Sports

AMMAN — His Royal Highness Prince Hassan, president of the Higher Council for Self-Defence Sports, on Tuesday congratulated the Jordan Karate Federation for its achievements in the 14th Asian Cadet, Junior & U-21 Karate Championships 2014, held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

In a cable, the prince expressed his pride in the Jordanian team which ranked 5th. Players Abdul Rahman Masaftah and Nabil Shweiki each won a gold medal while Ali Habashneh won a silver medal and Rifat Abdullah won a bronze medal.

AMMAN — Jordan’s women’s football team has started a week-long training camp in Germany where they are set to play a series of friendlies starting Wednesday in preparation for Group A Asian Championship qualifiers which will be held in Amman in November.

Jordan will face India, Lebanon and Uzbekistan.

The squad hopes to qualify to the finals for the second time after Jordan was the first Arab team to qualify to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-19 Women’s Championship finals in 2007. 

The team held a camp in Alexandria in July where they played one match and also played the senior squad that is also preparing for the Asian Games competition. 

The men’s Olympic football team is also preparing for the Asian Games qualifiers as well as the 2016 Olympic qualifiers set for March 2015. 

As clubs who had promised to cooperate and release players have not stuck to their agreements, Wihdat Chairman and Football Association competitions committee head Tareq Khoury noted many officials had advised against competing in the Asian Games with the team’s current status.

Coach Jamal Abu Abed has tried his best to prepare the line-up which finished second at the Palestine International Championship. They are now set to play the Uzbek team in Amman on August 30.

Earlier this year, the team hosted the England C squad in a historic match, losing 1-0. The team held Iran 2-2 and 1-1, held Kuwait 1-1 twice and Qatar 0-0. 

The women’s football teams have a full agenda this year. Earlier this season, the senior squad had a tough time at their first Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women’s 2014 Asian Cup in Vietnam where the Kingdom was the only Arab team to have ever qualified to the premier women’s football competition in the AFC region, and was one of eight qualifying teams.

Jordan lost to world champs Japan 7-0 after losing to Australia and hosts Vietnam 3-1 in Group A. The top two teams from each group and the best third-placed team qualified to the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada.

This year, Jordan regained the West Asian Football Championship title with an unbeaten streak. With Iran, Lebanon as well as two-time champs and titleholders UAE missing the event, Jordan beat Bahrain 5-0, Qatar 7-0 and Palestine 10-0.

Jordan, now 52nd in FIFA rankings and the 12th ranked Asian team and the best Arab team on the list, had won the West Asian title twice in 2005 and 2007, but lost the title in 2010 and 2012 to the UAE.

On the other hand, the U-16 team will play in Group B Asian Championship qualifiers in Bangladesh in October that includes Bangladesh, Iran, India, the UAE and Qatar. 

In 2013, the girls’ U-16 squad was eliminated from the AFC finals after qualifying for the first time, while the U-14 girls team retained the U-14 West Asian Championship title after an unbeaten streak that saw them beat Bahrain 4-0, Qatar 7-0, Palestine 5-0 the UAE 3-0.

Jordan will host the 2016 U-17 Women’s World Cup and is now gearing up to implement executive plans to prepare four stadiums as well as 16 practice fields. Jordan beat bids from Uruguay, South Africa, Ireland and Bahrain.

LIVERPOOL — Liverpool’s players oozed confidence in the post-Luis Suarez era as they began their final countdown to the start of the Premier League season.

England midfielder Jordan Henderson and defenders Martin Skrtel and Dejan Lovren, of Slovakia and Croatia respectively, all said they had completed an excellent pre-season preparation with Sunday’s 4-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund.

Each told Liverpool’s website of their happiness ahead of Sunday’s Premier League meeting with Southampton at Anfield — and without a mention of last season’s controversial top-scoring striker, who joined Barcelona in July for a reported 81 million euros ($108.40 million).

Suarez scored 31 goals for Liverpool to help them finish as runners-up in the Premier League, but was sold after being banned for four months for biting Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini while playing for Uruguay at the World Cup finals.

“It was a good way to end pre-season and get ready for next week,” Henderson said on Monday. “Everybody is happy and hopefully we can continue that going into the game against Southampton.

“Most of our games in pre-season have been against top opposition, Champions League teams. Now we’re ready for the real test next week. We’re improving all the time. We continue to work hard and work on different things.

“We’ve got a young team that is developing very well and we’ve got a lot of experience despite being so young. Hopefully that will stand us in good stead for the season.”

Ironically, three of manager Brendan Rodgers’ new recruits will be in line to make their Liverpool debuts against their former club, Lovren having joined England striker Rickie Lambert and England midfielder Adam Lallana at Anfield.

“Lovren had a great season with Southampton and I am really happy that he is with us,” said defender Skrtel. “We all need competition because that is what keeps you motivated.

“He will make us stronger, so I really welcome his arrival — and it will only make me work harder. Liverpool is not only about 11 players. We will have many games this season, so every player will be important.”

Lovren, who scored with a typically powerful header and commanded the Liverpool defence with authority on Sunday, said his maiden outing for his new club had been “amazing”.

“We’re talking about Dortmund, who are in the Champions League every year and first or second in the German league,” he said. “They are a quality team. We showed a quality style of football, with four goals and a clean sheet.

“It was amazing for us. We played very well and it was a good start for me also because I haven’t had a long time with the team but I feel like I’ve been here for a month already.”

Lovren added that he felt he had settled in quickly thanks to the similarity in style between Southampton and Liverpool.

“The coach [Rodgers] has a similar style to what I had before at Southampton, so it was much easier for me to adapt here,” he said. “I’m really glad about that.”

FRANKFURT — Germany striker Miroslav Klose, who capped a record-breaking career with the national team by winning the World Cup last month, has retired from international football.

Poland-born Klose, who scored twice in the tournament in Brazil to become the competition’s record goal scorer of all time with 16 goals, said on Monday the time was right to end a 13-year career with the German national team.

The forward is the second member of Germany’s World Cup winning team to quit after the tournament following captain Philipp Lahm last month.

“Winning the title in Brazil was a childhood dream come true,” the 36-year-old Lazio striker said in a statement released by the German football Association.

“I am happy and proud to have contributed to this big success for German football. For me there could be no better moment to complete the national team chapter.”

Germany’s second most-capped player behind Lothar Matthaeus made the first of his 137 international appearances in 2001 and went on to become the top German scorer of all time with 71 international goals.

He broke Gerd Mueller’s 40-year-old record of 68 goals in June.

Record scorer

Germany’s only out-and-out striker in the World Cup squad, Klose was initially benched in the tournament but earned back his starting spot and scored once against Ghana in the group stage and then again in their 7-1 semifinal demolition of hosts Brazil in the semifinal.

The latter goal also meant he overtook former Brazil striker Ronaldo on the World Cup scorers list.

“When I met up with Miro last week he told me he had thought long about it and talked to his family,” Germany coach Joachim Loew said. “I immediately sensed that his decision was irreversible and that I cannot convince him otherwise.

“You can always count on Miro to keep his word and that was the case in Brazil as well. I have a lot of respect for Miro’s decision as well as for his unbelievable national team career that is all but impossible to trump.

“As player and a human being, we will be missing Miro and I am happy and grateful to have been allowed to work with Miroslav Klose.”

Tall and strong in the air, Klose is known for his superb timing and leaping ability and has been consistently efficient in front of goal, helping Germany reach two finals and two
semifinals in his four World Cup participations.

A lethal finisher, Klose was a relatively late starter for Germany after playing no role in any of the country’s national youth squads.

He then went on to play in four World Cups starting in 2002 and also competed in three European Championships.

Klose and Lahm will be honoured before Germany’s friendly game against World Cup finalists Argentina on September 3 but neither will feature in that game as per their own requests, DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach said.

“Miro is not only an outstanding player but as man he is an absolute role model,” Niersbach said. “In all the years he always remained modest and with his feet on the ground.

“We will stage a proper farewell for him and Philipp Lahm in Duesseldorf and we will respect their wish which has been agreed with Loew that they not play against Argentina.”

LONDON — Manchester City’s French midfielder Samir Nasri has decided to quit international football over a breakdown in his relationship with national coach Didier Deschamps and the French media.

The 27-year-old playmaker won the Premier League last season with City but was left out of the France squad for this year’s World Cup in Brazil, where the side reached the quarter-finals.

Deschamps later filed a legal complaint for ‘public insult’ against Nasri’s girlfriend, Anara Atanes, for messages she posted on Twitter after the player was omitted from the France squad.

“Let’s face it, as long as he [Deschamps] is going to be the manager I don’t think I have a shot after everything that has happened,” Nasri told reporters before Sunday’s Community Shield against his former club Arsenal.

“I will only be 29 in 2016 for the European Championships [hosted by France] but the French national team doesn’t make me happy. Every time I go there, there is just more trouble.

“I face accusations about me and my family suffers from it and I don’t want to make them suffer, so it’s better to stop it and focus on my club career.”

Nasri, who has been capped 41 times, has a reputation as a troublemaker and was banned for three matches after launching a foul-mouthed tirade at a reporter following France’s quarter-final defeat by Spain at Euro 2012.

The player also missed the 2010 World Cup when former coach Raymond Domenech left him out of the squad.

Nasri said Deschamps was not the only factor that drove him towards taking a decision to quit playing for France.

“He did what he thought was best for his team. I understand his choice, it is not something about him, I don’t have any problem with him. It’s just everything,” Nasri added.

“It is not him who talks in the press, it is the press who say things about me and the players as well.”

“Before this World Cup, they were saying that some players complain [about him]. Why do you want me to be in the group with some players who can’t even be true in front of me and tell me that they have a problem?”

“I don’t want to be there. I am not happy. I don’t want to go there any more.”

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky — Tiger Woods is no longer being compared with Jack Nicklaus.

Now the reference is to the great Willie Mays falling down in centre field trying to catch a fly ball. Or to Joe Louis entering the ring one time too many — and leaving it through the ropes after getting knocked out by Rocky Marciano.

Those were sad moments in sports.

As bad as Woods looked over two days at the PGA Championship, it would be premature to say this was another one.

But it sure looked that way.

Really, was it any worse than three years ago at the PGA Championship?

Woods missed two majors in the summer of 2011 to let his leg injuries heal, the ones that caused him to withdraw after nine holes and a 42 at The Players Championship. He returned to finish 18 shots out of the lead at Firestone and then missed the cut at the PGA Championship by six shots.

He was 35. Now he’s 38.

It had been three years since he last won a major. Now it’s six.

He had played only one event heading into the final major of the year in 2011, never shot worse than 72 and tied for 37th.

This time, Woods was returning from back surgery that kept him out of the Masters and US Open. He had three starts before the final major — including the British Open. He missed the cut by four shots, had his worst 72-hole finish in a major and withdrew from the final round at Firestone with a different back injury. And then he waited until the last day to show up at Valhalla, played nine holes of practice and couldn’t beat five club pros.

Woods said he was pain-free after playing nine holes Wednesday. He said his back was a little stiff after a 74 on Thursday. And he said his back “went out on me” on the range and “I just had to play through it” on his way to another 74.

“I didn’t really notice that,” Phil Mickelson said when asked about Woods’ injury. “I just noticed that really on the greens the ball wasn’t going in the hole.”

Ouch.

The trouble assessing injuries is that only the athlete knows how bad it hurts. It’s even more complicated when the athlete — Woods — isn’t forthcoming about it.

Is this the end? Not yet.

But it most likely is the end of Woods as golf once knew him. The end of a guy who once won seven out of 11 majors, and who got to 79 wins on the PGA Tour more quickly than anyone in history.

Woods always talked about his pursuit of Nicklaus and the record 18 professional majors as a marathon. He’s approaching Heartbreak Hill with four knee surgeries and back problems that keep cropping up.

Golf is the one sport you can play forever, which makes it the toughest sport from which to retire.

That might be Woods’ next big challenge.

Nine years ago in the parking lot at Doral, as Woods was about to embark on his next great run in the majors, he said he wouldn’t be on tour forever.

“I’ll definitely quit the game earlier than people think,” Woods said. “The only reason I would play the occasional tournament [is] if my son is good enough to be out there, and he chooses to play.”

This was four years before his son was born.

“When my best isn’t good enough to win anymore, I’m walking,” Woods said. “I’ve won tournaments when I wasn’t playing my best. If I play my best and don’t win, there’s no reason to be out here.”

They all say that. But how do they really know?

Football players lose a step. A great hitter doesn’t see the ball quite as well.

Golfers don’t make as many putts.

“You’ll know when I’m not able to produce any more,” Woods said that day. “I don’t lie. When I play well, I tell you guys. When I haven’t played well, I’ll tell you.”

All he could say Friday afternoon at Valhalla was, “I tried as hard as I could. That’s all I’ve got.”

He is four PGA Tour wins away from breaking the record of Sam Snead (82). He is five majors away from breaking the major championship record by Nicklaus (18). Woods has been stuck on 14 majors since 2008 at the US Open.

Woods did win five times last year before back trouble began to take its toll. Don’t give up on him just yet. But each year he gets older, and someone new comes along. Rory McIlroy played his first pro event in America the same week Woods returned from reconstructive knee surgery. Jordan Spieth showed up in a big way last year.

It’s not getting any easier.

The plan for Woods was to spend his time off getting stronger in his core muscles. Woods talks about not burning the candle at both ends — working in the gym and working at golf. His biggest rival now might be time. Either way, the wax is melting.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Luis Suarez gave evidence at sport’s highest court Friday and was told to expect a verdict next week in his appeal against a FIFA ban for biting an opponent at the World Cup.

The Uruguay and Barcelona forward signed autographs for young fans waiting outside the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after a six-hour hearing Friday, then left in a car without speaking to reporters.

CAS said Suarez gave a statement in court. The player, who dressed in a plaid shirt and jeans for the case, is trying to persuade a three-man judging panel to reduce his ban of four months from all football activity, along with nine Uruguay matches in official competitions.

The panel “informed the parties that it will issue its decision as soon as possible, probably before the end of next week,” the court said in a statement.

Barcelona, which signed Suarez from Liverpool after the World Cup ended, begins the Spanish league season in two weeks.

FIFA’s sanction, which currently runs through October 25, bars Suarez from training with his new teammates.

Lawyers for football’s world governing body declined to comment on the case.

Daniel Cravo, a lawyer for the Uruguay federation, told reporters earlier that “we have to have a controlled optimism because we have to respect the panel”.

Suarez has admitted biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini’s shoulder during Uruguay’s 1-0 win in Natal, Brazil.

Because Suarez acknowledged the incident, his legal team was unlikely to challenge FIFA on the facts of the case.

“I deeply regret what occurred,” Suarez wrote on Twitter June 30, days after FIFA announced the sanctions. “[The] truth is that my colleague Giorgio Chiellini suffered the physical result of a bite in the collision he suffered with me.”

Instead, Suarez’s lawyers from the Uruguay football association and Barcelona were expected to focus on persuading the panel that the sanctions are too severe.

The international group of football player’s unions, FIFPro, has criticised the four-month ban as an infringement of Suarez’s right to work.

On Friday, FIFPro urged the court to ease the sanction by making parts of the bans conditional on future good behaviour and rehabilitation.

“The educative nature of the sanction mentioned by FIFA in the [disciplinary] ruling can be much better achieved by making it partially conditional, including the obligation for Luis Suarez to receive treatment,” the union said in a statement.

Suarez has trained alone with a private coach while he is barred by FIFA from Barcelona’s stadium and practice grounds.

FIFA did allow Suarez to take a medical to complete his reported $126 million transfer from Liverpool last month on a five-year contract.

Suarez’s ban of nine international matches is one more than FIFA imposed at the 1994 World Cup on Italy defender Mauro Tassotti for elbowing a Spanish opponent in a quarterfinal. That incident was also missed by match officials.

NYON, Switzerland — Napoli, bidding to reach the Champions League group stage for the third time and the second in a row, were handed a daunting tie against Athletic Bilbao in the draw for the play-off round on Friday.

Arsenal, hoping to qualify for the 17th consecutive season, must face Turkey’s Besiktas and twice former champions Porto were also handed a difficult draw as they were paired against Lille, with the French club at home in the first leg.

Rafael Benitez’s Napoli finished third in Serie A last season, only enough for a place in the play-off round after Italy slipped down the national coefficients which determine how many places each league gets in the tournament.

“Among the five possible opponents, with Athletic we have been landed with the most difficult,” Benitez said.

“They’re a team who play good football and, at home, the 50,000 at San Mames give them a big push. It will be a very good, and very intense game.”

Napoli also won the Coppa Italia and were eliminated in the group stage of the Champions League in Benitez’s first season in charge.

The performance was regarded as no more than satisfactory and he will be expected to improve on that showing this term with one of the most expensive squads in Serie A.

Bilbao, fourth in La Liga, were beaten Europa League finalists in 2012.

If Napoli fail to beat Bilbao, Italy will be left with only two representatives, Juventus and AS Roma, in the group stage.

Turkish opposition

Arsenal also met Turkish opposition at the same stage last season when they beat Fenerbahce 5-0 on aggregate over two legs.

“It’s nice we have got the second leg at home,” Arsenal club secretary David Miles told reporters.

“They [the play-off ties] come relatively early in the season, and our three German World Cup winners won’t even be back, or will be just starting training then, so probably we won’t have the full squad to choose from.

“Nevertheless, we’ve got a good squad, quality in depth and I’m sure will be okay.”

The first legs will be played on August 19/20 with the returns on August 26/27.

Scottish champions Celtic, reprieved after third qualifying round opponents Legia Warsaw fielded an ineligible player in their 6-1 aggregate win, will meet Slovenian champions Maribor.

Former European champions Steaua Bucharest were paired with Bulgaria’s Ludogorets Razgrad while Cypriot champions APOEL Nicosia, who reached the quarter-finals two seasons ago, were drawn against Danish counterparts AaB Aalborg.

Malmo, runners-up in 1979, play Austrian champions Salzburg, who are attempting to reach the group stage for the first time since Red Bull’s takeover in 2005.

FC Copenhagen will meet Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen, Belgium’s Standard Liege face Zenit St. Petersburg and Slovan Bratislava play Belarusian champions BATE Borisov in the other of the 10 ties.

UEFA said that the vanishing spray, used at the World Cup to display the correct distance between a free kick and the defensive wall, would be used in the tournament, starting with the play-off round.

PARIS — Brazil defender David Luiz believes the only way to get over his World Cup disappointment is to be back on the pitch as quickly as possible. French champion Paris Saint-Germain signed Luiz on a five-year deal that was announced before his lacklustre performances in Brazil’s last two games at the World Cup last month. The host nation was thrashed 7-1 by Germany in the semifinals and lost 3-0 to the Netherlands in the match for third place. Luiz said “the first days after the World Cup were very difficult” but “that’s why football is so nice. It gives us the opportunity to react quickly and learn a lot from a situation, what were our mistakes and where things went wrong”.

GENEVA — Arsenal and Porto are among the big clubs entering the Champions League qualifying campaign when the draw for the last-round play-offs is held Friday.

Arsenal, chasing a 17th straight group-stage campaign, and two-time European champion Porto are the highest-ranked teams in the 20-team draw.

They are seeded with Zenit St. Petersburg, 2002 runner-up Bayer Leverkusen and Napoli in the section for teams which are not national champions.

Their unseeded opponents are Athletic Bilbao, Lille, Copenhagen, Standard Liege and Besiktas. The Turkish club advanced from the third qualifying round Wednesday with a hat trick from former Chelsea forward Demba Ba to beat Feyenoord 3-1 and complete a 5-2 aggregate win.

“He is not 100 per cent but fit to play,” Besiktas coach Slaven Bilic said of his new signing.

Clubs from the top five leagues in UEFA’s rankings — Spain, England, Germany, Italy and Portugal — join in the fourth and final qualifying round, with two-leg matches scheduled for August 19-20 and August 26-27.

In the champions section, 1986 European Cup winner Steaua Bucharest is seeded with Salzburg, APOEL, BATE Borisov and Ludogorets Razgrad.

Potential opponents are Maribor, Legia Warsaw, Slovan Bratislava, 1979 runner-up Malmo and Aalborg.

Play-off winners join the 22 clubs directly qualified for the group stage. The eight four-team groups are drawn August 28 in Monaco.

The 10 play-off losers enter the second-tier Europa League group stage, drawn August 29.

Though each playoff team gets 2.1 million euros ($2.8 million) from UEFA, the real prize — in status and cash — comes in the six-match Champions League group stage which kicks off in September.

UEFA pays a basic 8.6 million euros ($11.5 million) fee for reaching the group stage, plus 1 million euros ($1.34 million) per win and 500,000 euros ($670,000) per draw.

Teams also get a share of television rights money in a near 1 billion euros ($1.34 billion) payout shared by the 32 group teams.

Arsenal’s streak of claiming a share of that bonanza started in the 1998/99 season.

Zenit was fined 6 million euros ($8 million) of its prize money last season by UEFA for breaching Financial Fair Play rules, and is restricted to registering only 22 senior players in this year’s competition instead of the usual 25-man squad.

Led by former Porto and Chelsea coach Andre Villas-Boas, Zenit got two late goals Wednesday to beat AEL Limassol 3-0 and advance 3-1 on aggregate.

In the champions section Wednesday, Legia routed group-stage regular Celtic 6-1 on aggregate, and perennial qualifier Dinamo Zaghreb was stunned at home by Aalborg.

Danish champion Aalborg is the lowest ranked of the 20 play-off teams, earning its place with a 2-0 win in Zaghreb, to advance 2-1 on aggregate.

Copenhagen, the Danish league runner-up, also advanced with a 2-0 second-leg win over Dnipro of Ukraine to remove one security problem from the Champions League.

UEFA has deemed some Ukraine cities, including Dnipropetrovsk, unsafe to host matches during ongoing conflict with pro-Russian separatist rebels, and currently prohibits Ukraine vs. Russia matches in its club competitions.

Malmo’s return to Europe’s elite links the competition to its 1970s heyday dominated by Ajax, Bayern Munich and Liverpool, which all feature in the groups draw.

The Swedish champion was not a fully professional club when it lost the 1979 European Cup final to England’s Nottingham Forest, and has never played in a Champions League group.

Malmo advanced Wednesday when Markus Rosenberg scored twice in a 2-0 home win against Sparta Prague, enough to advance on away goals after losing the first leg 4-2.

“Winning a match like this for this club, of course it’s special,” Rosenberg said.