Fowler denies quitting A-League

BRISBANE, Australia: Ex-Liverpool forward Robbie Fowler has denied British newspaper reports that he’s planning to quit new A-League club North Queensland Fury and return to England.

A newspaper report said Fowler would join former Liverpool teammate John Barnes, who has become manager at League One club Tranmere Rovers.

“I don’t know where it has come from,” Fowler was quoted saying Wednesday by the Australian Associated Press. “It looks like somebody’s put two and two together and come up with six.

“I’ve got a two-year contract with North Queensland Fury and I’m a man of my word. I’ll play it out.”

Fowler said his wife and four children had recently relocated to Townsville, in northern Queensland state, and had no plans to leave. The 34-year-old Fowler was the marquee signing for Fury, one of two new Queensland clubs joining an expanded 10-team A-League.

He has been sidelined with hip and groin complaints, raising questions about his fitness and desire to play in Australia, but is aiming for a club debut in a friendly against English Premier League team Wolverhampton next week. Fury coach Ian Ferguson said it would be a breach of FIFA regulations if another club approached the under-contract Fowler.

“Robbie’s happy here and he wants to play football for the Fury,” Ferguson said. “There’s no doubt he’s the sort of player other clubs would be interested in, but John Barnes would have had to come through the Fury if he was interested in Robbie and that hasn’t happened.”

Fury plays its first A-League match against Sydney on Aug. 8.

Fowler scored 183 goals in 369 appearances for Liverpool in his two stints at the club and was nicknamed ‘God’ by the supporters.

Meanwhile, dope tests conducted on teams who participated in the Confederations Cup, a curtainraiser for next year’s World Cup came out negative, said football’s world governing body FIFA in a statement on Tuesday.

“A total of 131 urine and blood tests were conducted as part of the testing programme,” said the statement. It said FIFA doping control officers visited all eight participating teams and performed unannounced out of competition tests two months before the competition.

Eight players per team were drawn, which meant that a total of 64 players were tested out of competition .

FIFA Medical officer, Professor Jiri Dvorak said:”Some players were surprised when we woke them up at 7am, but the cooperation of all teams was excellent.”

During the tournament held from June 14 to June 28, two players a team were randomly selected for doping control at all 16 matches.

“All the usual prohibited substances and methods were searched for in the urine and blood tests, including stimulants, anabolic steroids, diuretics and erythropoietin,” Fifa said.

FIFA was “satisfied” with the teams’ co-operation and the smooth running of the analyses at the South African Doping Control Laboratory in Bloemfontein.

“The results of the testing programme show that high performances are possible in top-level football without the use of prohibited substances or methods.”

Since 1994 about 6,483 doping tests have been performed in FIFA final competitions and only three players have tested positive for a prohibited substance doping tests, said the statement.