young forwards like Harry Kane, 22, of Tottenham Hotspur, and Raheem Sterling, 20, of Manchester City, also provide options for Hodgson in attack.

Rooney, meanwhile, may not have made a blistering start to the season with Manchester United, but the skipper, who will be 30 next month, is still a key figure as far as Hodgson is concerned.

Rooney equalled Bobby Charlton’s all-time England record of 49 goals against San Marino before Hodgson swapped him for Kane with nearly an hour played.

Some have criticised Hodgson for taking him off when the record was there to be broken, but the manager explained: “The substitution was planned with a view to Tuesday night against Switzerland.

“It would be nice if Wayne got his 50th goal against Switzerland, but one thing for certain is that he will get it.

Rooney added: “I’m delighted to have equalled the record, now I’d like to break it, but more importantly I hope we can make it 10 wins out of 10.”

AMMAN — Jordan’s national football team left to Bangladesh for its third Group B qualifier of the 2018 World Cup in Russia doubling as part of the qualification for 2019 Asian Cup. 

Jordan had a disappointing 0-0 draw against Kyrgyzstan in which the line-up appeared below par and goalie Amer Shafie was the man of the match as his teammates lost chance after chance and failed to score a vital win over their 155th ranked opponents.

This week, Australia took the group lead from Jordan after they beat Bangladesh 5-0. Jordan beat Tajikistan 3-1 in their opening qualifier, Bangladesh held Tajikistan 1-1 after they lost to Kyrgyzstan 3-1 and Australia beat Kyrgyzstan 2-1. 

Following the qualifier against Bangladesh on September 8, Jordan will play Australia on October 8. Forty teams are playing home and away in a round-robin format in the current second qualifying round which runs until March 2016. 

It has been an inconsistent year for Jordan’s line-up which was led by Briton Ray Wilkins under whom the team failed to advance past the group of the 2015 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup. Ahmad Abdul Qader took over in the transitional phase under whom the team played the first qualifier. Now Belgian Paul Put has taken over since July but Jordan had not regrouped much since June when they hosted Trinidad & Tobago and won 3-0 in a friendly. 

In its last friendly, Jordan held the U-23 team 0-0 and beat them 3-0. This year, Jordan also played four friendlies holding Kuwait 2-2, Lebanon 0-0, losing 2-1 to Saudi Arabia and 1-0 to Syria. 

In the latest FIFA World Rankings, Group B teams are led by Australia at (61) followed by Jordan who went up a spot to 91, Kyrgyzstan (155), Tajikistan (158) and Bangladesh (173).

Argentina took over top spot from Germany atop the 10 leading teams, followed by Belgium, Germany, Columbia, Brazil, Portugal, Romania, Chile, Wales and England.

Jordan is 9th among Asian teams trailing Iran (40), South Korea (57), Japan (58), Australia (61), the UAE (70), Uzbekistan (76), Iraq (82) and China (84). 

Jordan had the most memorable World Cup qualifying journey in 2013 when they lost a possible chance to play at the World Cup for the first time when they advanced to play then World’s 6th ranked Uruguay in an intercontinental qualifying tie for a place in the 2014 World Cup. They lost the home game 5-0 and held the former World Cup champs 0-0 in the away match. Jordan had never reached that far in World Cup qualifying since taking part in the qualifiers since 1985. Round 3 had been the furthest Jordan reached in the past seven times in the qualifiers.

In the Asian Cup, Jordan reached the championship three times since first taking part in qualifiers in 1972: the pinnacle was at the 13th Asian Cup, when they lost to Japan in the quarter-finals and jumped to the best ever FIFA Ranking of 37th in August 2004. In 2011 Jordan again reached the quarter-finals.

Group B standings

AMMAN — The 2015 Lexus Tennis Festival kicked off in Amman on Friday with 130 players participating in 14 tournaments of all categories and age groups.

The festival is organised by the Tennis Academy Amman. In addition to the local tournaments, the festival will feature an exhibition match between former world number 13 Jarkko Nieminen and Tunisian tennis star Malek Jaziri, as well as a Family Tennis Day with France’s multiple Grand Slam champion Mary Pierce. This is the first time that Jordan hosts tennis stars of this calibre.

SEOUL — South Korean FIFA presidential candidate Chung Mong-joon has accused the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) of sending unsolicited letters to its members urging them to support his rival Michel Platini at next year’s election.

In a statement released on Thursday and read out at a news conference in Seoul, Chung said the letters asked members to sign a form pledging their support for Platini, the head of European football’s governing body UEFA.

Chung said the letters were in breach of FIFA’s election guidelines and threatened to “undermine the fairness” of the poll, which will be held on February 26, 2016, to decide the successor to outgoing incumbent Sepp Blatter.

“Sheikh Salman, president of the Asian Football Confederation [AFC], has publicly supported Michel Platini, president of the UEFA,” the statement said.

“We have learned that the AFC has sent unsolicited letters to almost every AFC member association. Most of the AFC member countries including China, Japan, Mongolia, India and Singapore received this letter. South Korea and Jordan, however, did not.”

Chung, the 63-year-old billionaire scion of South Korea’s Hyundai industrial conglomerate, formally announced last month that he was running for the FIFA presidency. HRH Prince Ali is also among the potential candidates.

Platini has long been the bookmakers’ favourite to succeed Blatter and Sheikh Salman has publicly declared his support for the Frenchman.

There was no immediate response from the AFC on Thursday relating to Chung’s statement about the letters.

Chung, who has been a vocal critic of both Blatter and Platini, said a similar letter was circulated among African members but the Confederation of African Football (CAF) intervened and “deemed its behaviour highly improper and took measures to rectify the situation”.

Although there has never been an Asian or African FIFA president, the two regions account for almost half the 209 members that will decide the next boss of football’s embattled world governing body, with Asia holding 46 votes and Africa 54.

“Given that the confederations exercise tremendous influence over its member associations in organising football tournaments and through administrative oversight, it is clear that the fairness of the FIFA presidential election has been seriously compromised,” Chung said.

“According to FIFA Statutes, only the member associations possess the right to propose candidates for the office of FIFA president, and each member should make its decision independently and with no influence from third parties.”

Chung said he had notified the FIFA Ad hoc Electoral Committee and the FIFA Ethics Committee about the letters and asked for an investigation.

“We also requested the Ad hoc Electoral Committee to promptly institute remedies sufficient to address the prejudice and harm already sustained by other potential candidates,” Chung said.

“This includes the nullification of any ‘support’ for the candidature of Mr Platini received through the form letters sent by the AFC, the senior official of CAF and/or any other confederation.”

LONDON — There was the usual frenzy of last-minute deals as the Premier League brought the curtain down on another bumper European transfer window in which Manchester City again flexed their financial muscle as the continent’s top spenders.

With Europe’s other major countries closing for transfer business on Monday, the English top flight hogged the limelight for an extra day, with City’s rivals Manchester United completing the biggest and most eyebrow-raising late deal.

The capture of Anthony Martial from Monaco for £36 million ($55.12 million), labelled a panic-buy by sections of the British media, ensured Premier League clubs racked up a record spend of more than £860 million.

That comfortably surpassed last season’s record by more than £25 million and reinforced the competition’s status as the leading league in terms of transfer spending in the window.

City, who have won their first four league games this season, led the way with an outlay of £150 million, including the £50 million capture of midfielder Kevin De Bruyne from Wolfsburg, and forward Raheem Sterling from Liverpool in a deal that could reach £49 million.

City were followed in the spending stakes by United who took their outlay past £100 million with Tuesday’s deal for 19-year-old French striker Martial, who followed Memphis Depay, Morgan Schneiderlin and Bastian Schweinsteiger into Old Trafford.

Liverpool were not far behind in the spending stakes, splashing out almost £80 million, mainly on Christian Benteke from Aston Villa for £32.5 million and Hoffenheim’s Roberto Firmino for £28.5, offset by Sterling’s move to City.

English domination

Fuelled by the money from the Premier League’s increasingly lucrative broadcast deals, English clubs made six of the biggest seven signings in the window.

Only Qatari-backed Paris St Germain punctuated the list of the biggest deals with the 63 million euros ($71.26 million) signing of Argentina winger Angel Di Maria from Manchester United.

Some of Europe’s traditional powerhouses had quieter windows than many might have expected.

Arturo Vidal’s 37 million euros move to Bayern Munich from Juventus was the high point of the Bundesliga champions’ spending while there was no “galactico” signing for Real Madrid, seeking to wrestle the La Liga crown back from Barcelona.

Madrid, under new coach Rafa Benitez, brought in Croatia midfielder Mateo Kovacic from Inter Milan for 30 million euros in their biggest deal but failed to sign Manchester United’s Spain goalkeeper David De Gea before the window slammed shut.

That failure, with the two clubs blaming each other for the administrative snarl up, will have likely handed a psychological fillip to Real’s bitter rivals Barcelona.

The Catalan club managed to pull off deals for attacking Turkey midfielder Arda Turan from Atletico Madrid and winger Spaniard Aleix Vidal from Sevilla despite being prevented from registering new players until January, meaning this pair will have to kick their heels for some months.

In Italy, champions Juventus replaced the outgoing Carlos Tevez with another Argentine following the capture of forward Paulo Dybala from Palermo for 32 million euros.

Some restraint

Yet as cash flowed freely between clubs there was also some restraint shown by some of Europe’s biggest teams.

Chelsea, traditionally among the game’s biggest spenders, tightened the purse strings with their biggest outlay being on Spanish forward Pedro from Barcelona for 30 million euros.

Having missed out on defensive target John Stones from Everton, the English champions recouped the vast majority of their transfer outlay through sales and loan fees.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is renowned for keeping his powder dry but, after spending big on Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez in the last two summer windows, his only spending was the £10 million he paid for Chelsea keeper Petr Cech.

AMMAN  — Jordan plays Kyrgyzstan on Thursday resuming Group B qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup in Russia doubling as part of the qualification for 2019 Asian Cup as well.

The 7:00pm match was moved to Amman International Stadium after Al Hassan Stadium pitch suffered damage and was ruled unfit to host the qualifier.

Jordan leads the group standings after they beat Tajikistan 3-1 in their opening qualifier in June and since then has not regrouped much apart from hosting Trinidad & Tobago and winning 3-0 in a friendly.

In the latest FIFA World Rankings, Australia is the highest ranked team in Group B at 61, followed by Jordan (92), Kyrgyzstan (156) Tajikistan (158) and Bangladesh (170).

Jordan will next play an away qualifier in Bangladesh on September 8 and Australia on October 8. 

So far, Bangladesh held Tajikistan 1-1 after they lost to Kyrgyzstan 3-1 and Australia beat Kyrgyzstan 2-1. Forty teams are playing home and away in a round-robin format in the current second qualifying round which runs until March 2016.

It has been an inconsistent year for Jordan’s line-up which was led by Briton Ray Wilkins under whom the team failed to advance past the group of the 2015 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup. Ahmad Abdul Qader took over in the transitional phase under whom the team played the first qualifier. However, the Jordan Football Association contracted Belgian Paul Put in July and the team did not regroup for the past two months, until the surprise appointment of assistant coach Abdullah Abu Zameh to replace Abdul Qader raised concerns of the choice of players and preparedness amid the delayed arrival of the coach until only last week.

In its last friendly, Jordan held the U-23 team 0-0 and beat them 3-0. This year, Jordan also played four friendlies holding Kuwait 2-2, Lebanon 0-0, losing 2-1 to Saudi Arabia and 1-0 to Syria. 

Jordan had the most memorable World Cup qualifying journey in 2013 when it lost a possible chance to play at the World Cup for the first time when it advanced to play then World’s 6th ranked Uruguay in an intercontinental qualifying tie for a place in the 2014 World Cup. It lost the home game 5-0 and held the former World Cup champs 0-0 in the away match. Jordan had never reached that far in World Cup qualifying since taking part in the qualifiers as of 1985. Round 3 had been the furthest Jordan reached in the past seven  times in the qualifiers.

In the Asian Cup, Jordan reached the championship three times since first taking part in qualifiers in 1972: the pinnacle was at the 13th Asian Cup, when they lost to Japan in the quarter-finals and jumped to the best ever FIFA rank of 37th in August 2004. In 2011, Jordan again reached the quarter-finals.

AMMAN — Jordan is putting the finishing touches to hosting one of the leading events on its social and sporting calendar when the world-famous Jordan Rally is held from October 15-17, according to a statement from the events media service.

Featuring the region’s top drivers, the 2015 Jordan Rally is set to become one of the most thrilling events in a history which stretches back more than three decades.

The event is firmly positioned as one of the world’s great rallies and is a crucial marketing tool for the Kingdom with television coverage beamed into millions of homes across the Arab world and beyond.

“The rally shows that we [Jordan] are open for business and despite what may be happening around us Jordan continues to be a safe and secure country to visit,” explained Othman Nassif, CEO of Jordan Motorsport. “We tend to select stages in and around the Jordan Valley that showcase the stunning scenery we have as well as several world famous tourism spots like Mount Nebo, the Dead Sea and the Baptism Site.

“The 2015 Jordan Rally will be no different. We want to provide a tough challenge for the region’s very best drivers whilst at the same time hold a world class event that is thrilling to watch for the spectator.”

The event, which is the sixth round of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship, has become a national initiative with incredible support from a number of government ministries who work alongside the likes of the Greater Amman Municipality and the various security services to deliver a top event year after year.

The 2015 field will be led by Qatari star Nasser Al Attiyah, who has won the rally on multiple occasions. He will be joined by the best Arab talent there is along with Jordan’s speedsters including 2014 National Champion Maruf Abu Samrah.

It all gets underway on October 15, with a high octane evening of thrills and spills on the outskirts of Amman. The “Super Special Stage” is tailor made for spectators with a patch of land being transformed into a rally circuit where drivers will race against the clock.

On October 16, the action will begin in earnest with 19 timed stages to be held over 250km through to late Saturday afternoon when the winner will be crowned on the banks of the Dead Sea.

AMMAN — The U-16 national football team is finishing a series of local friendlies this week as they prepare for the 2016 AFC U-16 Asian Championship Group B qualifiers alongside Nepal, Oman and Kyrgyzstan set for September 16-20 in Kyrgyzstan.

The squad will next play Qatar in a friendly in Doha on September 9 ahead of the qualifiers after playing only four official friendlies losing 3-2 and 4-2 to the UAE, and also 3-2 to Palestine before defeating them 2-0. 

Coach Abdulla Qitati, who took over after Jordan had a disappointing last place finish at the 5th West Asian Championship in Amman, said results were not as important as amending any gaps and maximising team preparedness. He added “friendlies helped boost team morale” after Jordan failed to score a single win and finished bottom of the table after losing 1-0 to the UAE, 5-0 to Iraq, 1-0 to Palestine, before tying Saudi 2-2 in the West Asian event.

Locally, they played the youth teams of top clubs beating Shabab Urdun 2-1 and losing to Baqaa 1-0 and 2-1, and beating them 2-0. 

They also beat Yarmouk 4-1 and drew 1-1 as Qitati underlined “the importance of getting into the routine of Asian competitions and all the squad being ready to play every 48 hours”.

India will host the 2016 AFC U-16 championship with a total of 45 nations including the hosts participating in the qualifiers, and the draw seeding based on the rankings from the last edition in 2014 won by North Korea. The 45 nations were divided into two qualifying zones — West Zone with 24 teams and East Zone with 21 teams. Eleven group winners and four best second-placed teams will qualify for the finals, with hosts India receiving an automatic qualification (total 16 teams). In case India finishes top of its qualifying group or among the four best second-placed teams, the next (5th) second best placed nation will qualify for the final competition.

Jordan was eliminated from the 2014 AFC U-16 qualifiers held in Amman after finishing last in Group D. Jordan lost 2-1 to Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia and drew 4-4 with Syria.

MONACO — Barcelona got a favourable start to its title defence, Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s wish to go home was granted and Benfica was given the longest trip in Champions League history.

The group-stage draw, which was held Thursday, also means Bayern Munich play Arsenal for the third time in four seasons and sent Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho back to Porto where he won his first Champions League title.

Manchester United’s return after a one-year absence will be at Group B’s top-seeded club whose best player they bought in the offseason. United’s new No. 7 Memphis Depay can look forward to a September 15 date back at PSV Eindhoven.

World football’s most coveted club competition set up many story lines for the 32 elite clubs, who will share 1.2 billion euros ($1.37 billion) in UEFA prize money over the next nine months.

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo resume their duel for the all-time competition scoring record tied on 77 career goals and Barcelona’s star forward seems favoured to forge ahead.

Defending champion Barcelona will kick off at Roma and also play BATE Borisov and Bayer Leverkusen. Messi routed the German side with five goals in a 7-1 win when they met in the last-16 round in 2012.

Ronaldo and Real Madrid landed in a tougher group with Shakhtar Donetsk and Ibrahimovic’s current and first clubs, Paris Saint-Germain and Malmo.

“One day I hope to experience the Champions League in Malmo on the pitch. Congratulations!” the Sweden great had posted on Twitter after his boyhood club advanced through the play-off round.

Ibrahimovic will be 34 by November 25 when PSG plays at Malmo, which he left as a 19-year-old to join Ajax.

On the same day, Portugal champion Benfica will play at newcomer Astana — the further point east any club have played since the European Cup was rebranded the Champions League 23 years ago.

Benfica’s flight from Lisbon of around 6,100 kilometres across six time zones will mean kicking off in the Kazakhstan capital when it is 3pm on Wednesday back home.

The group is completed by Galatasaray and Atletico Madrid, whose match in Astana will be at 4pm Tuesday start for fans in Spain.

Europe’s four highest-ranked leagues meet in the group of Juventus, Manchester City, Sevilla and Borussia Moenchengladbach.

“Serie A, the Premier League and the Bundesliga all in the most competitive, demanding and exciting group,” said Sevilla coach Unai Emery, whose team are the first to qualify by winning the previous season’s Europa League.

Chelsea’s Mourinho guided Porto to win the Champions League in 2004 immediately before starting his first spell at Stamford Bridge.

His quest to be the first coach to win Europe’s premier club title with three different clubs — after Porto and Inter Milan in 2010 — starts in a group with Dynamo Kiev and Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Though Man United landed with the lowest-ranked top-seeded club in PSV, the group has depth with CSKA Moscow and Wolfsburg.

Bayern eliminated Arsenal at the last-16 stage in 2013 and 2014, though the English club will expect to advance ahead of Olympiakos and Dinamo Zagreb.

“It’s nice, against Arsenal, that we’ll meet two old friends from the national team in Per Mertesacker and Mesut Ozil,” Bayern captain Philipp Lahm said.

The six rounds of group matches end on December 9. The top two in each group advance to the last-16 knockout round which begins in February.