The Soccerphile World Cup 2002 Archives Click here to go to the current Soccerphile.com

Football News - Coaches, More Racism & Beckham Canned 06/10/02

Slow Coaches

Brazil are unlikely to confirm a new coach to replace World Cup winner Luiz Felipe Scolari until early next year. Brazil will go in to their next game - an away friendly against South Korea on November 20 - with a yet-to-be-announced caretaker. Brazil's next competitive fixtures are in the summer of 2003 when the South American qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup get under way.
Senegal plan to appoint another French coach to replace Bruno Metsu, who left to take up a one-year job with UAE club Al Ain, as most of the squad play their football in France and the Senegal FA feel a Frenchman would have the influence to 'ease the contacts' with French clubs to release players for international duty.
Metsu has announced that he has given up hopes of returning to manage Senegal when his contract with Al Ain ends in 10 months' time. Initially top players threatened a boycott if Metsu wasn't allowed to return to the job. Senegal reached the quarter finals of the 2002 World Cup in their first appearance at the Finals.

FA Asks UEFA To Get Tough On Racism

Following more racist abuse at European ties involving English clubs, the FA is seeking urgent taks with European football's ruling body UEFA. The latest incident in the game between Yugoslavian side Sartid Smederevo and Ipswich Town, Ipswich's black players Marcus Bent and Finidi George were abused and spat at by the home fans.
Incidents have also been reported at the PSV Eindhoven v Arsenal European Champions League Game in Holland, the Valencia v Liverpool tie in Spain and the Hajduk Split v Fulham match in Croatia.

J.League/K.League

Jubilo Iwate remain atop the J.League Second Stage standings after a 2-0 win away to Gamba Osaka with both goals coming from striker Naohiro Takahara, who missed the World Cup due to a blood clot in his lung brought on by long haul air travel when the national team toured Europe before the competition. The 23 year-old looks certain to start up front for Japan when new coach Zico announces his first squad for the friendly against Jamaica on October 16.
The Asian Games in Busan is dominating sports news in Korea at the moment. The North Korean Women's team defeated Japan 1-0 to advance to the final against China. Sporting events between the two nations have taken on an extra significance after North Korea recently admitted that its armed forces had abducted Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 80s. When questioned on the issue by Japanese journalists North Korean athletes have responded that they had no knowledge of the abductions.

FIFA To Experiment With Extra Officials

FIFA plans to introduce extra assistant referees behind the goals at next Year's Confederation Cup in France and the Women's World Cup in China as part of an experiment suggested by Michel Platini. Referees and assistant referees were heavily criticised for a number of dubious decisions in this year's World Cup.

Achtung! Offside!

Researchers from the Frauenhofer Institute in Erlangen and Munich's Technical University are developing a computer system that can detect offsides and alert referees if a ball crosses the goal line.
Minute sensors placed inside the ball and the players' shin pads will beam information about players'location and movement to six relay stations positioned off the pitch.
The information when fed into a central computer system will flash or beep the referee's receiver with information whether the ball has crossed the goal line or if the player was behind the defender when a pass is played.
The Cairos System, which is undergoing extensive trials, is expected to go on sale next fall for $245,000 after two years of research costing US$7 million . German referees have had a favorable reaction so far: 'If it functions 100 percent, it could be a great thing,' said Eugen Strigel, who trains referees.
The system will also determine if the distances for a wall on a free kick are the required yardage, but won't help referees make passive offsides calls - whether or not a player in an offside position has affected play or not.

Barnsley On The Brink

Barnsley

English Division 2 side Barnsley - who were playing in the Premier League only five years ago - announced this week that that the club was to go into administration. The financial crisis as the Yorkshire club has deepened following the collapse of ITV Digital and the team's relegation from the Nationwide Division 1 last season. Barnsley (pictured playing Stockport) have won only 4 of their first twelve games and fans have called for the sacking of chairman, John Dennis. The club is on course to record a loss of around £2.5 million this season, with income of around £4.5 million set against a wage bill of £5 million. Earlier Division 1 side Watford announced that the club needed around £9.5 million to avoid administration and called on players to take a 12% pay-cut.

FIFA v England

The differences between football's world governing body FIFA and England's domestic football associations increased with the news that the FA is to seek an exemption from FIFA's recent worldwide imposition of an automatic one-match ban for red cards. The FA allows a 14-day grace period before any suspension comes into effect and the use of video evidence to enable referees to withdraw any red or yellow cards.
FIFA Vice President, Scotland's David Will commented: 'England decided to go down this road, but they are the exeption rather than the rule. FIFA have decided everyone must apply the same disciplinary regulations.'
The English Football League, which administers the game outside of the Premiership, has also applied to FIFA for special dispensation to opt out of FIFA's transfer window calendar and allow clubs to sell players into the Premier League, due to the financial situation of many of its member clubs. 'We don't agree with transfer windows as they exist within the letter of the law. If this is not allowed, Fifa may face legal challenges because there is a restraint-of-trade issue here', a spokesman said.

Moreno Loses Appeal

Ecuadorean referee Byron Moreno, who was heavily criticised for his handling of the Italy v South Korea match at the World Cup, has lost his appeal against a 20-match ban by the Ecuador Football Federation (FEF) following an Ecuadorean championship match between Liga de Quito and Barcelona. Moreno initially indicated six minutes of injury time but added on twelve. Liga subsequently scored twice to win 4-3 to leave visiting Barcelona fuming and people worldwide wondering if there was substance to Italian claims of foul play at the World Cup.
In his defence Moreno - who enjoys widespread popularity in Ecuador - claimed the game had been full of time-wasting and stoppages, whereas the Barcelona President Leonardo Bohrer pointed out that Moreno was standing for office in local elections in Quito in October.

Beckham: Child's Play

M&S

The England captain and Manchester United star, David Beckham is also enjoying success off the pitch - as a fashion designer. A collection of childrens' clothes Beckham helped design went on sale in Marks & Spencer department stores across Britain in September. Initial sales figures have been brisk.
Later this month in Japan Pepsi will launch a limited edition of its cola in two aluminium bottles bearing images of Beckham with his signature and a hand-written 'I Love Japan' message appearing in the design.
David Beckham Books

USA 5 Russia 1

Russia was on the wrong end of a thrashing by the US women's national team in the opening match of the 2002 Nike U.S. Women's Cup. Star player Mia Hamm scored two of the US team's goals. Three of the Americans' goals came in a five-minute blitz in the second half.
Russia has already qualified for the 2003 Women's World Cup, which will be held in China.

USA 4 Australia 0

In their second match of the Nike Cup, the US women's team took the Ozzies to the cleaners with one of the goals being scored directly from a corner taken by Shannon MacMillan. Brandi Chastain scored from a penalty to open the scoring, and Cindi Parlow added two more before MacMillan's wonder strike.
To underline the dominance of the Americans in this competition, their overall historical record is 23 wins, no draws and no defeats.

The King

Nike is also in the news with the theme tune the company used in its $80,000,000 World Cup promotional campaign: Elvis Presley's "A Little Less Conversation", a remix of a previously unsuccessful release. This time round, the single went straight to No. 1 in the States.

Monochrome Images from the Far East

The Soccerphile World Cup 2002 Archives
Click here to go to the current Soccerphile.com