6 - 12 June 2002 Issue No.589 Sports	Current issue Previous issue Site map
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Diouf report wrong

FRENCH club Lens denied claims made by Liverpool that Senegal World Cup star and African soccer player of the year El-Hadji Diouf was on his way to the English Premiership club.

"Contrary to the announcement made last Saturday, Lens would like to make it clear that El-Hadji Diouf has not been transferred to Liverpool and no contract has been signed," a statement released on the club's Web site said.

"The player's representatives and the two clubs agreed on Friday to continue discussions at the end of the first round of the World Cup. Knowing that replacing a player of his potential and ability would be complicated, Lens President Gervais Martel will continue to think over the matter."

Earlier on Saturday, Liverpool said that it had signed the player. "We can confirm that African Footballer of the Year El-Hadji Diouf has now signed a five-year deal with Liverpool, which is wonderful news for everyone at the club," club spokesman Ian Cotton said in a statement on the club's Web site. "The Senegal striker will join up with his new teammates when the squad reports back for pre-season training in July."

Diouf, who looks set to become one of the World Cup's finds after his part in Senegal's 1-0 win over France, said he was looking forward to his Anfield move. "I'm delighted to be joining Liverpool. Liverpool is a club that expects to be one of the best in Europe," the 21-year-old Diouf said.

"I want to be one of the best players in the world and I'm sure that at Liverpool and with a great coach like Gerard Houllier I can do that." It was Diouf's work that helped set up teammate Pape Bouba Diop for the famous 1-0 scoreline in Friday's opening upset win.

Diouf started his career at French club Sochaux, where he played for a season before joining Brittany outfit Rennes in 1999. He was loaned to Lens and scored eight goals in the 2000-2001 season, and was the second top scorer with the French runner-up this season.

'We're world champions'

SENEGAL President Abdoulaye Wade declared his country the new world champions after Friday's momentous victory over France. The 1-0 win over the reigning title holders, courtesy of a Papa Bouba Diop strike, was met with adulation by the Senegalese press with one paper declaring that the west African country "had finally been placed on the world map".

However, Wade took it a stage further. "To beat the champion of the world is to become the champion of the world," he told Le Matin. The daily added: "Once more Senegal has put her name alongside the greatest nations in the world."

Reports elsewhere were just as upbeat as Senegal went soccer-crazy for the day. "It's incredible, it's football," wrote Sud- quotidien. "A nation blighted by internal problems needed what you (the players) gave yesterday. Fierce pride and something to believe in for everyone in the country. "More than two billion people worldwide watched the Lions brush France aside with a carnivorous appetite for the game."

Walfadjri newspaper declared: "The Lions put themselves on the map yesterday and showed it was their moment."

Thinking beyond

FRANZ Beckenbauer, who took Germany to World Cup triumphs as a player in 1974 and as coach in 1990, said that his country will easily make it to the second round of the finals in Korea and Japan -- and could even go beyond the last eight.

"The qualification of Germany for the second round is assured and they will probably finish as group winners," said Beckenbauer after seeing Germany demolish Saudi Arabia 8-0 in their opening Group E match on Saturday. "I know there are two games to go against Cameroon and Ireland and they will be more difficult but we will qualify.

"Our objective has always been to reach the quarter-finals. It will be knockout by then and anything can happen. Luck will play a role but the quality of the performance against the Saudis makes me believe that we can even think beyond the quarter-finals."

Beckenbauer also said he expects world champion France to qualify for the next stage despite its stunning 1-0 defeat by Senegal in the first game of the tournament.

Meanwhile, German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder offered his congratulations to the national team on its victory, praising the team's attacking flair and will to win. He even compared the progress of the German soccer team to his hopes for upcoming legislative elections in the country.

Credit to referee

THE UAE's Ali Bujsaim won rave reviews in Saturday's newspapers for a "great" refereeing performance at the opening World Cup match in which debutante Senegal stunned defending champion France 1-0.

"Bujsaim showed firmness in his decisions that raised no protest, did not allow himself to be overwhelmed by the game's atmosphere, and proved that Arab and Asian referees are part of the world elite," said FIFA's Farouk Bozu of Syria, a member of FIFA's refereeing committee.

"Anyone who follows international football knows Ali Bujsaim is a very, very good referee," said FIFA spokesman Keith Cooper. "We felt he proved that at the opening match. It was a match that had the potential for trouble but he had it under control," he added.

Bujsaim booked two players -- France's Emmanuel Petit for a late tackle on man of the match El-Hadji Diouf and Senegal's Aliou Cisse.

Bujsaim, a 43-year-old Dubai immigration officer, is one of the most experienced referees in the world, having taken part in two previous World Cups. Of the 72 World Cup match officials, Bujsaim is the only referee appearing in his third straight World Cup. He also refereed five World Cup qualifiers, including the Uruguay-Australia playoff for a final spot.

Oldest player

JAN HEINTZE, the oldest player in the World Cup, captained Denmark in its opening World Cup Group A game against Uruguay on Saturday. The 38-year-old PSV Eindhoven player was part of a four-man defence in an otherwise offensively-minded Danish line-up.

Hooligans stopped

JAPAN's immigration authorities said Saturday they had refused entry to three suspected English soccer hooligans whose names were on a blacklist of troublemakers.

A 33-year-old man was refused entry at Kansai International Airport in Osaka, some 400 kilometres (248 miles) west of Tokyo, Friday afternoon after arriving from London, the National Police Agency said. "The decision was made by the immigration office, based on information the National Police Agency received from British security authorities," the agency said.

The National Police Agency said the immigration office at Narita Airport, the main gate of the capital, refused entry to two other suspected England hooligans, aged 40 and 36, on Saturday. With the latest rejections, Japanese authorities refused entry to at least 10 suspected hooligans during the week.

Attention from space

THE AMERICAN-Russian crew aboard the international space station can follow their favourite World Cup teams from orbit, thanks to frequent updates from accommodating colleagues at mission control.

"During communication sessions with the ISS, teams from the Russian and US mission control centres will give news reports about the soccer championship," deputy chief of Russian Mission Control, Viktor Blagov, told the Interfax news agency.

He said the crew will not be able to see video of the games, however, because of technical complications.

Americans Daniel Bursch and Carl Walz have been living aboard the orbiting outpost since December along with their Russian commander, Yuri Onufrienko.

Now watching

SOCCER fever has struck in the Afghan capital where fans, banned from watching the previous World Cup by the Taliban, are able to see this year's action via satellite dishes mounted on bullet-scarred rooftops.

Electronics shopkeepers say sales of satellite dishes have doubled this week as soccer- mad residents of Kabul decided they could not risk relying on the bombed-out local television station for reliable reception.

"It is like a festival here. Our sales have gone double. Last week, I sold eight pairs of receivers and dishes, but this week I have sold up to 16 of them so far," said Abdul Tawab, a shopkeeper at the main Nader Pashtun electronics market in downtown Kabul.

"There is enormous interest in the World Cup and the people are looking forward to the tournament," said Shah Mahmoud, the trainer of a local youth team.

"I am sure 80 per cent of the population would love to follow the matches if they can. But now I think only 20 per cent of them can do so due to lack of electricity in many parts of the capital," Mahmoud said.

Barely taking his eyes from a match being played in the war-scarred Kabul stadium, the grey-bearded trainer said that watching the world class matches would acquaint his players with the game's new styles and techniques.

Player thief

SENEGAL's Khalilou Fadiga, whose team stunned defending champion France 1-0 in the World Cup opener, said last week he regretted stealing a necklace from a Korean jewellery store, calling the incident a "stupid joke".

"We never thought it would turn into such a big deal," the midfielder said after the Lions' victory.

Fadiga said the gold necklace, worth $250, was taken from a jewellery store in Daegu, South Korea, on Sunday as part of a prank involving teammates.

"It was a stupid joke, but for me the matter is closed," the 27-year-old said. "I didn't spend the night in a police cell and I took it back myself."

South Korean police are investigating Fadiga, but World Cup organisers said the player was not under threat of arrest and would be allowed to stay with the Senegal squad.

Empty seats, TV problems

THOUSANDS of empty seats in the Sapporo stadium and one million frustrated television fans at home have taken some of the gloss off Germany's eight-goal thrashing of Saudi Arabia in their opening World Cup game.

World governing body FIFA said on Sunday that around 7,000 seats were empty at Saturday's Group E game, providing disappointing pictures for television as Germany collected the biggest win since Hungary beat El Salvador 10-1 in 1982.

Around one million households in football- fanatical Germany also missed out watching their team net the highest number of goals in a game for 20 years because of a problem with digital television. The problem arose because the struggling Kirch group, which owns the World Cup rights, would not sell the digital rights to Germany's main public channels ARD and ZDF, ARD chief Fritz Pleitgen said.

"Kirch did not offer to sell us the digital rights although we asked for them many times," Pleitgen said. "We understand the disappointment (of fans) but we tried everything."

FIFA is also investigating why there were around 3,500 empty seats at Friday's opening World Cup match when Senegal produced one of the biggest upsets of the tournament's history by beating France.

FIFA communications director Keith Cooper said the Sapporo Dome was a baseball stadium and some seats were not sold because they had poor sightlines to the pitch.

"Many seats were automatically killed because of the unsatisfactory sightlines," Cooper told a news conference. But he added: "That is a fact of life. The vast majority of the stadium was full and there was plenty of atmosphere."

Broadcasters and sponsors usually do not like to see empty seats in a stadium because they make bad televisions pictures.

The indoor stadium can hold up to 42,000 people but 32,218 spectators watched Saturday's game.

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