Issue No.590
Sports
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13 - 19 June 2002 Issue No.590 Sports |
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Typically English
AN 18-YEAR-old man died of stab wounds during drunken brawls in England between soccer supporters celebrating their team's World Cup victory over arch-rivals Argentina, police said Saturday.
The man was stabbed during a fight in a pub in the town of Corby on Friday and later died of his injuries, they said. Two men aged 18 and 19 were being questioned by police over the incident.
Five police were slightly hurt in clashes and five people were arrested in a mêlée at a pub in the village of Havant in Hampshire.
A total of at least 34 people were arrested in disturbances around the country.
Some 200 youths clashed with police in the northeastern towns of Hull and Grimsby, where pubs were filled to overflowing and drunken fans hurled bottles after England's 1-0 victory over Argentina in Japan on Friday.
"The public ignored police warnings to control themselves and drunken yobs caused difficulties in both Hull and Grimsby," said Inspector Steve Page of Humberside police.
Five people were arrested Friday in a McDonald's restaurant in Staffordshire in the west when a group got into a fight after throwing food at each other, police said.
"It would appear that the majority of those involved were football supporters who had been celebrating the English victory," a Staffordshire police spokesman said.
There were also clashes in several pubs in the county of Essex, in southeastern England, and 14 people were arrested.
Captain leaves
NIGERIA's captain Austin "Jay Jay" Okocha will quit the national team after its final World Cup group match against England on Wednesday.
"I think this may be my last tournament for Nigeria," Okocha said. "I think it is time to give others a chance to play for the national team. One cannot be there forever."
He added: "We are leaving the scene and we hope that those coming after us will do better than we have done."
The Paris Saint-Germain midfielder told the daily sports paper, Today Sports, that Nigeria have a young and promising team capable of taking Nigerian football to greater heights. However, Okocha lamented the team's early exit from the World Cup finals in Korea and Japan.
"This is our worst World Cup finals outing. It is bad. It is disappointing. Instead of progressing, we're going backwards," he said.
The 28-year-old star made his debut for the 'Super Eagles' against Sudan in 1993 after an impressive performance with the country's junior team at the African Youth Championship in Mauritius in the same year. He won a winners' medal at the African Nations Cup in Tunisia in 1994. Okocha was a member of the Olympic gold medal team at the 1996 Atlanta Games and also featured in the 1994 and 1998 World Cups.
Japanese set example
ASIAN football chief Peter Velappan believes well-behaved Japanese fans snuffed out any chance of crowd trouble at Friday's highly-charged England-Argentina World Cup clash.
There had been fears before the match that hooligan elements amongst English and Argentinian sets of supporters might cause trouble in the northern Japanese city.
But Velappan, the World Cup co- ordination director, said he had attended the game and there was not the merest hint of violence.
"There was no trouble at the game. I watched the dispersal of the crowd from the security command centre and everything went smoothly," said Velappan, Asian Football Confederation secretary-secretary.
"When the two sets of spectators met, there was wonderful fellowship -- shaking hands and congratulating each other. It was so unlike previous occasions when the two teams have met.
"A lot of the credit for this, I feel, goes to the Japanese spectators. They go to the games purely for enjoyment and have brought a lot of sobriety to the matches and this has rubbed off on the overseas fans."
Vacant rooms
HOTELS in Yokohama, the venue of the World Cup final match, are suffering a number of vacant rooms after an agent hired by FIFA made huge cancellations, hotels and news reports said Saturday.
Byrom Inc, the British firm commissioned by the governing body for the World Cup, has cancelled at least 25,000 reservations during the event in Yokohama, where the International Media Centre for the event is also located, the daily Yomiuri said.
"We were informed by Byrom about the cancellation of several thousand reservations," said an official at Yokohama Royal Park Hotel. "Contrary to our original expectations, we still have many vacant rooms during the World Cup."
Other hotels in the city, including Yokohama Tokyo Hotel, admitted they were also informed of similar cancellations but refused to comment further.
The newspaper said Byrom also cancelled about 70 reservations at hotels in Tokyo without notice after the soccer World Cup finals opened on 31 May.
Byrom has refused to pay the 100 per cent cancellation fees payable under the contracts for cancellations made after 1 May, the daily said.
For Afghans
THE UNITED Nations said that it had arranged for three large-screen television monitors to be set up at public venues in the Afghan capital, Kabul, to enable Afghans to watch the World Cup.
Spokesman Stephane Dujarric quoted Secretary-General Kofi Annan's adviser for sport and peace, Adolf Ogi, as saying the screens would be in place this week.
Ogi met Annan in Geneva on Friday morning and told him he had persuaded the International Football Federation (FIFA) to contribute the screens, the spokesman said.
Football fever has swept through the Afghan capital with fans avidly following events in Korea and Japan after being banned from watching the 1998 World Cup by the puritanical Taliban regime.
Japanese and South Korean peace-keepers in the world's newest nation, East Timor, have launched a mini-World Cup to coincide with the official tournament, the United Nations said.
"The month-long competition will involve matches between 40 local clubs and the winning team will face off in a final against a joint Japan-South Korea team on 30 June," spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The official competition is being played simultaneously in Japan and South Korea.
Al-Jaber ill
SAUDI Arabia captain Sami Al-Jaber underwent an appendix operation Saturday hours after being rushed to a Tokyo hospital, a team official said.
Team spokesman Suleiman Al-Nasa said the Saudi captain had complained of stomach pains on Friday and was unable to lift himself out of bed the following morning.
The Saudi star is expected to be released from Tokyo University Hospital in two or three days, Al-Nasa said. He will then travel home with the rest of his team.
It has been a miserable tournament for Al- Jaber, who damaged his knee ligaments during his side's 8-0 loss to Germany on 1 June. He missed the team's second game against Cameroon, a 1-0 loss that eliminated the Saudis from the competition.
Maldini ties record
ITALIAN veteran defender Paolo Maldini tied the record for playing in his 21st World Cup match without being substituted Saturday as his team lost to Croatia 2-1.
Maldini, who equaled the mark set by Germany's Uwe Seeler, has never been replaced in a World Cup match.
Maldini, who won his 124th international cap in Saturday's match, was questionable for the match against Croatia after he twisted his ankle in practice the night before.
Playing in his fourth World Cup, the 33- year-old AC Milan defender has said this will be his last.
Seeler played in four World Cups from 1958-70. He captained his squad during its defeat to England in the 1966 final.
Maldini could be en route to breaking another record at this World Cup -- most total appearances in the championship. That record is held by another German, Lothar Mattheus, who played in 25 matches from 1982-98.
Maldini could break that record if Italy makes it to the final or the third-place match and if he plays in every game.
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