Sports

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Breaking from the tradition of awarding the Olympics only to a single host city, the IOC is opening the door to possible wider bids — including bids from an entire country, joint bids from more than one city and even the possibility of events held in more than one country.

The possibility of new types of bids was among the 40 recommendations released Tuesday as part of International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach’s reform agenda, his drive to make the bidding process and the games themselves more attractive and less costly.

“We want to create more diversity in the candidatures,” Bach told a small group of reporters at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne. “There is no one-size-fits-all solution.”

Bach’s proposals also include scrapping the current limit of 28 sports for the Summer Games to allow for new events to come in while maintaining a limit of 10,500 athletes and 310 medal events. For the Winter Games, the limit is 2,900 athletes and 100 medal events.

The proposals would allow host cities to propose the inclusion of one or more events for their games — a move which would clear the way for baseball and softball to be included in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Both sports were dropped from the Olympics after the 2008 Beijing Games, but are highly popular in Japan.

The package also includes measures for revamping the bid process to make it more of a partnership with candidates, creating an Olympic television channel, and including language on non-discrimination on sexual orientation in the Olympic Charter and host city contract.

The proposals also call for the appointment of an IOC “compliance officer” on ethics matters and a slight tweak to the 70-year age limit for IOC members. A member’s term could be extended to the age of 74 if approved by the IOC, with no more than five cases at a time.

The reforms, called “Olympic Agenda 2020”, will be put to a vote by the full IOC at a special session in Monaco on December 8-9.
Barring any surprise, most or all the recommendations are expected to be passed.

“These 40 recommendations are like a jigsaw puzzle,” Bach said at the Olympic Museum. “The full picture is an IOC that safeguards the uniqueness of the Olympic Games and strengthens sport in society.”

Under the proposals, the IOC will allow “the organisation of entire sports and disciplines outside the host city or, in exceptional cases, outside the host country notably for reasons of geography and sustainability”.

That would be a first for the Summer Games. The IOC rules already allow for events to be held in a bordering country for the Winter Games.

“For Winter Games, if two countries are sharing a mountain, why not share a bid?” Bach said. “If you also have a city or region that can provide 95 per cent of the facilities and 5 per cent is missing, why not to open the door for them?”

In the Summer Olympics, some events — such as sailing and many of the preliminary-round football matches — are already held outside host cities. But Bach said the IOC is now ready to open the chance for country-wide and joint bids.

“In the Summer Games, it’s more about small or neighbouring countries where you have distances which are manageable and feasible,” he said. “It also could be in one country. We want to have more diversity, to give smaller countries the opportunity to organise games.”

There has been a precedent for holding events outside the host country. Because of quarantine laws in Australia, the equestrian competition for the 1952 Melbourne Olympics was held in Stockholm.

Bach stressed, however, that the principle remains that there should be a “main organising city” with an athletes village that serves as the centre of the Olympic experience.

“We want to preserve the Olympic spirit,” he said. “To have the central Olympic Village and to have the athletes together, this is the core to our philosophy. We do not want to see this destroyed. We want the games with the unity of time, place and action which is part of the uniqueness of the Olympic Games.”

GENEVA — A Qatari whistle-blower has lodged a complaint about her treatment in the World Cup bid corruption report by FIFA’s judge, and an Australian woman who gave evidence during the investigation has complained about the denigration of the pair.

Former Qatar bid worker Phaedra Almajid told The Associated Press on Monday that she wrote to FIFA prosecutor Michael Garcia about Judge Joachim Eckert breaching her right to witness confidentiality. It was sent late Sunday to the e-mail address at the Manhattan law firm where Garcia is a partner.

In the letter of complaint, which has been seen by the AP, she wrote that Eckert “falsely discredits me in order to support his indefensible conclusion that the December 2010 bidding was wholly acceptable.”

Bonita Mersiades, who worked on Australia’s bid for the 2022 World Cup and gave evidence to Garcia under the condition of anonymity, added to the criticism in an article for The Guardian newspaper on Tuesday.

“It says much about FIFA and those inside their tent that they felt it necessary to engage in a denigration of the two women who had been courageous enough to say something,” Mersiades wrote. “It is one thing to discount our discussions and the evidence — an investigator is entitled to do that — but it is extraordinary to single out two individuals and detail [mostly incorrectly] the contact with Mike Garcia, especially when we were assured in writing and in person that our dealings with him were confidential.”

Almajid and Mersiades’ protests adds to a chaotic response since Thursday when FIFA released Eckert’s summary of the Garcia investigation into corruption in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding contests won by Russia and Qatar, respectively.

Both Russia and Qatar have always denied any wrong-doing.

Garcia himself said his work was misrepresented by Eckert and appealed to FIFA. He is challenging the German judge’s decision to close the case because “problematic” wrong-doing by candidates was “of limited scope” and did not justify reviewing the votes by FIFA’s executive committee.

Almajid gave evidence to Garcia alleging wrong-doing by Qatar’s bid when she was its head of international media until early 2010.

She said Eckert’s report denounced her as unreliable in a “crude, cynical and fundamentally erroneous” summary of her cooperation.

“My cooperation was based on your promise of confidentiality,” Almajid wrote to Garcia.

Though not named by Eckert in his 42-page document, Almajid was easily identified — in a section covering Qatar titled “Role and Relevance of a “Whistleblower” — from her previous public statements. She was named in a July 2011 statement in which she retracted her claims of corruption, but later said she was coerced to do so by Qatari bid officials.

Almajid’s most serious allegation was aired by a British parliamentary committee in May 2011, that African members of FIFA’s ruling board were paid $1.5 million to vote for Qatar in a five-nation contest.

She also made allegations to Garcia of Qatar’s $1.8 million sponsorship of an African football meeting in Angola in 2010, and how the Aspire Academy in Doha was used to further the emirate’s campaign.

Still, Eckert wrote that Garcia’s investigation report concluded that “it appeared that the [whistle-blower] source has altered evidence to support its allegations.”

Almajid said speaking out had jeopardised the safety of herself and her two sons.

“I have taken great personal risks to stand up for the truth in a highly politicised atmosphere,” she wrote to Garcia. “However, I have found myself betrayed and denigrated for being courageous enough to come forward with critical information.”

Garcia must now decide whether to use Almajid’s complaint to prosecute a case against his ethics committee co-chairman for unethical behaviour.

Mersiades, who has written but not yet published a book on her experience during the World Cup bid, said she was asked to participate in Garcia’s investigations, and “felt the responsible thing to do was to share with him what I knew and what I had observed; I explained to him up front that I had no smoking gun but lines of inquiry that might be useful, depending on what else he learned”.

Eckert and Garcia are scheduled to meet this week for talks to resolve their rift. They should also cooperate on ongoing prosecutions against individual FIFA voters.

AMMAN — Despite some strong performances at the Asian Beach Games in Phuket, Thailand, the Jordan women’s handball team missed out on the medal matches following a final Group A defeat against unbeaten Vietnam, according to a statement from the Jordan Olympic Committee. The ladies needed to win their last game to qualify, but went down in the two rounds 16-8, 17-8 to finish third in the group with two wins and two defeats. They will next play for an overall fifth place play-off on Thursday with the opposition to be the team finishing third in Group B. Vietnam tops the group. Top scorers for Jordan were Roa’A Naser and Sara Al Halabeih with four points each. Meanwhile, the Muay Thai action starts Thursday with Mohammad Salama (75kg) and Mohammad Al Barri (81kg) representing Jordan. In the overall medal table, host nation Thailand top the charts with Japan in second and Mongolia is third thanks to their six gold medals to date. China are fourth.

AMMAN — Jordan’s runner Salameh Al Aqraa has continued his fantastic form at the age of 42 by finishing second in the Oman Desert Marathon, according to a statement from the Jordan Olympic Committee. Aqraa showed age is no boundary as he finished behind Morocco’s Rasheed Al Morabity in the gruelling race which covers 165km over six days. During the race, competitors have to carry their own sleeping equipment, food and water and it is regarded as one of the toughest races in the world.

AMMAN — The national football team is looking forward to its friendly against hosts Estonia on Tuesday as Jordan starts its last phase of preparations for the 2015 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) 2015 Asian Cup in Australia. 

The match against the 88th ranked Estonian team, which will be played in the capital Talinn in somewhat colder temperatures than what the squad is used to, is the second this week after Jordan hosted 66th ranked South Korea and lost 1-0.

Coach Ray Wilkins was quoted on the Jordan Football Association website as saying that the national team needs to play more advanced teams and try to vary between European and Asian teams to further improve its competitive edge.

"We have a big Asian competition ahead and we need to be ready. The mental, physical and technical edge comes only by playing more experienced sides," Wilkins said.

The coach expressed satisfaction with the team's current camp which includes the two friendlies, saying: "There are positive vibes and the whole team is working as one." 

He added the line-up was based on technical readiness and the Estonia match will enable the team's head coach and staff to finalise the line-up. 

AMMAN — Jordan followed their opening day victory in the women’s handball event at the Asian Beach Games with a defeat to Chinese Taipei — one of the gold medal favourites in Phuket, Thailand, on Sunday. The first victory over the Philippines gave the Kingdom’s players plenty of confidence for their second match, but they faced a strong Chinese Taipei side who won both rounds 22-11 and 18-6, according to a statement from the Jordan Olympic Committee. They still have a chance to qualify with two remaining Group A matches against Turkmenistan and Vietnam to come. Meanwhile, Lawrence Fanous has his sights on a top 10 finish in a world-class triathlon field for one of the Games’ blue chip events on Monday. The London-based triathlete is in good form and is feeling confident. “I have had some good results after winning in Japan and finishing fourth in Hong Kong since my seventh-place finish in the Asian Games last month, so I am hoping to do well for Jordan,” he was quoted as saying in the statement.

MADRID — Spain and Germany will have different objectives when they play a friendly in Vigo on Tuesday in the first meeting between the European heavyweights since Spain’s 1-0 win in the semifinals of the 2010 World Cup.

Vicente del Bosque’s new-look side will want to show they have put their failed title defence at the 2014 World Cup firmly behind them and some fresh faces coming through will be keen to impress.

Germany, meanwhile, is looking to finish off a stellar year in style after it claimed Spain’s global crown with July’s 1-0 win against Argentina in the World Cup final, their fourth triumph at football’s international showpiece.

Del Bosque is in the process of integrating a new generation following the retirement from internationals of stalwarts like Xavi, Xabi Alonso and David Villa as the European champions prepare for a tilt at a third straight continental title in France in two years’ time.

The hopes of La Roja now rest with players including midfielders Koke and Isco and forward Paco Alcacer, and there is a particular buzz around Isco after he scored a brilliant goal in Saturday’s 3-0 win at home to Belarus in Euro 2016 qualification Group C.

The squad still has plenty of hardened campaigners who have won every major title in the game and one of the most experienced, Sergio Ramos, said after the Belarus match the future was bright.

“The team is gelling more and more as time goes by,” Ramos told reporters.

“There will be better performances and worse performances but the new generation is pushing hard,” added the Real Madrid centre back.

“They are lads with little experience but a lot of desire and ambition. We can be positive about this national team.”

Germany coach Joachim Loew has insisted he and his players are not looking to avenge defeats to Spain in the final of Euro 2008 and in the last four at the 2010 World Cup.

“We want to end the year by showing once again what we are capable of and if possible win the match,” Loew said on Saturday.

“But it is certainly not about revenge for previous games we lost in 2008 or 2010,” he added. “That is not an issue for either team. We are missing a few players and the Spanish too.”

LONDON — Wayne Rooney left Wembley Stadium on Saturday with a golden commemorative cap as England’s youngest centurion, and now six goals from becoming the country’s all-time top scorer.

Personal accolades might be all the 29-year-old captain has to show for his international career after another turgid England performance showed just how far the team is from being a force.

Beating Slovenia did make it four wins out of four in European Championship qualifying, but the chances of Rooney leading England to glory at the 2016 finals look remote.

Particularly when the striker is struggling to score from open play, even against weaker opponents. Rooney’s goal in the 3-1 victory over Slovenia — cancelling out Jordan Henderson’s own goal — came from a penalty. Of his last four England goals, three have come from the spot.

“He’s very important to me and to English football,” coach Roy Hodgson said of Rooney after the victory secured by Danny Welbeck’s two strikes. “It was fitting tonight he was able to really get his reward on the night when it’s all about him.”

It started with Rooney emerging onto the pitch to cheers accompanied by young sons Kai and Klay before being presented with the golden cap by Bobby Charlton.

The 77-year-old Charlton, who netted an England-record 49 goals in 106 appearances, then watched from the stands as Rooney went within five of his milestone. It was a tackle by Bostjan Cesar on Rooney that led to the spotkick and a 44th England goal for the Manchester United striker.

“It’s a special night for me,” Rooney said after becoming England’s joint-third top scorer alongside Jimmy Greaves. “It’s a great honour for me to represent England for 100 times now and hopefully there are many more to come.”

A 101st cap is likely to be earned against Scotland in a friendly in Glasgow on Tuesday. England’s appearance record is held by Peter Shilton, the goalkeeper who was capped 125 times. David Beckham made a record 115 outfield appearances.

“I don’t just want to be remembered as one of the players who gets 100 caps,” Rooney said. “I want to be successful and we haven’t been successful. That’s how teams and players get rated.

“I would say it hasn’t always been great but it has always been magical playing for England.”

But Rooney, who made his England debut against Australia in 2003, revealed ahead of Saturday’s match that he came close to quitting the sport at aged 14.

“I had stopped enjoying football,” Rooney said, recalling how a coach made him “fall back in love with football”.

Rooney succeeded Steven Gerrard as England captain in August, having despite a tempestuous relationship with fans and past concerns over his temperament.

Far more was expected of Rooney after announcing himself on the international scene with four goals at Euro 2004 as an 18-year-old forward.

But the 2006 World Cup campaign was remembered for his red card against Portugal, and he struggled four years later in South Africa.

Although Rooney broke his World Cup goal drought at his third competition in June, England went out in the group stage with only one point — leaving the country without a title since its only success at the 1966 World Cup.

MELBOURNE — FIFA’s governance of world football is a “farce” and Judge Hans-Joachim Eckert’s statement summarising an 18-month probe into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups is “high comedy”, according to the Australian whistle-blower discredited in the statement.

Bonita Mersiades, the head of communications for Australia’s 2022 bid, gave evidence to the probe’s lead investigator Michael Garcia about her concerns with her country’s bid but the statement questioned her “reliability” and dismissed all her information.

Another whistle-blower for Qatar’s 2022 bid, identified by Mersiades as Phaedra Al Majid, the bid’s former international media officer, was also dismissed in the statement as unreliable and her information excluded.

The statement details a “prima facie case” that two of Australia’s bid consultants violated the bidding and ethics rules, and raises “indications” that Australia’s bid team had attempted to divert funds earmarked for development projects in Africa to countries with ties to voting FIFA executive members.

Mersiades told Reuters that those details were derived from the evidence she had shared with Garcia which was, in a bizarre contradiction, dismissed out of hand by the statement.

“If you read the subsequent paragraphs it seems to be presenting the very issues that we spoke about, so I’m not quite sure what it meant,” she said in an interview by phone on Saturday.

“Is this Mike Garcia’s view or is it Judge Eckert’s or is it some sort of work-shopped report from FIFA? I think as we’re dealing with FIFA you have to take all of those possible answers into account.

“It’s surprising but I can only repeat that when a report from FIFA singles out two whistle-blowers... and the fact that they haven’t singled out anyone else, you have to ask why.

“I don’t know the answer. The fact we’re having this conversation, obviously it sticks out like a sore thumb to everyone.”

Eckert said in the statement there were no grounds to reopen the bidding process which led to Russia being given the 2018 World Cup and Qatar the 2022 finals.

Three hours later former US prosecutor Garcia, who led the investigation over an 18-month period, said the statement had misrepresented his 430-page report and that he would take the case to the FIFA appeal committee.

“The fact that you have a summary report put out by a judge, which then the person investigating is appealing against it — although I’m not quite sure who he is appealing to — this organisation is obviously one that just can’t run anything other than the World Cup,” Mersiades said.

“It’s an organisation that in terms of governance is just a farce. There’s no other word for it.

“The only people that come out well in that summary report by Eckert is FIFA. [It says] they got their decisions right in respect to Qatar and Russia and there’s even a sentence and a reference that Sepp Blatter ran a wonderful process.

“It’s almost like high comedy.”

Personality clashes

Mersiades, who left Australia’s bid team in early 2010, would not comment on allegations of improprieties in Australia’s bid, saying she was bound by a confidentiality agreement which was only waived when talking to Garcia.

However, she said her departure from Australia’s football governing body Football Federation Australia (FFA), was because of “personality clashes” with the international consultants employed for the bid.

“[It was] because the international consultants wanted me to go... The international consultants didn’t want me to be there,” she said, adding that she had raised “too many questions” about their work.

The FFA has denied any wrongdoing in the bid.

Mersiades said she had spoken to the Qatar “whistle-blower” Majid and she had reacted similarly to the statement as herself. Mersiades hoped Eckert’s statement wouldn’t discourage other potential whistle-blowers from coming forward.

“I think fundamentally you should always try to do what you, yourself think is right,” she said.

“I’m a pretty optimistic person. I know that some people think it’s a bit like tilting at windmills, but I hope that some time in my lifetime FIFA is reformed.

“And I passionately believe that the only people who can do that now are governments and sponsors.

“Clearly it’s not going to change with [president] Sepp Blatter at the top.

“He doesn’t understand the need for it, part of what all of this protects is him and the structures he has built around himself. It needs change from the top and someone with the appropriate authority and muscle to come in and make it happen.”

BERLIN — Cristiano Ronaldo became the European Championships’ all-time top scorer by giving Portugal a 1-0 victory over Armenia, while Germany could only beat Gibraltar 4-0 as its World Cup victory hangover continued on Friday.

Portugal captain Ronaldo broke the deadlock in the 72nd minute to take his tally across Euro finals and qualifying to 23 goals. Denmark’s Jon Dahl Tomasson and Turkey’s Hakan Sukur had previously scored 22 goals each.

Germany was looking for a high score against Gibraltar, a territory of just 30,000 people which is playing its first qualifying tournament and had already lost 7-0 to both Ireland and Poland in Group D.

However, there were whistles from some fans at full-time after watching the World Cup titleholders labour against a defensively set-up side made up mostly of amateurs.

Convincing in Brazil during the summer, Germany had been held to a 1-1 draw by Ireland and beaten 2-0 by Poland in its two previous Euro 2016 qualifiers. It also lost 4-2 to Argentina in a friendly repeat of the World Cup final in September.

Elsewhere, Greece slumped to a shock 1-0 defeat at home to the Faroe Islands and Denmark came from behind to beat Serbia 3-1. There were qualifying wins for Poland, Scotland, Romania and Hungary.

In London, Teofilo “Teo” Gutierrez headed in a late goal as Colombia came from behind to beat the United States 2-1 in a friendly.

Here’s a roundup of action from Friday’s Euro 2016 qualifying games:

Group I

Ronaldo’s winner against Armenia meant Portugal stayed one point behind group leader Denmark. The Real Madrid star struck from close range following a goalmouth scramble.

Nicklas Bendtner scored twice as Denmark came from a goal down to beat Serbia 3-1 in Belgrade. The match was played in an empty Partizan Stadium because of incidents in a qualifier between Serbia and Albania last month. Serbia was penalised by UEFA for pitch skirmishes involving players and fans over an Albanian flag that was flown above the stadium by a drone.

Serbia winger Zoran Tosic opened the scoring with a low strike from 12 metres in the fourth minute.

But Bendtner equalised from close range in the 60th minute before centreback Simon Kjaer gave the visitors the lead two minutes later by heading in a free kick from Christian Eriksen. Bendtner made it 3-1 in the 85th minute.

Serbia coach Dick Advocaat was quoted by UEFA’s website: “This is our first terrible match since I became the manager. If someone should be blamed then it’s me. And, yes, I will think about resigning.”

France, which has already qualified as the host of Euro 2016, drew 1-1 with Albania in Rennes.

Albania defender Mergim Mavraj stunned the hosts with a header in the 40th minute. But France substitute Antoine Griezmann salvaged a draw by cutting inside to fire into the bottom corner in the 73rd minute. 

Group D 

Thomas Mueller scored twice as Germany got its Euro 2016 qualifying campaign back on track with an unconvincing 4-0 win over Gibraltar.

Mueller opened the scoring in the 12th minute and claimed his second 17 minutes later. Mario Goetze made it 3-0 in the 38th, before an own goal from Yogan Santos completed the scoring in the 67th minute.

Germany coach Joachim Loew said beforehand he wanted a result to reflect his side’s status as the World Cup winners and he started with a very attacking line-up and just three defenders.

The home side dominated the game but found it hard to penetrate the visitors’ stubborn defending, especially in the second half.

Liam Walker almost scored for Gibraltar with an audacious effort from the sideline just before the interval, only to be denied by a great save from Manuel Neuer.

Germany remains three points behind Group D leader Poland, which won 4-0 in Georgia thanks to second half goals from Kamil Glik, Grzegorz Krychowiak, Sebastian Mila and Arkadiusz Milik.

Shaun Maloney’s 75th-minute strike was enough for Scotland to beat Ireland 1-0 in Glasgow, moving the Scots level on points with Ireland and Germany.

Group F 

Greece continued its disastrous run in qualifying with a humiliating 1-0 defeat to the Faroe Islands, while Northern Ireland surrendered its lead in Group F to Romania.

The result in Greece is almost certain to prompt the dismissal of coach Claudio Ranieri, who hasn’t won a game since taking over in the summer and has now lost three straight at home.

Greek Football Association president Giorgos Sarris has called an emergency board meeting and said he took “full responsibility for the most unfortunate selection of this coach”. Sarris pledged to make changes “so that the national team never again has such a shameful evening”.

The Faroe Islanders, winning only their third European qualifier in 19 years, celebrated after the four minutes of injury time were up. Several of them in tears as they were clapped by Greek fans at Karaiskaki Stadium in Piraeus.

The remote archipelago of 50,000 inhabitants is ranked 187th among 208 nations in FIFA, while Greece is ranked 18th.

Joan Edmundsson scored in the 61st minute, firing in a ball that fell favourably in front of Greece goalkeeper Orestis Karnezis.

In Bucharest, Romania looked rejuvenated under coach Anghel Iordanescu, returning for his third spell at the national team, fighting hard to beat Northern Ireland 2-0. Paul Papp scored twice in six minutes in the second half, finally beating goalkeeper Roy Carroll who had been key to his country’s opening run of three wins.

There was a late winner at Budapest’s Groupama Arena, where Hungary’s Zoltan Gera scored in the 84th minute to beat Finland 1-0 and claim third place.