Fri, May 08, 2009 page19

• Sports Briefs

  • AGENCIES
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  ■SOCCER

  AFC boss’ sanity questioned

  One of world soccer’s kingpins launched a humiliating attack on Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Mohamed bin Hammam, urging him to seek psychiatric help as the struggle for power in Asian soccer intensified. “I am afraid that Mr Hammam may be a sick person who needs to be at a hospital rather than at FIFA,” South Korean tycoon Chung Mong-joon told reporters yesterday. Chung, a FIFA vice-president and South Korean lawmaker, said Bin Hammam was “acting like a head of a crime organization.” Chung launched the attack on the eve of a power vote to select a West Asia representative to FIFA’s executive committee. The AFC yesterday reinstated the voting rights of five countries who could prove pivotal to the fate of Bin Hammam. However, a meeting of the governing body’s executive committee unanimously decided to bar Kuwait from voting at their congress today, a ruling that contradicts FIFA’s legal opinion. “It was recommended that Laos, East Timor, Afghanistan, Mongolia and Brunei be given the benefit of the doubt,” an AFC insider said, adding that 12 of the 17 committee members present were in favor. Of the five, Afghanistan, Laos and Mongolia are understood to now be backing Bin Hammam, with East Timor and Brunei behind the challenger for his FIFA executive committee seat, Bahrain’s Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa.

  ■SOCCER

  Bendtner in bar bender

  Arsenal’s Danish international striker Nicklas Bendtner had to issue an embarrassing apology on Wednesday over been caught leaving a nightclub just hours after his side had been outclassed 3-1 by Manchester United in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final. The 21-year-old was photographed leaving the club in the early hours of the morning with his belt undone and jeans pulled down. “I may be young, but my actions were a poor error of judgment and something I deeply regret,” Bendtner said.

  ■BOXING

  Pacquiao ignores flu advice

  Filipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao will return to Manila as scheduled, ignoring advice from Philippine health officials to observe self-quarantine in the US to help prevent the spread of swine flu. In interviews with Manila television and radio networks, Pacquiao said yesterday he and others in his entourage, who were in Los Angeles, do not have any flu symptoms that could justify their quarantine. They will fly home as planned today, he said. “If you are healthy, why should you be quarantined?” he told DZBB radio. On Wednesday, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III urged Pacquiao — who beat Ricky Hatton in a light welterweight bout in Las Vegas on Sunday — to postpone his homecoming because the virus was found to have spread to the Californian city.

  ■SOCCER

  Gremio floor San Martin

  Former Barcelona striker Maxi Lopez scored twice to give Brazil’s Gremio a 3-1 away win over Peruvian champions Deportivo San Martin in the first leg of their Libertadores Cup second-round tie. Lopez struck twice with headers in the opening 15 minutes of the second half of Wednesday’s match to leave Gremio on the brink of securing a quarter-final place. Wednesday’s other ties involving Mexican pair San Luis and Guadalajara were both postponed because of the flu outbreak. The South American Football Confederation (CSF) ruled last week that the games would have to be played outside Mexico, but both Colombia and Chile refused to act as alternative venues.
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