Borneo Bulletin Digital

Sports

FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2020

BERLIN (AFP) - Leroy Sane’s

(pic right)

new agent said the Manchester City

winger is still in the running for a trans-

fer to Bayern Munich, after a potential

switch was put on hold due to a serious

knee injury.

“FC Bayern is the only club in Ger-

many that Leroy can see as the next

step in his career,” Sane’s agent Damir

Smoljan told magazine

Sport Bild

on Wednesday.

“He believes the conditions are right

there for him to achieve his ultimate

goal: winning the Champions League.”

The 24-year-old Sane is viewed as

one of Germany’s brightest talents and

has scored ive goals in 21 appearanc-

es for his country. He won the Premier

League title with City in 2017/18 and

2018/19.

He seemed to be on the verge of

joining Bayern last August before he

tore his cruciate knee ligament during

the Community Shield match against

Liverpool at Wembley, holding up a

possible move.

Last month, Sane admitted the

devastating injury was the “longest

and hardest” of his career, describing

the road to recovery as both mentally

and physically gruelling.

Sane returned to training and played

a game for City’s reserves in March be-

fore the Premier League ixtures were

halteddue to the coronavirus pandemic.

LONDON (AFP) - Arsenal’s executive team have

agreed to cut more than a third of their salary as the

club warned it is facing “one of the most challenging

periods” in its history on Wednesday.

The Premier League has been suspended indei-

nitely due to strict government guidelines to control

the spread of coronavirus.

Arsenal posted a GBP27 million loss for the

2018/19 season and are on course to lose far more

this year due to the shutdown.

An inability to complete the season could cost

Premier League clubs an estimated GBP1 billion.

“The potential inancial impact is signiicant so

we must be responsible and act now to best pro-

tect Arsenal from what might happen in the months

ahead. What is clear is that this is one of the most

challenging periods in our near 134-year history,” Ar-

senal said in a statement.

“Our executive team volunteered to waive

more than a third of their earnings over the next

12 months.”

To soften the economic blow, Premier League

clubs have asked players to take a 30 per cent pay

hit between cuts and deferrals. However, no agree-

ment has yet been reached between Arsenal’s play-

ers and the club over cuts.

“Over the past 10 days we have been in discus-

sions with them around the potential inancial chal-

lenges ahead, and how we are planning for those

now,” the statement added. “These are productive

and ongoing conversations around how our players

might support their club in an appropriate way.”

According to reports, the Arsenal squad rejected

a proposal for a 12.5 per cent pay cut on their annual

salary, preferring instead to defer a larger propor-

tion of their income until the shutdown is over.

Despite the Gunners’ inancial concerns, they

also conirmed they will not be using the United

Kingdom (UK) government’s furlough scheme and

all non-playing sta¢ are receiving their full salaries.

Liverpool, Tottenham and Bournemouth have

backtracked on plans to use the furlough scheme,

which guarantees 80 per cent of wages for sta¢ up

to a maximum of GBP2,500 a month, over criticism

of Premier League clubs using public money during

the crisis.

ASUNCION (AFP) - With Paraguay’s capital in lock-

down, former Brazil football star Ronaldinho is

spending his second week under house arrest in

an exclusive hotel in Asuncion, where a ballroom

has been set up to allow him to keep up his football

skills, as he awaits trial for entering the country un-

der a false passport.

The 40-year-old World Cup winner and his busi-

ness-manager brother Roberto are occupying two

USD350-a-night suites at the otherwise deserted Co-

lonial-style Palmaroga hotel, just a couple of blocks

from the government headquarters.

“Yesterday they brought him a regulation football.

We set up a room - about 30 metres by 15 - for him to

be able to practise his juggling skills,” hotel manager

Emilio Yegros told AFP.

“He seems like a good sort. He always has a smile,

like his brother,” said Yegros.

“His face has changed from his irst day here.

When he arrived he was tense and visibly stressed,”

the hotel manager said.

The former Barcelona star spends his days work-

ing out in the hotel gym, practising his juggling skills

with the ball, and wandering the echoing halls of the

6,000 square-metre building, refurbished in 2019.

Ronaldinho and his brother are among 16 sus-

pects in an extensive anti-corruption investigation.

Arrested on March 6 for using falsiied Paraguayan

passports to enter the country from Brazil, they face

up to ive years in prison if convicted.

Being held in a police cell for the irst 30 days of

their detention gave Ronaldinho and his brother a

taste of Paraguayan prison conditions, before a court

ordered them released into house arrest at the Palma-

roga early this month. Bail was set at USD1.6 million.

The fact that the hotel is owned by the Spain-

based Barcelona Group, which has construction

projects in Paraguay, is “pure coincidence” and

has nothing to do with the star’s former club, said

Yegros.

The former player is prevented from receiving vis-

itors in the hotel under Paraguay’s protocols against

the coronavirus, which o¥icially has 161 infections to

date, with eight deaths.

Ronaldinho’s Brazilian lawyer Sergio Queiroz said

there are no legal grounds for his detention. “It’s il-

legal, abusive,” he said. “They did not know that the

documents they had were illegal.”

“Leave Ronaldinho alone,” said former Argen-

tine World Cup winner Jorge Valdano, now a coach

in Spain.

“The only place Ronaldinho behaved like

a troublemaker was on the pitch,” he told a

Madrid newspaper.

Arsenal executives take pay

cut as player talks continue

File photo shows a general view of the Emirates Stadium in London. PHOTO: AFP

Ronaldinho enjoys ‘golden cell’ in

locked-down Paraguay capital

Sane move to Bayern still

possible, says new agent

Before injury struck, Sane’s rumoured

switch to Munich had involved a re-

ported transfer fee in excess of EUR100

million.

Bayern want Sane after wingers

Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery both

retired at the end of last season.

“The interest of FC Bayern is no

secret, but other very big European

teams have already contacted us about

Leroy,” Smoljan added, with Barcelona

and Real Madrid also said to be inter-

ested.

In this season’s Champions League

over Real Madrid in Spain before both

second legs were postponed due to

the coronavirus.

SHANGHAI (AFP) - Chinese champi-

ons Guangzhou Evergrande yester-

day began building a new stadium

costing CNY12 billion and boasting a

100,000 capacity - one of the world’s

largest arenas.

The stadium, which will be marginal-

ly bigger than Barcelona’s famous Camp

Nou, is scheduled to be ready by the end

of 2022, Xinhua news agency said.

Guangzhou Evergrande Football

Stadium will have an eye-catching lo-

tus lower design wrapped around it,

a nod to the southern city’s status as

China’s ‘Flower City’.

The stadium will be, for a time at

least, the world’s largest football ven-

ue, until the Camp Nou expands to

105,000 seats after its ongoing rede-

velopment. Eight-time Chinese cham-

pions Guangzhou, who are coached

by Italian World Cup winner Fabio Can-

navaro and have won the AFC Cham-

pions League twice, average about

50,000 fans for home matches.

China’s government is making

an aggressive push to promote foot-

ball in the country and several major

new stadiums are being built around

the nation.

Evergrande’sChineseSuper League

rivals Shanghai SIPG are constructing

a new arena that will seat 33,000 and

is expected to be inished in 2021. Chi-

na will host the newly expanded 2021

FIFA Club World Cup and the 2023 AFC

Asian Cup, while Shanghai is interest-

ed in holding the Olympics.

Guangzhou starts work on

100,000-capacity stadium