Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/723651
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 7 SEPTEMBER 2016 20 Sport SPORTTODAY FOOTBALL El Salvador players say offered cash ahead of World Cup qualifier EL Salvador players claim they have been offered financial inducements to win, draw or avoid a heavy defeat in Tues- day's World Cup qualifier against Canada. A heavy defeat for the Salva- dorans in the match in Van- couver could prevent their neighbours Honduras from progressing to the final stage of CONCACAF qualifying for the 2018 World Cup finals in Rus- sia. Honduras are in pole position to progress but Canada could pip them on goal difference if they run up a score against El Salvador and Honduras lose to Group One leaders Mexico at the Aztec stadium. The Salvadorans currently sit bottom of the group with just two points from a possible 15. El Salvador captain Nelson Bonilla told reporters in a pre-match news conference in Vancouver on Monday that a Salvadoran businessman had approached the players with the offer last weekend. Bonilla played a tape of the 10-minute conversation in which the man promised vary- ing amounts of money depend- ing on the result and the time played by each player, from $30 a minute for a win to $10 a min- ute in a 1-0 defeat. "In reference to what we heard, we want to make it clear that we are against anything of this kind," Bonilla told report- ers. "We want to be transparent about everything that has hap- pened with the national team." Fourteen El Salvador interna- tionals were banned for life for match-fixing in 2013. Salvadoran newspaper La Prensa Grafica named the businessman as Ricardo Pa- dilla and quoted him as saying he thought there was nothing wrong with the offer as he was not asking the players to throw the game. "Let them investigate, I'm not worried," he told the paper. "Those who want to see it as something bad can see it that way and those who want to see it as something good then they can too." Relations between El Salva- dor and Honduras have not al- ways been harmonious on the soccer pitch and the two Cen- tral American nations famous- ly went to war in 1969 after a rancorous best-of-three World Cup series. The short-lived conf lict had been brewing for months but angry scenes during the match- es led to border skirmishes in which hundreds of people were killed and that were forever re- membered as the Soccer War. Scholes blasts top-flight quality Former England midfielder Paul Scholes claims many Premier League clubs are so obsessed with making money they are sacrificing the quality of football being played on the pitch THE 41-year-old is a co-owner of Salford City and said he would rath- er watch his National League North side than the English top flight. In an extract published by the Guardian from new book Class of 92: Out of our League, former Man- chester United player Scholes said: "I don't find elite football as inter- esting to watch any more, especially in England. "There needs to be a real step up in quality in England. Other than Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva, we don't have the best players. "I probably do enjoy watching Salford more. I don't know if it's as much that I don't like the hassle of going to the game, getting in, sit- ting in traffic. Going to Salford, I park up behind the goal and get out of my car. But I genuinely get more enjoyment from watching even my son's team, Royter Town. It's just entertainment." Scholes wrote the new book alongside his old United team- mates Nicky Butt, Phil Neville, Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, who are also co-owners of Salford. The five of them featured in Sir Alex Ferguson's famed Class of 92 along- side former England captain David Beckham. Scholes believes the decline he senses in attractive football in Eng- land comes down to the pressures on managers to get results. He added: "If you lose three or four games on the trot obviously you're under big pressure and you're sacked. The money's the most im- portant thing these days about foot- ball because owners, the majority of them, are just interested in making money for their football club. "They don't care what they see on a Saturday afternoon on the pitch. They're purely businessmen, whereas at Barcelona you have a balance between business and foot- ball." Scholes said Spain's LaLiga is "the best by far" when it comes to suc- cess in Europe, and praised the idea of fan ownership, with the large memberships of clubs in Spain wielding heavy influence. He added: "So they want to make it pay, but making as much money as they can isn't the primary objec- tive. It's entertainment. Winning the Champions League, winning the best prizes. That's why they have the best players." Paul Scholes enjoys watching Salford more