'It's a Joke': Chelsea Boss Maresca Slams Weather Chaos
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca lashed out at the two-hour weather delay that disrupted his team's Club World Cup victory over Benfica on Saturday, suggesting the tournament should be played elsewhere in future.
Chelsea powered into the quarter-finals after defeating Benfica 4-1 in extra-time after a game that took 4hrs 39mins to complete following a two-hour stoppage due to a storm warning.
It was the sixth time that a game has been halted at the tournament due to widely used rules in the United States that require outdoor sporting events to be halted if there is a chance of lightning.
Maresca said afterwards the number of games that had been disrupted should prompt a rethink, AFP said.
"For me personally, it's not football," the Chelsea boss said. "It's already (six) games they suspended here. I think it's a joke. It's not football.
"It's completely amazing, it's completely something new that I struggle to understand.
"I can understand that for security reasons, you have to suspend the game. But if you suspend seven or eight games, that means that probably this is not the right place to do this competition."
Chelsea had been poised to wrap up victory after Reece James's second-half free-kick left them 1-0 up with four minutes left to play.
But the storm warning forced the players off the field and it was nearly two hours before play resumed.
"It was one of the best performances of the last few weeks," Maresca said.
"The game was very good for 85 minutes, then we stopped for two hours, and when we started it was a completely different game. It's not the same game because you break the tempo."
Maresca emphasized that he remained a fan of the Club World Cup, which was expanded to 32 teams for the first time this year, and is being held in the United States as an informal dress rehearsal for the 2026 World Cup in North America.
"It's a fantastic competition. It's the Club World Cup, all the best clubs are here," he said.
"But six, seven games suspended? It's not normal. In a World Cup how many have they suspended? Probably zero. In a European (Championship), how many games? Zero. There is some problem."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
an hour ago
- Arab News
Caitlin Clark and Napheesa Collier chosen as captains of WNBA All-Star Game by fan vote
NEW YORK: Caitlin Clark and Napheesa Collier will captain the WNBA All-Star Game next month, the league announced Sunday. Clark received 1,293,526 votes from fans, while Collier had about 100,000 fewer. 'It's cool that fans get to be a part of it and have a little impact on the game,' Clark said. 'It's going to be special to do it here in this city. ... Trying to make it the best All-Star that the WNBA has ever had. It's certainly a cool honor.' The Indiana Fever star, who is sidelined with a groin strain, is averaging 18.2 points and a career-high 8.9 assists. She also led the fan voting last season, her rookie year, but the All-Star format was the US Olympic team playing against a select group of WNBA stars so no captains were chosen. She learned she was captain in a phone call from WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert. Collier leads the league in scoring at a career-best 24.5 points and is fourth in rebounding at 8.4 per game. Her daughter surprised her wearing a shirt saying 'Mama you're a All-Star,' as she scooted into the locker room with former Lynx great Sylvia Fowles right behind her to let Collier know the news. 'It's really cool,' Collier said to reporters before warming up for a game Sunday night 'I went from never being a starter to captain.' This will be her fifth All-Star appearance. Before squaring off in Indianapolis on July 19, Clark and the Fever will face Collier and the Lynx on Tuesday in the Commissioner's Cup final. The 10 starters were selected from across the WNBA without regard to conference affiliation. Current players and a media panel joined fans in selecting the All-Star starters. Fans voting accounted for 50 percent, while the players vote and the media choices each account for 25 percent. The pair will draft their fellow starters from a group that will be revealed on Monday. After the starters are announced, the league's head coaches will choose the 13 reserves by voting for three guards, five frontcourt players and four from either position. Coaches can't vote for players from their own teams. The 12 reserves will be revealed next Sunday. 'Obviously I'm going to try and get my teammates on my team, that's the goal,' Clark said. 'Once they come out with whoever has made it and whoever hasn't, I'll get to pick and choose. I don't know how it works.' The two All-Star captains will then draft their respective rosters by selecting first from the remaining eight players in the pool of starters and then from the pool of 12 reserves. Clark and Collier also led the initial fan voting, with Indiana's Aliyah Boston in third. Boston finished second last season behind Clark in the fan vote.
Arab News
an hour ago
- Arab News
Hall of Fame horse trainer D. Wayne Lukas, a winner of 15 Triple Crown races, dies at 89
NEW YORK: D. Wayne Lukas, the Hall of Famer who became one of the most accomplished trainers in the history of horse racing and a face of the sport for decades, has died. He was 89. For the latest updates, follow us @ArabNewsSport His family said Sunday that Lukas died Saturday night at his Louisville, Kentucky, home. Lukas had been hospitalized with a severe MRSA blood infection that caused significant damage to his heart and digestive system and worsened pre-existing chronic conditions. 'Wayne devoted his life not only to horses but to the industry — developing generations of horsemen and horsewomen and growing the game by inviting unsuspecting fans into the winner's circle,' his family said in a statement. 'Whether he was boasting about a maiden 2-year-old as the next Kentucky Derby winner or offering quiet words of advice before a big race, Wayne brought heart, grace, and grit to every corner of the sport. His final days were spent at home in Kentucky, where he chose peace, family, and faith.' Lukas won 15 Triple Crown races, including the Kentucky Derby four times. Only good friend Bob Baffert has more Triple Crown victories, and Lukas owns a record-tying 20 in the Breeders' Cup World Championships. 'The whole secret of this game, I think, is being able to read the horse: Read what he needs, what he doesn't need, what he can't do, what he can do,' Lukas said in May before his 34th and final Preakness Stakes. 'That's the whole key. Everybody's got the blacksmith, everybody's got to the same bed available, the feed man. We all can hire a good jockey. We all can hire a pretty good exercise rider if we've got the means, so what the hell is the difference? The horse is the difference and what we do with him in reading him.' Lukas was affectionately known around the barns and the racetrack as 'Coach' because he coached high school basketball before his professional career with horses began. Even with months to go before his 90th birthday, he would get up on his pony in the early morning hours and go out to the track himself, rather than letting his assistants do the day-to-day work. Born Darnell Wayne Lukas on Sept. 2, 1935, in Wisconsin as the second of three children, he rose to prominence in the sport with quarter horses in races that are effectively sprints. He moved into thoroughbreds in the late 1970s and won his first Preakness with Codex in 1980. Lukas has 4,967 documented victories in thoroughbred racing, with his horses earning more than $310 million from more than 30,600 starts. 'Today we lost one of the great champions of Churchill Downs and one of the most significant figures in Thoroughbred racing over the last 50 years,' Churchill Downs Inc. CEO Bill Carstanjen said. 'We will miss his humor, his wisdom and his unmatched capacity to thrill the fans with the performances of his horses on our sport's biggest days.' Achieving something of a career renaissance over the past decade, one he credits to finding the right owners willing to spend money on horses, Lukas won the Preakness last year with Seize the Grey. Asked what motivates him to keep doing his job well into his late 80s, he gave a pep talk fit for a locker room before a big game. 'If you have a passion, you eliminate all the excuses,' Lukas said. 'That's how it works. You get up early. You go without a meal. You drive. You go without sleep — as long as you got the passion. Don't let that sofa pull you down. It's a little easy when that alarm goes off to say, 'Oh my God, I don't know if I really want to do this today.' Erase that. The most important decision you'll ever make in your life is your attitude decision. Make it early, and make the right one.'
Al Arabiya
2 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Skubal Strikes Out 13, Wins 10th Straight Decision as Tigers Beat Twins 3-0
Tarik Skubal struck out 13 hitters in seven innings and the Detroit Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins 3–0 on Sunday night. Skubal (10–2) only allowed one hit–a clean single to right by Ty France in the fifth inning–as he improved to 10–0 with a 1.74 ERA in his last 15 starts. The last double-digit streak in one season by a Detroit lefty was Earl Whitehill's 11-start stretch in 1930. The strikeouts matched Skubal's career high, last done on May 25 in his 94-pitch shutout against the Guardians. Chris Paddack (3–7) gave up three runs in 4 2/3 innings for the Twins. The Tigers took a 1–0 lead on Kerry Carpenter's solo homer in the first inning, and he added an RBI triple in the fifth before leaving the game with an apparent leg injury. Riley Greene hit a solo homer in the fourth. Will Vest pitched the ninth to pick up his 13th save. Key moment: Skubal struck out eight of the first nine hitters, including seven in a row, before Byron Buxton lifted a fly ball to Riley Greene on the warning track in left. Buxton is 2 for 15 (.133) in his career against Skubal, though both hits have been homers. Key stat: Skubal is 5–0 in June, making him the third Tigers pitcher to be 4–0 or better in the month in the last 25 years. The other two, Justin Verlander in 2011 and Max Scherzer in 2013, each won the American League Cy Young Award. Up next: Twins LHP Joe Ryan (8–3, 2.86 ERA) starts against Marlins RHP Edward Cabrera (2–2, 3.78) in the series opener in Miami on Tuesday. Tigers RHP Jack Flaherty (5–9, 4.80) faces Nationals RHP Trevor Williams (3–9, 5.65) in Washington on Tuesday.
