Ancelotti contemplates Kaka exit

AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti has admitted for the first time that Kaka could move to Manchester City.

Milan have given their Brazilian star permission to discuss City's world record transfer bid of £100m.

Ancelotti said: "My hope is to be able to coach Kaka for many more years, but we've got to be aware of the facts and the club's evaluation of the offer.

"The squad is still competitive, even if we were to lose such an important player."

He added: "Our goals? They remain the same for this team with or without Kaka."

Kaka's father and advisor Bosco Leite is due to arrive in Italy on Monday to discuss the potential deal.

"Milan has authorised the negotiation with City," said Kaka's spokesman Diogo Kotscho. "The next step is Kaka's father will talk to Manchester City."

On Thursday, City boss Mark Hughes said the club's big-money offer for the 26-year-old playmaker makes football and business sense.

"The money involved is something we feel, from a football and business point of view, works," said Hughes.

"The process has moved forward at a pace this week but people shouldn't be thinking that it is just a whim."

The sheer size of the figures involved in the proposed deal have made headlines around the world, but Hughes said it was all part of a considered plan from the club's hierarchy.

"It's been done with structure and understanding," he said.

"We're all very much involved in that process; myself from a football point of view and (chief executive) Garry Cook and (chairman) Khaldoon Al Mubarak from a club and business point of view.

"It would be naive to think I have not been involved in discussions over this transfer. I have had meetings about it and have had an input."

Kotscho insists any move would be done for the right reasons and not just for the reported £500,000-a-week wages.

"It is not impossible, if Milan let us talk, then we will see what City have to offer," Kotscho told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"Kaka knows about the offer but the club did not give authorisation for talks, so we did not meet. It was a great proposal but it's not about only money.

"We have to see if they have a project to become a Champions League team and become one of the top teams in the world, and to stay there long term."

David Bernstein, who was chairman at the club between 1998-2003, called Kaka's signing "potentially the most extraordinary thing I've experienced with Manchester City", while admitting he was worried by the figures involved.

"There has to be a condition that there will be other major signings," Bernstein told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"I've done some quick sums and the total Kaka transfer fees and agent's fees and salary over four years comes to about a quarter of a billion pounds. And they could easily do another £150m on four or five other world-class players.

"City's total income now is something like £80m so they'll be paying a third of their total income in salary to one player."

AC Milan confirmed that their chief executive Adriano Galliani had met officials from City on Tuesday to discuss Kaka's future.

The current record for a player's signature is £46m when France's Zinedine Zidane moved from Juventus to Real Madrid in 2001.

Kaka joined Serie A giants Milan from Sao Paulo in 2003 and has since won the Italian league title, Champions League and Club World Cup.

The attacking midfielder has scored 86 goals in 244 appearances for Milan. He has also picked up 62 caps for Brazil and scored 23 goals.

Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, estimated to be worth £15bn, took over as City owner in September 2008 and extensive funds have been made available to Hughes.

However, he has only secured the services of Wayne Bridge in January's transfer window, with bids rejected for West Ham forward Craig Bellamy and Blackburn striker Roque Santa Cruz.

Kaka is under contract at the San Siro until 2013, and although he stated last February that he wanted to remain at Milan for the rest of his career, he did hint at a desire to play in the Premier League - which he has described as the "best championship in the world".

Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk
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Serena, Safina, Dementieva Reach Sydney Semis

(Sports Network) - Top seeds Serena Williams, Dinara Safina and Elena Dementieva were a trio of quarterfinal winners Wednesday at the $600,000 Medibank International, a final Australian Open tune-up.

The top-seeded and former world No. 1 Williams saved two match points in order to outlast eighth-seeded Dane Caroline Wozniacki 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) in 2 hours, 40 minutes on the hardcourts at Sydney Olympic Park. The American staved off a pair of match points in the 12th game of the final set before moving on. She had to save four match points in her first-round match here against Aussie crowd favorite Samantha Stosur.

The U.S. Open champion Williams will face the third-seeded Dementieva in Thursday's semifinals, as the Olympic gold medalist from Russia held off sixth-seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 on Day 4. The hot Dementieva is fresh off her hardcourt title in Auckland last week.

A second-seeded Safina, meanwhile, handled France's Alize Cornet 6-3, 6-4, as last year's French Open and Olympic runner-up will meet veteran Japanese Ai Sugiyama in Thursday's final four action. The unseeded Sugiyama reached the semis via walkover when fifth-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova pulled out of the draw due to an abdominal strain. Kuznetsova was last year's Sydney runner- up to retired Belgian great Justine Henin.

The 2009 Sydney champ will pocket $98,500.

Source:
http://www.wjla.com
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Motorcycles

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Suzuki Hayabusa 1300

Specification
Engine Type 4-stroke, 4-cylinder, liquid-cooled, DOHC
Bore x Stroke 81.0 mm x 65.0 mm
Engine Displacement 1340 cm3 (cc)
Compression Ratio 12.5 : 1
Carburetion Fuel injection
Oil capacity (overhaul) 4.0L (1.6 US gal.)
Ignition Fully transistorized
Starter System Electric
Lubrication System Wet sump
Transmission 6-speed constant mesh
Primary Drive Ratio 1.596 (83 / 52)
Final Drive Ratio 2.388 (43 / 18)
Frame Type Twin-spar (aluminum-alloy)
Rake / Trail 24.2 degrees / 98 mm (3.9 in.)
Suspension Front Inverted telescopic, coil spring, spring preload fully adjustable, rebound and compression damping force fully adjustable
Rear Link type, coil spring, oil damped, spring preload fully adjustable, rebound and compression damping force fully adjustable
Wheels Front 17 M/C x MT3.50, cast aluminum alloy
Rear 17 M/C x MT6.00, cast aluminum alloy
Brakes Front Radial mount, 4-piston calipers, 310 mm disc, twin
Rear 1-piston caliper, 260 mm disc
Tires Front 120/70ZR17M/C (58W), tubeless
Rear 190/50ZR17M/C (73W), tubeless
Fuel Tank Capacity 21.0 L (5.5 US gal.)
Overall Length 2,195 mm (86.6 in.)
Overall Width 740 mm (29.1 in.)
Overall Height 1,170 mm (46.1 in.)
Wheelbase 1,485 mm (58.5 in.)
Seat Height 805 mm (31.7 in.)
Dry Weight 220kg (485 lbs.)


Source:
http://www.globalsuzuki.com
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Mosley: Teams must see cost cuts through

By Jonathan Noble

The Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) is facing fresh pressure from FIA president Max Mosley to make sure it sees through the radical cost-cutting measures agreed at the end of last year.

FOTA and the FIA reached a breakthrough agreement in December for a package of measures aimed to reduce budgets in Formula One and help it survive the worldwide economic downturn.

However, ahead of a FOTA meeting scheduled for today to discuss the next steps, Mosley has told the organisation that it is important the concepts approved by them are now seen through.

In a letter to FOTA chairman Luca di Montezemolo, Mosley has laid out what he wants to see happen over the next two years. And he has warned that even more radical concepts, such as budget capping, may be the only way to ensure the survival of the sport.

"Even before the current crisis, Formula One was not viable," said Mosley. "Costs have been so high that we have had vacancies in the Championship for some time. Secondly, it is impossible to cut costs substantially without significant change.

"Inevitably, cherished projects, facilities and sadly even people have to go. Thirdly, the fact of having recently invested in an expensive facility is not an argument for retaining it. That money has been spent. It's gone.

"What we have to avoid is forcing others to spend the same money in order to keep up. Fourthly, there is no rational argument to support the continued use in Formula One of expensive technologies which have no relevance outside the sport and are unknown (and thus of no interest) to the general public."

For 2009, Mosley has called on FOTA to agree on how to enforce a restriction of wind tunnel use, which was confirmed in an email from FIA race director Charlie Whiting earlier this month. He also says: "We are ready to agree further cost-saving measures for 2009 if these have the agreement of all the teams."

Looking further ahead, Mosley outlines additional engine restrictions that will allow proposed standard engine supplier Cosworth to supply power units for less than 5 million Euros per season. Testing will also be limited to 15,000 kilometres per year, including Friday running.

There will also be a standard gearbox produced by XR, which will also require the need for a standard underbody, and a limit on what parts of a chassis can be developed by teams.

Mosley said: "All remaining chassis elements will be either standard or frozen. We wish to develop this list in consultation with FOTA but it must be understood that it will involve a radical curtailment of R&D in respect of the chassis and hence a very significant reduction in costs. If carefully thought through, it should also reduce the need for the use of wind tunnels, CFD and simulators."

The teams have also been asked to come up with ways to reduce costs on a race weekend, and perhaps a refining of tyres with Bridgestone to lessen the need for expensive weight distribution coordination that is required because of their current characteristics.

Mosley wrote: "Apparently a lot of money is currently being spent on achieving a weight distribution which gets the best possible performance from current tyre widths. We should like to discuss with FOTA a possible change in the front-to-rear width ratio with a view to eliminating this problem. At the same time we should like to examine with Bridgestone and FOTA the possibility of introducing compounds which will not produce 'marbles'."

As well as asking for a look at a way to reduce the development costs of KERS, Mosley thinks perhaps it would ultimately be best to introduce a budget cap.

He added: "We understand that this is once again being discussed within FOTA. The idea that each team should have the same amount of money, so that success is simply a function of intellectual ability, has great appeal.

"If properly enforced, it would be a very fair system. Indeed one view is that having much more money than a rival team is just as unfair as having a bigger engine. We should like to discuss this further with FOTA.

"It may be that in present circumstances, a voluntary cap would work because no manufacturer whose board has signed off the agreed amount would be likely to allow secret additional expenditure, while independent teams would probably not have access to the necessary cash."

Summing up the aims for the future, Mosley said that the FIA could only safeguard F1 if budgets were reduced dramatically - through both cost cuts and perhaps an increase in revenue for the teams.

And he made it clear that it would not be the FIA who lost out if teams collapsed or even decided to set up a breakaway series.

"As already mentioned, the financial barriers to entry were already too high before the current world financial crisis," said Mosley.

"We had a Championship dependent on the willingness of world's car industry to continue spending vast sums on Formula One racing and the few remaining independent teams (with one exception) entirely reliant on the generosity of their billionaire owners. In current circumstances, it would be crazy to assume this can continue.

"Costs must be reduced to a point where a well-run independent team can operate profitably with just the FOM money and very moderate sponsorship. This is the only way to safeguard the Championship and allow new teams to enter to fill the gaps as well as replace those leaving."

He added: "The FIA itself would not be financially disadvantaged by a collapse of Formula One, but it would suffer in other ways. And, in any event, we believe we have a duty to do whatever is necessary to preserve the Championship for the competitors, the commercial rights holder and motor sport generally.

"We are therefore prepared to act radically. We hope that, notwithstanding the changes which must now be made, all teams which are still in business in 2010 will enter. But as already stated, we will be ready to recognise an independent series should some teams prefer to go their own way."

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BMW and Aprilia focused for WSB 2009

Joy Ryder
New kid’s on the block BMW are taking the positives from their first winter Pirelli test sessions at the Kayalami circuit in South Africa, and have predicted that they will be fighting for top five finishes by the end of the 2009 season, in the latest World Superbike news.

BMW will be aware that other manufacturers have entered the WSB series in recent times and have struggled to come to terms with the pace, competitiveness and consistency of World Superbike racing, particularly against the more established teams and existing manufacturers teams.

Carl Fogarty’s attempt at team management with the Foggy Petronas and also the ill fated Benelli teams bear testament to just how competitive this series can be and BMW will need to remain focused throughout the season and use all the luck they can find to reach their goals for the coming season.

BMW riders Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus are both strong and aggressive racers and would appear to have the makings of a great partnership should the S1000RR be up to the task, the pair finished the three day South Africa test in eleventh and thirteenth places respectively.

BMW are not the only new manufacturer team to be joining the World Superbike 2009 series, the Italian bike maker Aprilia will be returning to the competition with an all new RSV4 superbike that has benefited from extensive testing throughout the last few months of this year.

Aprilia’s rider line up is equally impressive, Max Biaggi was signed up after missing out on retired champion Troy Bayliss’s Xerox Ducati seat to rival Noriyuka Haga. The Italian will no doubt be anxious to at least compete at the same level as the more experienced Ducati team, but may have to be patient during the early rounds.

Joining Biaggi at Aprilia is Shinya Nakano, another rider with Moto GP experience, something that should not be dismissed, as the Aprilia RSV4 is said to be a stiff, more rigid machine than the traditional WSB bikes, resembling more, the characteristics of a Moto GP machine.

In yesterday’s World Superbike news, BMW rider Ruben Xaus said that he could not wait to wait to race with the young British riders Tom Sykes, Leon Haslam and Jonathan Rea who join the series for 2009.

Not to mention Shane Byrne of course. What a great season 2009 is set to be!

Source:
http://www.worldsuperbikenews.co.uk
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Gian Franco Carloia appointed Permanent Race Director

The FIM-SBK Permanent Bureau, composed of Messrs. Vito Ippolito FIM President and Maurizio Flammini, President of FGSport, unanimously decided to nominate Gian Franco Carloia as Permanent Race Director for all FIM Superbike/Supersport World Championships and Superstock FIM Cup events - replacing Mr Alberto Fantini.

Gian Franco Carloia, 46 years old, who has been working for FGSport since 1993, holder of a FIM licence for Clerk of the Course since 2000, has been Assistant to the Race Director since 2001 and FGSport representative in the Race Direction as from 2004.

FIM Sports Director Ignacio Verneda said: "For such an important task it is essential to have an experienced, capable person, and I am convinced that Gian Franco is the right person, as he has already gained a lot of experience in all these years working as assistant to Alberto Fantini and I have no doubt he will do an excellent job. On behalf of the FIM, I would also like to thank Mr Fantini for his very professional job as Race Director".

Paolo Flammini, CEO of FGSport declared: "First of all, I'd like to thank Alberto Fantini for his invaluable contribution to the growth of the FIM Superbike World Championship since the very first event in which FGSport was involved. Now it's time for Gian Franco Carloia to take up this important heritage and responsibility. I'm sure that Gian Franco will do an outstanding job and I wish him the best possible success in his new position."

Source:
http://www.worldsbk.com
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