Soccer threats and outrage

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Let’s just call it another day of chaos in the wonderful world of international soccer.

Italy’s celebrated national soccer coach, Marcello Lippi, was criticized today by a gay rights group after saying he’d never allow an openly gay player on his team because it would be scandalous.

‘Even if from a cultural perspective people would approve and be able to understand and accept such a situation, it would nevertheless be exploited so much that it would end up negatively,’ Lippi said on an Internet television show.

The gay rights group Arcigay responded: ‘We are tired of hearing politicians, singers and coaches who fuel ... a climate that is by now poisoned by fear and suspicion.’

Meanwhile, in Brazil, the coach of Portuguesa, a second-division soccer team, said that armed men threatened his players in the locker room after a loss at home Tuesday night that pushed its winless streak to six games.

‘What kind of football is this? What kind of world is this?’ asked Portuguesa Coach Rene Simoes. ‘I’ve never seen anything like this in my career. It’s unbelievable.’ Simoes is the former coach of Jamaica’s men’s soccer team and led Jamaica to its first World Cup appearance, in 1998.

‘It’s absurd for things like this to happen because of a football match,’ said Portuguesa striker Edno. ‘There’s no way I can keep playing here.’

-- Barry Stavro