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Gulf News | Saturday, October 11, 2014 | gulfnews.comgulfnews.com | Saturday, October 11, 2014 | Gulf News
AbuDhabi
I
t has become one of foot-
ball’s most enduring de-
bates: Lionel Messi or Cris-
tiano Ronaldo: Who is the
best player in the world?
Over the past five years, this
questionhasbeenaskedfeverish-
ly and endlessly by pundits and
fans alike — and many of them
favoured Messi, the Barcelona
talisman, over Real Madrid su-
perstar Ronaldo. The little Argen-
tine, it was widely felt, possessed
marginally more innate skill and
scored slightly more goals than
Ronaldo — 73 in all competitions
in 2011/12, for instance, as op-
posed to Ronaldo’s 60.
Not now. It would take a brave
person to fashion a compelling
case against Ronaldo being con-
sidered the world’s pre-eminent
player, given that his scintillat-
ing scoring feats have reached
stratospheric peaks unmatched
by Messi in 2014/15.
His hat-trick in Real Madrid’s
5-0 Spanish La Liga demolition
ofAthleticBilbaoonSundaywas
incredibly his third treble of the
season — and joint-record 22nd
in Spain’s top tier.
In all competitions, he has
netted an unfathomable 17 goals
so far this season, including 13
in just six league games. Real
Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti
is among the expert observers
who believes his star’s claims to
repeat his 2014 Ballon d’Or suc-
cess as Fifa’s finest player on the
planet are unimpeachable.
“I think there can be no doubt
about Cristiano for the Ballon
d’Or this year,” the Italian said
on Sunday. “There’s no putting
money on it.”
Ronaldo’s tally for the sea-
son comfortably eclipses that of
Messi, who has seven goals in
nine appearances in all compe-
titions, six of which have come
in the league. Yet his superiority
in this thrilling football face-off
cannot be measured in mere
numbers alone.
There is the growing feeling
that Messi may be past his best
and not the explosive performer
of old following a succession of
hamstring injuries and relent-
less football from his late teens,
despite being two years younger
than the 29-year-old Ronaldo.
He now plays more as a deep-
lying midfield orchestrator, hap-
py to engineer assists as much
as score goals following a trade-
mark jinking solo run.
His shooting accuracy and
resultant goals ratio have also
declined, Messi having spurned
a succession of good chances in
the 2-0 win at Rayo Vallecano
last Saturday, for example.
In contrast, Ronaldo’s powers
remain undiminished. His scor-
ing prowess, speed and awesome
athleticism having been em-
bellished by a more selfless ap-
proach in recent times.
Following his hat-trick on
Sunday, he said he was revel-
ling in the ‘BBC’ triumvirate he
has formed with French striker
Karim Benzema and the world’s
costliest player, Gareth Bale.
“We are still getting better,
this is still the start of the sea-
son,” said Ronaldo. “The ‘BBC’
is working well. We are used to
playing together and we keep
scoring goals.”
Yet, not so long ago, Messi’s
scurrying feet arguably offered
magical moments more often
than the athletic Portuguese’s
lithe limbs, while his feats of
goalscoring were even more as-
tonishing than those of his ad-
versary. Chief among these were
his 91 goals in a calendar year in
all competitions in 2012, break-
ing German legend Gerd Muel-
ler’s 40-year-old record of 85.
Ronaldo, meanwhile, net-
ted “only” 63. Messi’s magnifi-
cence resulted in him winning
his fourth Ballon d’Or in Janu-
ary 2013. By that stage, Ronaldo
had only one Golden Ball to his
name — and he secured that
back in 2008. However, last year,
Ronaldo finally proved statisti-
cally superior to his Argentinian
nemesis with 69 goals in 60 ap-
pearances for club and country,
as opposed to Messi’s 45 in 46.
Ticket to Brazil
His superb hat-trick in the
second leg of Portugal’s World
Cup play-off with Sweden in
November 2013 earned his coun-
try a ticket to Brazil 2014 — and
prompted Fifa to extend the vot-
ing deadline for the Ballon d’Or.
It was a controversial move,
but one which was widely ac-
cepted, for any other result than
a Ronaldo triumph would have
been a travesty of justice given
his stunning consistency of per-
formance and goals galore.
In January, a tearful Ronaldo
received the Fifa accolade from
another great of the game, Pele.
However, he would not rest on
his laurels and henceforth em-
barked upon an unyielding pur-
suit of more goals and glory to
underscore his newly acquired
status as the best footballer of the
modern age. He ended the season
with 31 goals in 30 games, win-
ning the Pichichi award for being
Spain’s top goalscorer and shar-
ing the European Golden Shoe
with Liverpool’s Luis Suarez.
In all competitions, he plun-
dered a staggering 67 goals, in-
cluding a record 17 in a single
Champions League season.
Messi endured a far more fal-
low and frustrating campaign in
comparison, dogged by injury
and inconsistency for a lacklus-
tre Barcelona, who failed to win
a trophy under the uninspiring
Gerardo Martino.
He still struck 28 goals and 41
in total in all competitions, but
Ronaldo also bettered him in the
silverware stakes with his sec-
ond Champions League medal
following his goal in the 4-1 win
over Atletico Madrid.
However, the 2014 World Cup
was viewed as Messi’s golden
chance for redemption and op-
portunity to get one over Ron-
aldo, given that his star-studded
Argentina side were rated as one
of the tournament favourites.
Elusive global success would
have also crowned Messi as the
greatest player of all time in the
eyes of many, supplanting his
compatriot Diego Maradona.
Yet despite scoring four goals
— an ailing Ronaldo failed to reg-
ister on the scoresheet as Portugal
suffered an insipid first-round
exit — Messi could not emulate
Maradona’s World Cup-winning
heroics of 1986, enduring heart-
ache as Germany beat Argentina
1-0 after extra time in the final.
Messi’s ignominy was com-
pleted when he was presented
with the Golden Ball afterwards
for being the World Cup’s best
player. There were arguably oth-
er more worthy candidates for
the award, including Germany’s
Thomas Mueller, the tourna-
ment’s top goalscorer.
Ronaldo was later reported to
have said he ‘would be sent to
prison’ if he commented on this
controversial decision, and in
the new campaign he has sought
to compound Messi’s misery by
routinely outperforming him in
their unofficial epic battle. It re-
mains to be seen whether Messi
can reach the celestial highs of
old in response — and who would
discount that from happening?
But, for now at least, Ron-
aldo remains peerless in every
department. Except, that is, in
terms of assists, with Messi cur-
rently leading seven-two over
his Real counterpart.
P W D L F A Pts
Chelsea 7 6 1 0 21 7 19
ManCity 7 4 2 1 14 7 14
Southampton 7 4 1 2 11 5 13
ManUtd 7 3 2 2 13 10 11
Swansea 7 3 2 2 10 8 11
Tottenham 7 3 2 2 9 7 11
WestHam 7 3 1 3 12 10 10
Arsenal 7 2 4 1 11 9 10
Liverpool 7 3 1 3 10 10 10
AstonVilla 7 3 1 3 4 9 10
Hull 7 2 3 2 11 11 9
Leicester 7 2 3 2 11 12 9
Sunderland 7 1 5 1 8 7 8
WestBrom 7 2 2 3 8 9 8
CrystalPalace 7 2 2 3 10 12 8
Stoke 7 2 2 3 6 8 8
Everton 7 1 3 3 13 16 6
Newcastle 7 0 4 3 7 14 4
Burnley 7 0 4 3 3 10 4
QPR 7 1 1 5 4 15 4
P W D L F A Pts
Barcelona 7 6 1 0 19 0 19
Valencia 7 5 2 0 17 4 17
Sevilla 7 5 1 1 13 8 16
RealMadrid 7 5 0 2 25 9 15
AtleticoMadrid 7 4 2 1 12 7 14
CeltaVigo 7 3 3 1 12 10 12
Villarreal 7 3 2 2 10 7 11
Espanyol 7 2 3 2 9 8 9
Eibar 7 2 3 2 8 7 9
Almeria 7 2 3 2 7 7 9
Malaga 7 2 3 2 5 7 9
RayoVallecano 7 2 2 3 10 12 8
Granada 7 2 2 3 5 11 8
Getafe 7 2 1 4 4 11 7
RealSociedad 7 1 2 4 8 11 5
Elche 7 1 2 4 7 16 5
Levante 7 1 2 4 4 15 5
AthleticBilbao 7 1 1 5 4 11 4
Cordoba 7 0 4 3 4 11 4
DeportivoLaCoruna 7 1 1 5 8 19 4
P W D L F A Pts
Juventus 6 6 0 0 13 2 18
Roma 6 5 0 1 11 4 15
Sampdoria 6 4 2 0 7 2 14
Udinese 6 4 1 1 9 5 13
ACMilan 6 3 2 1 13 9 11
Verona 6 3 2 1 6 5 11
Napoli 6 3 1 2 8 7 10
Lazio 6 3 0 3 11 7 9
Fiorentina 6 2 3 1 5 3 9
InterMilan 6 2 2 2 11 8 8
Genoa 6 2 2 2 6 6 8
Empoli 6 1 3 2 8 8 6
Cesena 6 1 3 2 5 10 6
Torino 6 1 2 3 4 7 5
Cagliari 6 1 1 4 7 9 4
Chievo 6 1 1 4 5 9 4
Atalanta 6 1 1 4 2 8 4
Parma 6 1 0 5 11 16 3
Palermo 6 0 3 3 6 14 3
Sassuolo 6 0 3 3 3 12 3
P W D L F A Pts
BayernMunich 7 5 2 0 15 2 17
Hoffenheim 7 3 4 0 11 6 13
BorussiaM. 7 3 4 0 9 4 13
BayerLeverkusen 7 3 3 1 13 11 12
EintrachtFrankfurt 7 3 3 1 12 10 12
Mainz 7 2 5 0 10 6 11
Wolfsburg 7 3 2 2 11 8 11
Hanover 7 3 1 3 5 8 10
Paderborn 7 2 3 2 10 10 9
Augsburg 7 3 0 4 8 9 9
Schalke 7 2 2 3 11 12 8
HerthaBerlin 7 2 2 3 11 14 8
BorussiaDortmund 7 2 1 4 9 12 7
Cologne 7 1 3 3 4 6 6
Freiburg 7 0 5 2 7 10 5
Stuttgart 7 1 2 4 6 12 5
Hamburg 7 1 2 4 2 8 5
WerderBremen 7 0 4 3 10 16 4
P W D L F A Pts
Marseille 9 7 1 1 23 8 22
Bordeaux 9 5 2 2 15 9 17
ParisSG 9 3 6 0 15 6 15
Lille 9 4 3 2 7 5 15
Nantes 9 4 3 2 7 6 15
Lyon 9 4 2 3 15 8 14
Montpellier 9 4 2 3 8 5 14
Toulouse 9 4 2 3 13 11 14
Metz 9 4 2 3 10 9 14
Saint-Etienne 9 4 2 3 9 10 14
Nice 9 4 2 3 9 12 14
Rennes 9 3 2 4 11 13 11
Monaco 9 3 2 4 8 11 11
Lorient 9 3 1 5 8 11 10
Evian 9 3 1 5 11 16 10
Reims 9 3 1 5 9 19 10
Caen 9 2 2 5 9 10 8
Lens 9 2 2 5 7 10 8
Bastia 9 1 4 4 7 13 7
Guingamp 9 2 0 7 4 13 6
No fixtures this weekend
due to international break
English Premier League
Spanish La Liga
Italian Serie A
German Bundesliga
French Ligue 1
Qualify to Champions league
Qualify to Europa league
Relegation play-off
Relegation zone
By Euan Reedie
Chief Sports Writer
— Abu Dhabi
The talking must stop:
Real Madrid star’s stunning start to
the season has left great rival Messi
trailing in his wake
Ronaldo
is the best
HEAD-TO-HEAD
Cristiano Ronaldo
(All competitions, excluding
internationals)
Appearances: 11
Assists: 2
Goals:
17
Spanish La Liga
Appearances: 6
Assists: 1
Goals: 13
Champions League
Appearances: 2
Assists: 1
Goals: 2
Other competitions
(Copa del Rey, Spanish Super
Cup, World Club Cup)
Appearances: 3
Assists: 0
Goals: 2
2014/2015
Lionel Messi
(All competitions, excluding
internationals)
Appearances: 9
Assists: 7
Goals:
7
Spanish La Liga
Appearances: 7
Assists: 6
Goals: 6
Champions League
Appearances: 2
Assists: 1
Goals: 1
Other competitions
(Copa del Rey, Spanish Su-
per Cup, World Club Cup)
Appearances: 0
Assists: 0
Goals: 0
Blatter to keep ‘top secret’
Fifa report under wraps
Garcia’s probe into World Cup voting won’t see light of day
New York
I
t sounds like a Tom
Clancy screenplay, an
international tale of con-
flict straight from cen-
tral casting: the dogged
investigator, charged with
uncovering wrongdoing; the
aged overlord, determined to
keep the investigator’s report
from seeing the light of day;
and the well-intentioned
agents of change pushing
for justice while battling the
old cronies (and, naturally,
themselves).
Sometimes it feels as if
all that is missing from the
world football scene these
days is a gravelly voiced nar-
rator intoning, “Sepp Blatter
said that’s all he knew ... but
was it?”
By now, even the most en-
gaged football fans may find
Fifa’s machinations a bit too
much to follow. But there is an
important, if alarming, rev-
elation to be taken from this
latest twist, so the short ver-
sion of the story goes some-
thing this: Four years ago,
Fifa’s executive committee,
led by its long-time president,
Blatter, voted to award the
2018 World Cup to Russia and
the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.
Both results were stunning, as
was the notion of voting for
two tournaments at the same
time, which seemed to invite
vote trading.
Allegations of corruption
and a tainted process emerged
even before the votes were
taken, and they have been
consistently denied. Nonethe-
less, a number of men on the
executive committee, known
as the ExCo, were suspended
or opted to end their careers
prematurely and, in 2012, Fifa
appointed Michael J. Garcia, a
former US attorney, to lead an
investigation into the mess.
Garcia spent more than
18 months criss-crossing
the globe to interview wit-
nesses and informants and
stakeholders and voters, and
this year he submitted a 350-
page report that also included
about 200,000 pages of evi-
dence. The report may or may
not be the proverbial smoking
gun, but regardless it might
offer a rare window into just
how seamy the global football
business can be.
That is, if anyone — even
some of the people named in
it — ever gets to see it.
Only four have seen it
At the moment, only four
people are believed to have
seen the report: Garcia and his
deputy, who produced it, as
well as Hans-Joachim Eckert,
the head of the adjudicatory
arm of the Fifa ethics com-
mittee, who will determine
whether it merits further dis-
cipline, and Eckert’s deputy.
Some current members of
the ExCo tried to expand that
circle during the committee’s
meeting last month in Zu-
rich, pushing for the report
to be appropriately redacted
(to protect whistleblowers or
other witnesses) and then re-
leased publicly. But their at-
tempts went nowhere.
In an interview last week,
Sunil Gulati, the president
of US Football and an ExCo
member, said: “Numerous
members of the ExCo, includ-
ing me, have spoken passion-
ately about the need for ap-
propriate disclosure. So you
can be sure there were plenty
of strong views expressed.”
Moya Dodd, another ExCo
member and a vice presi-
dent of the Asian Football
Confederation, also spoke in
favour of disclosure, saying
that “enough must be pub-
lished about the reasons and
evidence to give the football
public confidence in both the
process and the outcome.”
So this is where it stands:
Eckert has promised to deliver
an initial reaction to the re-
port — a report on the report,
one might call it — in early
November, at which point the
issue of releasing it publicly
could be taken up again. More
likely, Blatter will continue to
find ways to derail that pro-
cess, continuing to keep foot-
ball stakeholders, as well as
fans, in the dark about how
major decisions are made.
In all likelihood, the entire
Garcia report — or even most
of it — will never be seen.
Such is the power of an organ-
isation like Fifa, which essen-
tially operates with no over-
sight, no restrictions and no
accountability. As president,
Blatter, who has held the job
since 1998, is a de facto head
of state with no constituency,
save for the few hundred na-
tional football officials around
the world who vote for him
every four years.
May election
There is another election
in May, and Blatter, 78, has
said he will run again be-
cause continuity, he believes,
is what the people want. His
people, he means, and there
can be no denying that what-
ever is in the Garcia report —
whether little or big — it will
not be glowing, gushing re-
views of what Blatter and his
people did four years ago. To
keep that report hidden until
after the votes are counted is
to all but ensure re-election.
Therein, of course, is the
chilling realisation for those
who love football and follow
football and want to see, fi-
nally, some measure of change
in football. The Garcia re-
port is not a silver bullet; it is
probably not even the sort of
stun-the-world investigation
that would prompt a re-vote
on where the next two World
Cups should be held.
Yet it is important all
the same, a document that
represents a dollop of ac-
countability and a sliver of
responsibility. It should be
made public, but it will not
be. Blatter will keep it hid-
den. Because he can.
— New York Times
News Service
By Sam Borden
Rex Features
Seeking another term
■■ Sepp Blatter has said he will run again for Fifa’s top job
next year because continuity is what the people want.
Sydney
W
estern Sydney Wan-
derers crashed to
their heaviest A-
League defeat to Melbourne
Victory yesterday, a fortnight
before their AFC Champions
League final with Saudi Ara-
bia’s Al Hilal.
Victory smashed Wan-
derers 4-1, with their first
three goals coming in the
opening 28 minutes. New-
boys Matthieu Delpierre and
Besart Berisha were on the
scoresheet along with Leigh
Broxham and evergreen
striker Archie Thompson in a
rousing start to the new sea-
son. Mark Bridge reduced the
deficit before half-time but
there was no denying Victory.
Wanderers clearly missed
their defensive linchpin
Nikolai Topor-Stanley, away
on international duty with
the Socceroos, along with
Matthew Spiranovic and
Tomi Juric.
— AFP
Asian
finalists
Wanderers
hammered
Brazil wary of Shanghai smog
Beijing
B
razil coach Dunga yesterday
warned that Beijing’s chok-
ing smog was likely to affect
the highly anticipated friendly
with Argentina by forcing him to
make mass substitutions.
With an “orange” pollution
alert in the Chinese capital, and
several complaints from his
team, Dunga said he would limit
players’ time on the pitch to re-
duce their exposure.
The announcement threat-
ens to dampen the spectacle to-
day’s “Super Clasico” featuring
Neymar and Lionel Messi as the
South American rivals collide.
“The pollution in Beijing is
bad for both Brazil and Argenti-
na so both teams have to do their
best and deal with it, as we can-
not change it ourselves,” Dunga
told reporters.
“Our plan is to make plenty of
substitutions so that the players
will not be affected by it.”
Visibility has dropped dra-
matically, shrouding buildings
in haze, as pollution soars to 20
times the maximum daily expo-
sure recommended by the World
Health Organisation.
Brazilian players, who went
through an hour-long, slow-
paced training session at Bei-
jing’s Bird’s Nest stadium yester-
day, appeared taken aback by the
pollution.
“It’s difficult to breathe. My
throat is dry, it’s like we’re
standing next to a bonfire, like
hot smoke,” striker Robinho told
Brazilian media.
Philippe Coutinho said it was
sometimes hard to work out
whether it was night or day.
“The air is a bit strange, some-
times you think it’s the middle of
the night. It’s very dusty,” he was
quoted as saying.
David Luiz expressed sympa-
thy for the Chinese people.
“Short-term you don’t notice
it much, but we hope that this
[pollution] can change, because
the Chinese people don’t deserve
to live like this,” he told Brazilian
media.
— AFP
Dunga to make
multiple substitutions
as Selecao take on
Argentina in China
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Reuters
Pollution woes
■■ Brazil players including Neymar (top) and Kaka (right)
stretch during a training session in Beijing yesterday.