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THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, March 16, 2017 Sports 43

BARCELONA- - Sevilla’s Radio Catalunya and the Champions League af-
Champions League exit to Spanish daily Marca report- ter a 16-year absence in his
Leicester City may have ed on Wednesday that Bar- first campaign.
scuppered Jorge Sampaoli’s celona’s board have ruled Athletic, who only choose
chances of replacing Barce- Sampaoli out of the running players with ties to the
lona’s departing coach Luis due to his lack of ties to Bar- Basque region of Spain,
Enrique next season, with celona, a factor seen as one reached the 2015 King’s
Ernesto Valverde and Juan of the reasons Gerard Mar- Cup final, losing to Barce-
Carlos Unzue now seen as tino proved an unsuccessful lona, but they exacted re-
the favourites. choice in 2013. venge with a 5-1 aggregate
The Argentine was widely Valverde, a former Bar- win in the Spanish Super
reported to be among the celona striker who has en- Cup, their first trophy for 31
top candidates to take the joyed sustained success in years.
vacant Barcelona dugout four years with Athletic, is Valverde is also admired
in the summer along with reportedly the number one for his ability to manage
Athletic Bilbao’s Valverde, choice for president Josep squads and egos.
Everton coach Ronald Ko- Maria Bartomeu and the “Ernesto Valverde would
eman and Unzue, Luis En- board due to his ties with fit in perfectly at Barcelona
rique’s current assistant. the club and his knowledge for his style of play and phi-
Sampaoli represents a of La Liga. losophy,” said former Ath-
popular choice among sup- Valverde spent two years as letic goalkeeper Iago Her-
porters for the thrilling style a Barcelona forward under rerin last month.
of play he has served up the late visionary coach Jo- “He has very clear ideas
with Sevilla, but his stock is han Cruyff and was report- and a lot of character. He
reported to have fallen with edly offered the role when has managed to make the
recent results. Tito Vilanova was forced regular starters and fringe
Tuesday’s 2-0 defeat at to quit as coach after be- players happy at Athletic,
Leicester followed disap- ing diagnosed with cancer which is the hardest thing to
pointing 1-1 draws with Le- in 2013, although he had do in football.”
ganes and Alaves which saw already committed to take Koeman, whose free-kick
Sevilla drift further behind charge of Athletic. at Wembley delivered Bar-
La Liga pace setters Bar- Valverde, who has also celona’s first ever Euro-
celona, and in recent weeks taken charge of Espanyol, pean Cup in 1992, has been
the team look as if they have Valencia and Olympiakos in linked due to his strong ties
run out of steam. Greece, led Athletic back to with the club and the suc-
cess of previous Dutchmen
such as Cruyff, Louis Van
Gaal and Franck Rijkaard.
Unzue, meanwhile, repre-
sents a continuation of the
style of Luis Enrique. The
former Barcelona substitute
ZURICH-- Less than half On that occasion, around goalkeeper followed Luis
the tickets for this sea- 9,000 tickets were allocated Enrique to the Catalan club
son’s Europa League final to each of the two finalists, from Celta Vigo in 2014 and
in Stockholm will to go a further 9,000 to the gener- coaches the team in set piec-
the two teams taking part al public and the remaining es, although he has no expe-
according to figures pub- 8,000 to officials, sponsors rience in charge of any club.
lished by European soccer’s and corporate hospitality. According to a front page
governing body UEFA on The competition is cur- report in Barcelona-based
Wednesday. rently at the round of 16 daily Sport on Wednesday, NEW YORK-- The United ter being sidelined since last almost second to none,” said
UEFA said in a statement stage with the second legs the prospect of appointing States have recalled veterans year’s Copa America with Arena, who replaced Juer-
Clint Dempsey, Tim How- an irregular heartbeat, while gen Klinsmann soon after
that 48,000 tickets would be to be played on Thursday. Unzue is becoming increas- ard and Geoff Cameron for goalkeeper Howard has re- that defeat.
put on sale for the match at Potential finalists include ingly more attractive to the upcoming World Cup quali- covered from an adductor “We know there are some
the Friends Arena on May Manchester United, AS board due to his popularity fiers against Honduras and fracture sustained in Novem- good days still ahead for
24, with up to 10,0000 go- Roma, Olympique Lyon, in the Barcelona dressing Panama, coach Bruce Arena ber’s 2-1 qualifying loss to Clint. He’s made great
ing to each finalist. A fur- Schalke 04, Ajax Amster- room. announced on Wednesday. Mexico. progress in preseason and
ther 17,000 will be sold to dam and Anderlecht. Striker Dempsey returns af- “Clint has a history that is his first two games with Se-
fans worldwide via UEFA’s attle, and we think he’s a
website. player that can still help us
The remaining 11,000 - in these games -- perhaps at
just under one quarter of a reduced role -- but a player
the total - will go to “the that still has a tremendous
local organising commit- history of scoring goals and
creating opportunities.”
tee, national associations,
commercial partners and RUSSIA-- FC Rostov have body, had deemed the pitch the game. The Russian Premier The US lost 4-0 to Costa
broadcasters, and to serve been banned from hosting playable. “It’s hard for me to believe League told the BBC that Rica right after going down
to Mexico and need to start
the corporate hospitality league games at the Olimp-2 “The ban is imposed until we are going to play on that Rostov would have their pitch
programme with competi- Stadium due to poor pitch the identified shortcomings field, if you can call it a field,” inspected again on March 24, putting points on the board
at home to Honduras on
tive packages”. conditions, less than a week are eliminated and the fields Mourinho had said prior to with their next home game on March 24 and away to Pana-
Prices range from 45 euros after Manchester United are brought into line with the the draw. March 31 against FC Krasno- ma four days later if they are
to 150 euros ($48 to $159), manager Jose Mourinho established requirements of “I just had a quick contact dar. to stand any chance of quali-
UEFA said. complained about the play- the regulatory documents,” with one gentleman from United and Rostov play the fying for Russia 2018.
UEFA was criticised when ing surface. the RFPL said on Wednes- UEFA when I was looking second leg of their Europa LA Galaxy midfielder Jer-
last season’s final between United drew 1-1 against the day. at the pitch And when I told League clash at Old Trafford maine Jones was included
Liverpool and Sevilla was Russian side in their Europa Mourinho had been critical him about my concerns, the on Thursday. in the 24-man squad even
staged at the St-Jakob Park League last-16 first-leg tie of the pitch and was unhappy gentleman told me the play- Rubin Kazan’s Central Sta- though suspension will keep
in Basel with a capacity of last Thursday after UEFA, with the hard and patchy ers are insured -- if something dium has also been banned by him out of the Honduras
35,000. European soccer’s governing playing surface being used for happens, no problem.” the Russian Premier League. game.