The Soccerphile World Cup 2002 Archives Click here to go to the current Soccerphile.com
02/02/03
FIFA has decided the Club World Championship will go ahead in 2005 despite difficulties.
The competition is considered controversial as it means extra games for the top clubs' players. UEFA's European Club Forum made this statement:
"We do not believe that there is a need or a desire for this competition among European clubs, fans, players or commercial partners. We would oppose it being played in the future.
At a time when European football has made the step of reducing the number of top-class competitive games by abolishing the second group stage of the
UEFA Champions League from next season, it doesn't make sense to try and introduce another international club competition.
This would be a backward step. The challenge is to make the international calendar workable, not to add to it and to increase the pressure on players."
Corinthians won the first Club World Championship in 2000 against Vasco da Gama in a penalty shootout. It was in this year Manchester United, the
holders of the FA Cup, refused to take part in that venerable competition
in order to participate in the Club World Championship.
The next Club World Championship to be held in Spain in 2001 was initially postponed and eventually cancelled due to financial problems.
Clubs from continents other than Europe will welcome the chance to take
part in the competition as it allows them to play on the world stage against
premier opposition.
Chinese second division club Gansu Tianma has signed former Everton, Rangers,
Lazio, Spurs and Newcastle United midfielder Paul Gascoigne, 35, on a £400,000
1-year contract. He is likely to take on the role of assistant coach as
well as playing for the team.
Zhong Bohong, the club's manager, expressed concerns about Gascoigne's fitness,
yet liked his skills and experience. He wants him to be 'the spiritual leader
of the team'.
Gansu Tianma is lying bottom of China's B Division. The club is based in
Lanzhou, an industrial and polluted city in western China.
Gong Jianping, former chief referee for China's first and second divisions has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for accepting US$44,700 in bribes. Gong accepted money and gifts a total of nine times from 2000-2001.
Terry Venables, manager of Leeds United, who seemed to be threatening to leave the club (at which he's been spectacularly unsuccessful) due to the sale of defender Woodgate to Newcastle United, has decided to stay on.
Honduran international Alex Pineda Chacon has signed with the Los Angeles Galaxy from New England Revolution. In two successful MLS seasons for New England and Miami Fusion Chacon notched 21 goals.
In an attempt to reverse the deep financial crisis in the domestic game, a plan put forward by the club presidents to expand Italy's first division to 40 teams split into two groups with the possibility of no further promotion or relegation has been soundly criticised from all sides. The Corriere della Sera labelled the proposal 'a comedy that doesn't make you smile' while the Gazzetta dello Sport was more blunt: 'the football of madmen'. The present 18 team Serie A has been in existence for 73 years.
In Brazil Santo Andre striker Nunes has been fined around US$5,000 for imitating a pig in a goal celebration during a match against Palmeiras in the final of the Sao Paolo Juniors' Cup. Palmeiras fans, who have adopted the animal as their unofficial mascot, invaded the pitch and fought with police.
Spurs' new hairstye guru and midfield bosser Kazuyuki Toda is happy to pull
on the white shirt: 'It feels really great to be here,' he told the London club's official website which lost no time in offering Toda's '44' shirt at a bargain 40 quid. Why not £44? You have a difficult choice when
you access the website: buy a Toda shirt or enter the site. We did neither.
The BBC erroniously reported that '4 is a lucky number in Japan' - (in fact
it is the opposite: 'four' (shi) has the same pronunciation as (shi)
'death') but 4 plus 4 equals 8 which is an auspicious number.
Signed Football Shirts - Beckham, Henry,
Del Piero, Rooney
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Brian Kerr, former Republic of Ireland youth team coach, has been appointed as Ireland's new national team manager. Kerr, 49, suceeds Mick McCarthy,
who quit following poor results in Ireland's European Championship qualifying
games and continuing fallout from the Roy Keane affair, when the then
team captain and Manchester United midfielder was sent home from the team's
Saipan training camp ahead of the 2002 World Cup after a well-publicized,
expletive-laced spat with McCarthy. Keane has not been named in Kerr's first squad but there is talk that the former St.Patrick's Athletic coach
wants to rebuild bridges with Keane - arguebly Ireland's best-ever player.
Kerr told the press: 'I have a plan in mind of how I'm going to deal with
it. [the Keane situation]
Kerr beat off competition for the job from more high-profile offshore candidates including ex-Boro boss Byran Robson, former Ipswich Town coach
George Burley and Philippe Troussier, Japan's boss at the World Cup. Ireland
have chosen one of their own in Dublin-native Kerr to heal the wounds
of the Keane-McCarthy affair after Keane denounced McCarthy as 'not even
being Irish' in his best-selling autobiography. Kerr's record as a coach
includes two domestic doubles with Athletic in the 90s, the 1998 under-16
and under-18 European championships and third-place in the 1999 World
Youth Cup in Malaysia.
Austrian defender Mario Sara is bringing a legal challenge against a FIFA regulation that forbids players from changing clubs more than once a year.
Sara joined SV Pasching from FC Tirol last summer but is no longer wanted at Pasching. Alex Sperr, Sara's agent who is preparing the player's case,
said: 'It is scandalous that a player who neither wants to stay at a club
and whom a club does not want to keep must stay on there.'
FIFA's ruling follows an agreement in March 2001 with the European Commission
to allow only one transfer per player per year and to set up two transfer
windows - one at the end of the season and one in the middle.
Ex-Wimbledon and Wales midfield enforcer-turned-movie star enforcer Vinnie Jones follows Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson in experiencing a bit of bother with on-the-make women and the law in South Africa. Charges laid against 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' star Jones by three women after a media party to promote Jones' latest movie being shot in South Africa have been withdrawn. Accusations of indecent assault were also dismissed against Mr. Ferguson in an alleged incident with a young women when Ferguson was on a charity and horse-racing visit to South Africa in October last year.
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Former Japan striker Shoji Jo will be moving to J.League Division Two side Yokohama FC. After a season with first division minnow Vissel Kobe, at which he saw little playing time'and only managed one goal all year'he will now have a good shot at playing every day for the underfunded underdog from the eastern port city. Jo has seen his fortunes dim considerably since representing Japan at the France 1998 World Cup. In his early twenties, he was the toast of the J.League, and even put in a stint in Spain at Real Valladoid. At twenty-seven, Jo himself is aware of how things have turned out: "I'm starting from zero. It's an opportunity to help the club improve."
The schedule for the upcoming J.League season has been announced. 2002 League champion. Jubilo Iwata will face Nabisco Cup winner Kashima Antlers in the opener at Shizuoka Ecopa Stadium on March 21st. Saturday the 22nd will see five games, the 23rd two matches. The first stage of the season runs until August 2nd with a break in June to allow the national squad to participate in the Confederations Cup. The second stage will be played from August 16th until the end of November.
Former Japan manager Phillippe Troussier has been linked in media reports with the national team of Morocco. If the rumors prove true, Monsieur Troussier will supervise all of the national teams, from the youth squads up to the senior team. Unlike Japan, where the testy Troussier often locked horns with the mass media and senior Japanese officials, Morocco is a French-speaking nation'in which, conveniently, Troussier has his summer home'that may prove a better fit for the 'White Witch
Recently relegated Sanfrecce Hiroshima and Consodole are both eager to make their stay in the second division of the J.League as brief as possible. Aside from the sports cliché of pride, there are other equally important issues at stake. When a team is relegated, its annual allotment from the League remains at J1 levels 270 million yen ($2.25 million) for only one year. From the second year on, clubs receive half of that amount. Moreover, live television broadcasts become a rarity, and a team's fan base tends to wither if the prospects of returning to the big time are slim. All of the above leads to sponsors fees drying up, and the commencing of a vicious cycle from which it becomes harder and harder to emerge.
On Hamburg SV's home page, coach Kurt Jara vented his frustration
over his highly-touted Japanese striker. In a January 31st piece entitled,
'Jara Puts Takahara Under Pressure,' the coach was quoted as
saying, 'It is about time. He hasn't scored a single goal in any of our friendlies in the winter break. He has to start getting into
positions where he can score.' The Sushi Bomber produced only one
'shot' in the game against Hanover, which was blocked. Taka
barely touched the ball for long stretches in the match. Hamburg beat Werder
Bremen 1-0 in their next game but Takahara is still seeking that elusive first strike.
Making things worse is the 50 or so journalists from Japan who swarm around the twenty-three year-old at all times. Coach Jara does not seem to find
the disturbance amusing, and his patience has worn thin. 'Taka must
show that he deserves to be in the line-up. He certainly has all the necessary
qualities and potential.' The honeymoon is officially over.
34-year-old Verdy Kawasaki and former Japan midfielder Tsuyoshi Kitazawa has retired from the game. The all-action long-haired grafter made 265 appearances for Verdy with 41 goals. Kitazawa won 59 caps for Japan.
Kashima Antlers have signed 24-year-old midfielder Fernando on loan from Brazilian side Vitoria. Another Brazilian midfielder, 25-year-old Junior - son of Japan national coach Zico - has agreed to join J.2 side Sagan Tosu on loan from CFZ, a club founded in Brazil by his ambitious Dad, who also runs a number of successful soccer schools in Brazil and Japan.
Japan's Under-20 team will face England in their first match of FIFA's World Youth Championship in the UAE on March 27. The last time these sides faced each other in this competition in Nigeria in 1999, Japan ran out easy winners.
SOUTH KOREA - The inaugural A3 Mazda Champions Cup 2003 involving Asia's four top teams from China, Japan and Korea kicks off February 16 in Tokyo.The
respective title-holders of the K.League,
C.League and J.League - Songnam Ilhwa, Dalian Shide and Jubilo Iwata plus
J.League powerhouse Kashima Antlers will contest the US$400,000 championship at Tokyo National Stadium until February 22.
Representatives from the three countries met in Tokyo Monday to finalize details on competition schedules.
The runners-up will take home US$200,000 with the third- and fourth-place
finishers collecting US$150,000 and US$100,000 respectively.
Songnam take on Jubilo in the opening game at 1 pm with Dalian facing Kashima later in the day. On February 19, Songnam meet Dalian and play the Antlers on February 22.
The second championship is scheduled to take place in China in 2004, with Korea hosting the next in 2005.
Meanwhile, another four professional soccer teams from the three countries
will gather in Namhae, South Gyeongsang Province, Jan. 27 to attend a
weeklong friendly soccer tournament.
The four will be K-League sides Samsung Suwon, the 2002 FA Cup titleholder,
and the Busan I.cons, along with Chinese side Shanghai Zhongyuan and J.League
JEF United Ichihara, organizers said.
The tournament, to be held at Namhae Sports Park, will be conducted on
a full-league basis.
Korea launched its pro soccer league in 1983 while Japan and China began
their respective leagues in 1993 and 1994.
Cha Du Ri, playing for Arminia Bielefeld on loan from Bayer Leverkusen,
opened his Bundesliga account with a goal in the 2-2 draw with Werder
Bremen.
Kim Nam Il has joined Dutch club Feyenoord from Chunnam Dragons but will
turn out for the club's satellite team, Excelsior Rotterdam.
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