Sunil Gulati, the president of the United States Soccer Federation, has given his backing to head coach Juergen Klinsmann after the row over American players returning to MLS. Klinsmann’s comments expressing concern over the form of players, such as Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey, who have left European clubs to come back to MLS, brought a sharp rebuke from MLS commissioner Don Garber last week.
On Wednesday, Garber said in an interview with Reuters that there was no rift between the two and nothing personal in the disagreement and Gulati says he agrees that both the league and the federation will continue to work closely together. “Juergen is our coach and technical director, and I fully expect that to be the case through to the 2018 World Cup.
“We made that decision before this year’s World Cup and have full confidence in him in those roles,” he told the Washington Post. “None of this is personal,” Gulati said.
“Some things could have been phrased differently because the actual opinions of the two guys—and me and the leadership at MLS and US Soccer—is actually closely aligned with where we see the game going.”
Gulati said the close working relationship between the league and the federation in the US is actually better than in many countries.
“There are very few situations where the national team programme or a federation is as aligned as closely with their first division as we have got in the United States,” he added.
Klinsmann had described the debate around his comments as “pretty cool” noting that such arguments were common in football worldwide but Garber has indicated it is time for the discussion to move out of the public domain.
Gulati agreed. “I don’t think there is anything wrong with discussion, dialogue and disagreement. Most of that is better handled in a private way. Having these sorts of discussions are fine, but we need to have the tone of all of this brought down a little bit.”
UEFA delays verdict on Serbia and Albania
The European football governing body UEFA has delayed its ruling against Serbia and Albania for their abandoned Euro 2016 qualifier in Belgrade to Friday, the Serbian state television RTS reported.
The delay was attributed to the volume of material to be reviewed, it said, quoting sources from UEFA. UEFA’s disciplinary committee was scheduled to decide yesterday on sanctions against the two countries after their October 14 match had to be scrapped.
The game ended late in the first half following a scuffle between the players and an invasion of the pitch by Serbian spectators. Previously a drone appeared above the players carrying a provocative Albanian banner.
The match had been declared high-risk because of deeply-rooted animosity between Serbs and Albanians. Visiting fans were banned from attending games between the teams following an agreement between the two associations.
Sporting protest over Champions League defeat
Sporting Lisbon have demanded that their Champions League clash with Schalke, which they lost 4-3, should either be replayed or the points shared after claiming they were victims of a series of refereeing blunders.
The Portuguese club have lodged an official complaint with European governing body UEFA after a controversial last-minute penalty was awarded to the German side in Tuesday’s clash.
“After what happened during the match, Sporting have decided to lodge a claim with UEFA,” the club said in a statement.
They played with 10 men from the 33rd minute after Mauricio was sent-off.
Sporting also claim that their Argentine defender Jonathan Silva did not handle the ball which resulted in the last-minute penalty awarded by Russian referee Sergei Karasev and that the ball came off the player’s head.
Sporting are bottom of Group G after three games with just one point, six behind leaders Chelsea and four back from Schalke.