14/06/2025

SPORTS SATURDAY | JUNE 14, 2025

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Club WC test of Chelsea’s credentials

SHORTS Boca Juniors defender denied visa BOCA JUNIORS defender Ayrton Costa will miss the Club World Cup after being denied a visa to enter the United States due to a criminal complaint against him in his native Argentina, the club confirmed yesterday. In 2023, Costa accepted a probationary sentence to avoid trial for an aggravated robbery in 2018, which US officials ruled that he is still serving. Criminal convictions are grounds for inadmissibility to the United States. The decision comes amid a broader crackdown by the Trump administration on issuing visas to some visitors and students. “We can confirm Ayrton Costa is set to miss the Club World Cup with Boca,” a club spokesperson told Reuters . “The defender was due to travel on Wednesday night… but did not obtain the visa.” The US embassy in Buenos Aires was not immediately available to respond to a request for comment emailed outside of normal business hours, it said in an automated reply. Boca’s opening game is against Portuguese side Benfica in Miami on Tuesday. LOS ANGELES FC striker Olivier Giroud says the Club World Cup is a chance to showcase Major League Soccer as the tournament kicks off tomorrow. LAFC are one of three MLS sides entered in the 32-team tournament which begins in Florida when Lionel Messi and Inter Miami face off against Egyptian club Al-Ahly (8am). The Seattle Sounders are the other MLS team in the tournament. Former France international Giroud, who joined LAFC last year after three seasons with AC Milan, told reporters yesterday he believed MLS was underrated by the rest of the world. “It’s a great opportunity for Seattle and Miami and Los Angeles Football Club to show the quality of the league,” Giroud said. Giroud believes LAFC and other MLS teams may be able to spring a surprise against European clubs still feeling the after-effects of a gruelling season. “These European top European teams, they will maybe feel a bit tired after a long season so it may be an advantage,” Giroud said. “It’s always nice to stay positive. Some of them have played 60, 70, 75 games already so I think that’s a good test for the MLS teams. We need to grab that chance to show Europe what we’re made of.” Chance for MLS to shine: Giroud

AFTER securing their return to the Champions League on the final day of the season, Chelsea have an early chance to show they belong back among the elite this summer at the Club World Cup. Enzo Maresca’s side beat Nottingham Forest in their last Premier League match to clinch fourth place after an inconsistent campaign, ending a two season absence from Europe’s top competition. The Blues, who reached Fifa’s revamped and expanded event by landing a second Champions League triumph in 2021, have been handed a favourable opening raft of fixtures in the United States. Chelsea begin their Club World Cup campaign in Group D against Los Angeles FC, who battled through a playoff round against Club America to replace the disqualified Club Leon. After that opening fixture in Atlanta on Tuesday (3am Malaysian time), Chelsea head north to face Brazilian team Flamengo and Tunisia’s Esperance, both in Philadelphia. Los Angeles boast former Chelsea striker Olivier

spurned their advances and looks set for a move to Premier League side Liverpool. With veteran Thomas Muller leaving after the Club World Cup and wingers Leroy Sane and Kingsley Coman also reportedly headed for the exit, Bayern will need to bring in more attacking talent this transfer window. After recently scoring two goals in two games for England against Andorra and Senegal, Kane heads to the US optimistic of a further taste of silverware. “We’re certainly one of the favourites. I think this season has shown what kind of a team we are,” Kane told Germany’s TZ newspaper. “On a good day, we can beat any opponent in the world.” Kane said the players were “taking the tournament seriously and preparing well”, despite the long season behind them. “It’s a new format with the best teams in the world competing. I’m happy to be part of it because it’s an exciting opportunity.” While Kane may now have just a solitary team title, his strike partner Muller is bidding to become the most decorated German footballer ever. Muller is equal on 34 team trophies with retired Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos, but can inch past his former teammate by lifting what would be his third Club World Cup. The veteran’s two previous victories, in 2014 and 2021, came in the previous scaled back version of the competition. Muller, 35, made clear he wanted to stay at Bayern after 25 years with the club. In April, he said the decision to part ways was made by the club and the club alone, but has not allowed the issue to spoil his farewell. season is a positive sign, with Palmer dazzling in the Conference League final win over Real Betis. The 23-year-old missed Chelsea’s pre-season tour of the US last year and Maresca said it was a chance for the playmaker to take the country by storm. “Palmer is up there with the very best top players who can produce something at any moment, create something out of nothing,” said the coach. “He wasn’t with me on the USA tour last summer, so it will also be a chance for him to experience the environment there and to introduce himself to North America.” Beating Betis in Poland earned Maresca his first trophy as Chelsea manager and a deep run in the United States would be another sign that the Blues are heading in the right direction. “(Critics) were saying that we were not able to win.… because we’re too young, because we’re not experienced,” said Maresca after sealing fourth place in the Premier League. “Unfortunately for them, they have all been wrong.” – AFP

Giroud, although the 38-year-old is not a regular starter. Flamengo, who qualified by lifting the Copa Libertadores in 2022, are coached by well-regarded former Chelsea and Atletico Madrid defender Filipe Luis. Esperance have won eight of the last nine Tunisian league titles but are considered the weakest team in the group. In the knockout rounds tantalising potential clashes against Bayern Munich and Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain may lie ahead. Chelsea won the competition in its previous format in 2022, beating Brazil’s Palmeiras in the final. There will be special interest in how new Chelsea signing Liam Delap fares after his recent move from relegated Ipswich. Chelsea lacked firepower up front this season with Nicolas Jackson inconsistent and Christopher Nkunku struggling badly for form. Cole Palmer’s revival towards the end of the

Bayern eye treasures Kane keen to add silverware after breaking jinx with Munich F RESH from lifting a first team title of his career, Harry Kane and Bayern Munich head to the Club World Cup in the United States eyeing more than just another shot at silverware. Juniors in Miami and Benfica in Charlotte.

Member-run Bayern may dwarf all but a handful of European rivals financially, but the Club World Cup money could make an important difference at an uncertain time. Despite winning back the Bundesliga title this season after Bayer Leverkusen broke an 11-year Bavarian streak last term, Bayern are facing a rebuild this summer. Normally the one and only destination for top German talent, in d e m a n d midfielder Florian Wirtz

Long on the receiving end of jibes about not winning a team trophy in his 15-year career despite a glittering array of individual honours, the 31-year-old striker finally broke through when Bayern won the Bundesliga this season. Besides adding another title to Bayern’s bulging trophy cabinet, a Club World Cup win would be incredibly lucrative for the German giants. In a bid to boost club buy-in for the expanded tournament, Fifa has put together a whopping US$1 billion (RM4.3b) prize money pool, with the winner expected to pocket US$125 million (RM538m). As with most of

the big European sides competing in the tournament, Bayern have been handed a relatively simple task in the group stages. Bayern face Auckland City in Cincinnati tomorrow (12mn Malaysian time), before rounding out the group stage with matches against Boca

In a social media video as Bayern took off for the United States, Muller said: “Of course we want to win this thing. “Ready to rumble. Full throttle for the title. Let’s go, FC Bayern.” – AFP

Harry Kane

Historic new era for the game: Infantino

FIFA president Gianni Infantino says the Club World Cup, which kicks off tomorrow, marks a historic “new era” for the game, comparing it to the first World Cup held in 1930. In an interview with AFP , Infantino also took aim at critics of Fifa’s ticketing policy and said that skeptics who had questioned the need for the tournament would quickly change their minds. The 32-team competition, with clubs from all continents, gets under way with Inter Miami facing Egyptian club Al Ahly at Hard Rock Stadium.

surface, we say it’s the No. 1 sport in the world, and it is but then the elite is very concentrated in very few clubs, in very few countries,” he said. Infantino dismissed concerns that the tournament added to fixture congestion but acknowledged that some fans were yet to be sure of the value of the tournament, saying though that would quickly change. “I believe, I’m convinced that, you know, as soon as the ball starts rolling, the whole world will realise what is happening here. It’s something special,” he said. – Agencies

and South American teams took part, adding that the Club World Cup would give a chance to clubs from outside of football’s traditional heartlands to play on the global stage. “We want to be inclusive. We want to give opportunities to clubs from all over the world,” he said. “It’s really to globalise football, to make it truly, truly global. Because when you scratch the

“It starts a new era of football, a new era of club football. A little bit like when, in 1930, the first World Cup, right, started,” Infantino told AFP . “Everyone today speaks about the very first World Cup. That’s why it’s also, this World Cup here is historic.” The first World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930 and Infantino noted that only European