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MONZA, Italy — Lewis Hamilton battled back from an agonisingly slow start to win the Italian Grand Prix for Mercedes on Sunday and slash teammate Nico Rosberg’s Formula One championship lead to 22 points.

Rosberg finished second as dominant Mercedes celebrated their first one-two since Austria in June and seventh in 13 races.

With the sport taking a deep breath as the championship rivals lined up together on the front row, two weeks after they had collided in Belgium, the start provided an immediate sensation.

Hamilton had taken pole position for the first time since May but problems with the car’s start mode left him struggling to get away and fourth into the first corner as Rosberg sped away untroubled.

It was the start of a thrilling chase, with the 2008 world champion fighting back and retaking the lead on the 29th of 53 laps when Rosberg missed the first chicane as he had done earlier in the race.

With the German under pressure and driving straight on, slowing and weaving to get back on track, Hamilton seized the lead in the decisive moment of the afternoon.

The two crossed the finish line 3.1 seconds apart, with Hamilton celebrating his first win since Britain in July. It was his fifth of the season and 28th of his career, taking him ahead of triple champion Jackie Stewart in the all-time lists.

“It was a difficult race,” said Hamilton. “For whatever reason, at the start the button didn’t press which engages the launch sequence.

“For the formation lap it didn’t work and when I got to the grid and put it on again, again it didn’t work. It was very strange. I’ve never really had that happen before.

“I tried to pull away as fast as possible and the RPM was all over the place. Fortunately I managed to not lose too many places.”

Rosberg now has 238 points to Hamilton’s 216, with six races remaining after the end of the European part of the season.

Brazilian Felipe Massa finished third for Williams, his first podium appearance since Spain last year with Ferrari, on Brazilian independence day and after the team had announced he was staying for 2015.

The points, at the fastest track on the calendar, meant Williams leapfrogged Ferrari into third place in the constructors’ standings.

In the absence of their current Ferrari heroes, the passionate home crowd welcomed their ex-driver’s appearance on the podium with cheers as they spilled out in a vast red wave onto the start/finish straight.

Rosberg, blamed by his own team for the second lap Spa collision that led to Hamilton’s retirement from that race, was booed for the second Grand Prix in a row.

Massa’s Finnish teammate Valtteri Bottas was fourth following another highly impressive day of overtaking after he had dropped from the second row to 10th at the end of the first lap.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso retired from his team’s home race on lap 29 with a failure in the car’s energy recovery system, his first mechanical retirement in 86 races, while Kimi Raikkonen finished ninth.

Until Sunday, Alonso was the only driver to have scored points in every race this season.

BERNE — FIFA ethics committee investigator Michael Garcia has completed his probe into the controversial bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, awarded to Russia and Qatar respectively, and handed in a 350-page report.

The report, which has not been made public, will be submitted to the ethics committee’s adjudicatory chamber, headed by German Judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, to decide on whether any wrongdoing was committed, football’s governing body said on Friday.

FIFA said they could not comment on when Eckert might reach his decision.

During the course of the year-long investigation, Garcia and his deputy Cornel Borbely interviewed “more than 75 witnesses and compiled a record that, in addition to audio recordings from interviews, includes more than 200,000 pages of relevant material”, FIFA said.

“The report sets forth detailed factual findings; reaches conclusions concerning further action with respect to certain individuals; identifies issues to be referred to other FIFA committees; and makes recommendations for future bidding processes.”

The hosting rights for the two tournaments were awarded simultaneously by FIFA’s executive committee in Zurich in 2010 after a turbulent campaign.

Spain/Portugal, Belgium/Netherlands and England had also been bidding for 2018 while United States, Australia, South Korea and Japan had bid for 2022.

The executive committee which took the decision was reduced to 22 members instead of the usual 24 after two of them were suspended by the ethics committee one month before the vote.

Nigerian Amos Adamu was banned for breaches of five articles of FIFA’s ethics code including one on bribery and Reynald Temarii of Tahiti for breaching articles on general conduct and loyalty.

The case followed allegations by The Sunday Times that the pair offered to sell their votes to undercover reporters posing as lobbyists for an American consortium.

FIFA said that all bidding nations were interviewed during the investigation. Borbely took responsibility obtaining information from the US and Russia as Garcia is a national of the former and was barred from visiting the latter.

Shortly before this year’s World Cup in Brazil, the Sunday Times reported that some of the “millions of documents” it had seen linked payments by former FIFA executive committee member Mohamed Ben Hammam to officials to win backing for Qatar’s World Cup bid.

Ben Hammam has not commented on his involvement since he was banned for life from football in 2012 and Qatar has denied all allegations of corruption.

Qatar has also been criticised for its alleged treatment of migrant workers in the construction industry.

STOCKHOLM — Having equalled Sweden’s goalscoring record with a thumping left-foot volley, Zlatan Ibrahimovic set a new milestone in typically outrageous fashion, sweeping the ball into the net with the inside of his heel for his 50th international goal.

In the arena that he has made his own since scoring four goals against England on its opening night in 2012, the powerful striker took off his shirt to reveal another underneath with a message to his fans — “You Made It Possible”.

Ibrahimovic’s double in a 2-0 friendly win over Estonia on Thursday surpassed the mark of Sven Rydell, who scored his last international goals in 1932.

“That I scored with a back heel was probably a little lucky, but it was the only way I could score there,” Ibrahimovic said of his record-setting goal.

With the milestone reached, the 32-year-old seems determined to continue adding to his tally.

“I want so much, I want even more,” he told a media conference in Stockholm on Friday.

“Even if I’ve said there’s a couple of years left, I’m going to do the maximum in those years. Now I’ve gone past the goal record, we’ll keep going. It’s not over yet.”

Having scored his first goal for Sweden in a World Cup qualifier against Azerbaijan in 2001, he might have broken the record even sooner, but the various coaches of the national team used him sparingly at times.

Fast-forward to 2014 and a Sweden team without their tall, talismanic striker is now unthinkable and fans dread to imagine a future without their captain, who has said he will most likely retire after the 2016 European Championships in France.

Until then he intends to continue adding to the enviable haul of silverware he has amassed from some of Europe’s biggest clubs including Ajax, Juventus, Inter, AC Milan and Barcelona.

“That’s what you look back at when you’ve finished,” Ibrahimovic said. “I have 23 collective titles and some individual titles, so the more I can gather, the bigger my list of merits will be.

“That’s what you play for. You play to win, and no-one can complain that one hasn’t won anything. It’s the other way around,” he said with a smile.

“It’s my will, my desire to be better. I train hard to be better, I want to be better than last season, I want to go forward all the time.

“I broke the record yesterday, but now I’m going to continue scoring goals to make it even harder for the next one who wants to break it.”

Sweden open their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign against Austria on Monday when Ibrahimovic is due to win his 100th cap.

MIAMI — It will be easier said than done but Brazil attempt to put their World Cup humiliation behind them when they start life under new coach Dunga in a friendly against Colombia in Miami on Friday. Barely two months after their shocking 7-1 defeat to Germany in the semi-finals of the tournament they hosted, there is a new look to the Selecao with Dunga, in his second spell in charge, hoping that fresh faces will be less affected by July’s traumatic exit. Judging from the mood on Thursday at the team’s plush hotel on Brickell Key near downtown Miami, the coach’s message of not dwelling on the past has been embraced. “Dunga told all of us that we have to hold our heads up, put the past behind us, show our ability and that we deserve to be national team players,” midfielder Oscar told Reuters. It is not easy to put the Germany defeat out of our minds, it is difficult, but we have to work and to show our value.” Indeed, there was a relaxed look about the team as they chatted with reporters even though Friday’s opponents, a Colombia team out to avenge their 2-1 loss to Brazil in the World Cup quarter-finals, are stern opposition.

AMSTERDAM — Arjen Robben’s chances of making the Netherlands line-up for their opening Euro 2016 qualifier against the Czech Republic on Tuesday are slim, new coach Guus Hiddink said. “It is looking very difficult, we haven’t had any contact with him yet,” Hiddink told reporters as the Dutch readied to take on Italy in a friendly in Bari later on Thursday before next week’s clash in Prague. Robben has an ankle injury which keeps him out of the Italy clash but the Dutch hope it might heal in time for the tricky qualifier. “He hasn’t done any training and it would be very difficult to get him into the swing of things in just a couple of days before the match against the Czechs,” Hiddink warned. However, the coach said striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who also withdrew from the squad for the Bari encounter, would not be available to play the Czechs. “He is sick, miserable and feels really bad. It has been decided he will not come for the game in Prague.” Hiddink, who takes over from Louis van Gaal, is also without injured trio Ron Vlaar, Rafael van der Vaart and Jordy Clasie.

MONZA, Italy — Nico Rosberg was booed in Belgium after a collision with Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton but the Formula One leader will raise a cheer from Ferrari fans if he does it again at Monza on Sunday.

The chances of that happening at the “Pista Magica”, the venerable cathedral of Italian motorsport set in a former royal park near Milan, look even less likely than Ferrari winning, however.

Mercedes said last week, after a meeting with both drivers, that both understood the team’s number one rule that there must be no contact between them on the track and another incident would not be tolerated.

Hamilton, who tweeted on Tuesday that his aim was “to claw back” the lead from Rosberg after dropping 29 points behind with seven races remaining, said then that both had accepted they made mistakes at Spa.

“The fans want to see a clean fight until the end of the season and that’s what we want to give them,” added the 2008 world champion, who had complained at Spa that Rosberg hit him “on purpose”.

“It’s going to be a tough road from here but Championships have been won from much further back than I am now.”

Hamilton may have a psychological advantage going into Monza, the final European round of the season, as the aggrieved party from the previous race and he also has a better record than Rosberg.

The Briton won at the fastest track on the calendar in 2012, his last season with McLaren, and has twice been on pole while Rosberg has never finished higher than fifth and did not even get beyond the first corner in 2011.

Ferrari fans

Ferrari have not won since Fernando Alonso’s triumph in Spain in May last year and the Spaniard is not holding out much hope of giving the legion of red-shirted fans a victory to celebrate at Monza for the first time since 2010.

“Definitely we must try and have our best race of the year in front of the home crowd. We know what a great experience it is to stand on the podium at Monza, seeing the straight packed with people,” he told reporters at Maranello.

“I’ve been lucky enough in these last four years with Ferrari to get to the podium four times and it would be fantastic to make it five.

“It’s a very optimistic goal because unfortunately this year, we haven’t been on the podium too often. We must be realistic, as this will be another defensive and uphill race for us, but anything can happen,” he added.

Alonso hopes to extend his Ferrari contract beyond the end of 2016 and reckons he could have 10 more years of racing in Formula One.

The Spaniard was quoted on the Ferrari website on Wednesday as telling reporters at the Maranello factory ahead of the Italian Grand Prix that he had no desire to leave, despite persistent media speculation.

“It’s a year now that I’ve been saying I want to stay at Ferrari and extend my contract. That’s my wish, I repeat it every two weeks, at the end of every race, yet it’s never said,” declared the 33-year-old double world champion.

“Talk of other teams has never come from my lips, in fact it’s always been the opposite”.

Alonso joined Ferrari from Renault, where he won his titles, in 2010 and has been three times a runner-up in the championship since then.

However, he and the team have not won a race since he triumphed in his home Spanish Grand Prix in May last year and the Spaniard has been courted by McLaren, who are switching to Honda power next year.

“I have a contract for another two years and as I always say on the subject of rumours and to ensure calm, what I want is to continue for the necessary years,” said Alonso. “Let’s see if that can happen, but for the next two years at least, there is no problem.”

Alonso said winning was important but Ferrari, the sport’s most successful and glamorous team down the decades, could offer a lot more than that.

“There is a passion for this team, which as a driver means you are already proud of what you are doing, independent of the results,” he explained.

“The most important thing is to fix the things that are not going well on the car and in the team and to do everything that is needed.

“[Team principal Marco] Mattiacci also shares this desire to change things and to be more aggressive in our approach to our work. This renewed will to win makes staying at Ferrari even more attractive.”

Alonso made his debut in Formula One with Minardi as a 19-year-old in 2001 and he pointed to the example of Michael Schumacher, the former Ferrari great who retired only in 2012 at the age of 43, as an example of how long he could continue.

“I’ve still got lots of seasons ahead of me. I could have another 10,” he said.

“It’s a question of enjoying what you do and to still want to get up in the morning to train, to get on planes and fly to Australia and Malaysia, to race with a top car and to still get a good feeling from it all.

“As Iong as I have that desire and these feelings, I am not setting a time limit.”

The Mercedes-powered teams can again expect to be dominant, with Williams likely to be challenging for the podium, but Red Bull remain a threat.

Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, who has been largely eclipsed by smiling Australian teammate Daniel Ricciardo, took the first win of his F1 career at Monza with Toro Rosso in 2008.

Ricciardo, who also has an Italian passport, would be the next best thing to a Ferrari winner for the home crowd and is chasing an unlikely hat-trick of wins after standing on top of the podium in Hungary and Belgium.

“I’m not really that keen on super-long straights; I find them a little dull compared to hammering through a series of demanding corners but Monza is the exception to that,” said the Red Bull driver.

“There’s something about flashing through those trees in front of that massive crowd that definitely gets the pulse all the way up. Also the crowd in Monza is wild.

“Obviously it’s full-on Ferrari but in the past they’ve always been very generous to me. I’d love to get the opportunity to stand on that brilliant podium and find out,” added Ricciardo.

AMMAN — The Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) Youth Working Group, which is chaired by Sebastian Coe and includes two young Jordanians, met for the first time in London this week as ANOC looks to young people to provide guidance on how it can support the world’s National Olympic Committees in increasing youth engagement and participation, according to a statement from the Jordan Olympic Committee. During the meeting — identified as an integral part of ANOC’s process of reform and modernisation — the Working Group heard presentations from each of the young representatives, including Mariana Abzakh and Haitham Suleiman of Jordan, who proposed activities that NOCs should engage in to ensure young people are kept at the heart of sport. “I have shared ideas and gained a lot of experience from ANOC and other representative countries,” Suleiman was quoted in the statement as saying. “I am proud to be part of this innovative programme which aims to enrich the lives of children and young people by encouraging healthy lifestyles.” Abzakh added in the statment. “It has been an amazing experience. I have learned so much from the young representatives from other countries on how to teach young people the value of sport in their lives.” The Jordanians joined young representatives from Azerbaijan, Brazil, Great Britain, Palau and South Africa, who were selected through the NOC network and London 2012’s international education programme, International Inspiration, to be a part of the innovative Working Group.

AMMAN  — Jordan’s national team is all set to play hosts Uzbekistan on Thursday as the team prepares to play two friendlies with the countdown on for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) 2015 Asian Cup in Australia.

Following the departure of head coach Hossam Hassan, the Jordan Football Association entrusted coach Ahmad Abdel Kader to lead the team last month and on Tuesday announced the recruitment of Briton Raymond Wilkins as the new technical director. 

Following the Tashkent friendlies, the national team will be joined by Wilkins in China for their September 9 match.

Coach Abdel Kader had announced the final line-up after preliminary round Jordan Cup matches last week and brought back players like Amer Shafie, who had been left out by his predecessor for disciplinary issues.

Samir Mansour, head the JFA’s delegation, was quoted by the local press as saying that the upcoming friendlies are vital for preparing for the upcoming stage. “We are now fifth ranked in the continent and we are aiming for an achievement in our third Asian Cup.”

The JFA is looking to arrange matches aimed at giving the line-up an optimum competitive experience against leading teams as they prepare for their third participation in the AFC Asian Cup.

Jordan last played Columbia in June, losing 3-0 in an important friendly as the squad kicked off a series of high level friendlies.

LONDON — Even though Spain were ousted in the first round of the World Cup, the tournament’s brightest lights still flocked to La Liga as Real Madrid and Barcelona again flexed their financial muscles in a busy transfer window.

European champions Real assembled a new breed of “Galacticos”, the most expensive squad of all time with around 640 million euros ($840 million) worth of talent, by snapping up Toni Kroos, James Rodriguez and goalkeeper Kayler Navas who all shone at the World Cup in Brazil.

Barca opted for infamy as they lured Luis Suarez from Liverpool despite the controversial striker receiving a long ban for biting an opponent while playing for Uruguay in Brazil.

English Premier League clubs also splashed out a fortune, Arsenal and Chelsea buying Barca cast-offs Alexis Sanchez and Cesc Fabregas respectively while manager Louis van Gaal began his reign at Manchester United by breaking the British transfer record to sign Angel Di Maria from Real for 75 million euros ($98.47 million).

Van Gaal concluded some $250 million worth of dealings with a deadline day swoop for Colombian striker Radamel Falcao on a one-year loan deal, leaving England forward Danny Welbeck free to join Arsenal.

However, it was Barca and Real, the two richest clubs in the world in terms of income, that dictated most of the significant comings and goings in Europe.

Golden Boot

Real coach Carlo Ancelotti secured his targets early, signing World Cup-winning Germany midfielder Kroos from Bayern Munich and Golden Boot-winning Colombia striker Rodriguez from Monaco.

“I watched James Rodriguez and Toni Kroos play in the World Cup and, for me, they were two of the best players in the competition,” Real midfielder Luka Modric told the Spanish newspaper Marca.

“Real have shown their ambition by bringing such fantastic signings to the club. It’s great news for us, the players, because we always want to play with the best, and also for the supporters who want to see the best players.”

Arch-rivals Barca were forced to act quickly too after receiving a brief reprieve from a transfer ban, for breaching rules on the transfer of under-18 players, while an appeal to world football’s governing body FIFA was ongoing.

The club eventually lost the appeal but not before they swooped for five players including Croatian midfielder Ivan Rakitic, Arsenal captain Thomas Vermaelen and Chile goalkeeper Claudio Bravo who all featured at the World Cup.

But it was the signing of Suarez, the top scorer in England last season with 31 league goals, who was the biggest buy of the window. He cost £65 million ($107.95 million), the third largest transfer fee in history.

The 27-year-old joined former World Player of the Year Lionel Messi and Brazil striker Neymar in a formidable front line at Barca.

“I have really found a great atmosphere in the dressing room... everyone has been very friendly and obviously the time passes quicker if you are with teammates and new people,” Suarez said after making his debut in a pre-season friendly.

“Neymar and Messi were fantastic to watch. Everyone knows what I can offer and I will work hard to bring trophies back to Barca.”

La Liga champions Atletico Madrid also spent big to attract World Cup players in the shape of France winger Antoine Griezmann from Real Sociedad and Bayern’s Croatia striker Mario Mandzukic.

Chelsea departures

While one prolific goalscorer left England for Spain, Diego Costa travelled the other way, joining Chelsea from Atletico for 40 million euros.

He already seems to be a shrewd acquisition for Jose Mourinho’s side, having scored four in his first three league appearances for the Londoners.

Costa’s arrival spelt the end of a disappointing three-and-a-half-year spell at Stamford Bridge for Spain striker Fernando Torres.

He arrived in January 2011 as the-then British transfer record at 63 million euros but the fact Chelsea were prepared to allow a player once regarded as among the best forwards in the world to leave for AC Milan on a two-year loan deal was indicative of his spectacular fall from grace.

The high-profile departures from Stamford Bridge in the window, which included Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard, started with Brazil centre back David Luiz moving to French champions Paris St. Germain.

The fee for Luiz, worth up to 63 million euros, meant he became the most expensive defender in the world.

Liverpool replaced one bad-boy striker with another by signing Italian international Mario Balotelli from Milan while rivals Manchester United added firepower as Colombia striker Radamel Falcao joined on loan from Monaco.

AMMAN — The Jordan Football Association (JFA) on Tuesday appointed Englishman Raymond Wilkins as head coach of the national team and his compatriot Francis Anthony as assistant coach.

JFA Secretary General Fadi Zreikat said the association decided to appoint Wilkins and Anthony to join the team’s mission to China, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The decision was taken under JFA President HRH Prince Ali’s directives, after the JFA executive committee had tasked him with selecting a new coach for the national team.

Last Wednesday, Prince Ali accompanied Wilkins to a training session for the team which included 24 players. 

Wilkins spoke to the national staff and asked some technical questions, Petra reported.

The JFA decided to keep the Jordanian coaching staff, which includes Ahmad Abdel Kader, Anzour Hina and Walid Mikhael, in addition to Brazilian fitness coach Manuel.

The association also provided the English coach with tapes of previous matches of the national team in the Asian and World Cup qualifiers to give him an idea about the level of the participating players.

Wilkins was a key midfielder for the England national football team during the 1980s, and enjoyed success at various clubs including Chelsea, Manchester United, Queens Park Rangers and Rangers, according to the JFA website.

As a coach, Wilkins started his career in 1994 when he became the head coach of Queens Park Rangers, leading them in 80 games until he left his post in 1996 and became the manager of Fulham.

Since leaving Fulham in 1998, Wilkins has worked as assistant coach at several clubs, including Chelsea, Watford and Milwall.