Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/734922
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 5 OCTOBER 2016 20 Sport SPORTTODAY FOOTBALL TENNIS Balotelli spoke to Klopp 'once' Mario Balotelli claims he spoke to Jurgen Klopp "once" and says neither Liverpool nor AC Milan were "ideal environments" for him. THE 26-year-old joined Milan in January 2013 before moving to Liverpool the following year but never settled on Merseyside and returned to the San Siro on loan last season where he struggled with injury. He appears to be more settled after joining Nice, where he has scored six goals in five games, from Liverpool in the summer but says he barely spoke to Reds boss Klopp when he returned to Anfield after his loan spell in Italy ended. "Klopp doesn't know me, I spoke to him once, he told me to go somewhere else, work hard and then return," Balotelli told Sky Italia. "So I said goodbye to them, and that we wouldn't be seeing each other again." He also claimed both Milan and Liverpool "weren't adapted to me", adding: "It wasn't any- one's fault. They weren't ideal environments for me. "I didn't make mistakes in terms of my game or my behav- iour, but I did get injured and that's not something I can con- trol." Balotelli described the climate at Milan as confusing but, despite picking up a red card after scor- ing the winner for Nice against Lorient on Sunday, he says he is feeling settled in France. "The problem there [Milan] is the administration," Balotelli said. "There's only one person who is phenomenal, and that's [club CEO, Adriano] Galliani. All the rest is just... confusion. "At the start, I chose Nice for the climate, I wanted to be in a relaxing but beautiful place, where it's difficult to get out the wrong side of the bed. The other reason I chose Nice is because there's a decent group of young players. We're all about the same age." Balotelli was not selected for It- aly's upcoming World Cup quali- fiers at home to Spain and away in Macedonia and has not played for the national side since the de- feat to Uruguay in the final group match of the 2014 World Cup. However, he says he wants to get back to his best form before a return to Giampiero Ventura's squad. "It was right not to select me because I didn't deserve it," Balo- telli said. "It's better for Ventura to not select me this time around because when I return, I want to be at my best." Mario Balotelli Sports tribunal reduces Sharapova doping ban by nine months THE Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) yesterday reduced by nine months former world number one tennis player Ma- ria Sharapova's two-year doping ban. An arbitration panel "found that Ms Sharapova committed an anti-doping rule violation and that while it was with 'no signifi- cant fault', she bore some degree of fault, for which a sanction of fifteen months is appropriate," Switzerland-based CAS said in a statement. The ban took effect from Jan. 26, 2016. Five-times grand slam winner Sharapova was banned by the International Tennis Federation in June following a positive test for the banned drug meldoni- um during January's Australian Open. Maria Sharapova Sam Allardyce exit will make England stronger, says Gemmill ENGLAND might actually ben- efit from Sam Allardyce's shock exit with caretaker manager Ga- reth Southgate bringing in a fresh approach to the job, according to former Scotland midfielder Ar- chie Gemmill. Thrust into the job after Al- lardyce departed following an un- dercover newspaper investigation, Southgate's immediate challenge is England's World Cup qualifiers at home to Malta on Saturday and away to Slovenia three days later. "It's fresh management once again. Gareth has been with the England set-up for quite a few years, he has had a stint at Mid- dlesbrough as a manager. So he'll know a large percentage of the players," Gemmill told British media. "It's someone who is a bit young- er and possibly a bit fresher and might have some different ideas. I think it might help them." Southgate will also be in charge in a third World Cup qualifier at home to Scotland, who breezed past Malta 5-1 earlier this month, in November. Gemmill felt the former Mid- dlesbrough manager's appoint- ment will make England stronger and Scotland should target sec- ond place in Group F. "I think that will possibly make England stronger. I think Scot- land should look at it as a group minus England," he added. "If Scotland can concentrate on picking up the points against Lith- uania, Slovakia, Malta and take it as that, if they win the group mi- nus England, they are going to be in a play-off for the World Cup."