Sockers to Announce Fate of Zungul Today

The Sockers have called a press conference for noon today at the Sports Arena to announce whether forward Steve Zungul remains their star or becomes a Star.

San Diego owner Bob Bell said he will meet with Zungul and Coach Ron Newman at 11 a.m. today to decide whether Zungul is sold to the Tacoma Stars.

“Based on that meeting,” Bell said late Monday night, “once and for all we’ll announce what is going on. All the pieces won’t come together until I sit down with Steve.”

For the past week, there has been speculation that Zungul would be sold to either Tacoma or the Pittsburgh Spirit. Six weeks ago, the Sockers and Spirit almost completed a deal for Zungul.

According to Bell, Tacoma’s latest offer for Zungul is considerably higher than any other offer the Sockers have ever received. It is believed to be in excess of $200,000. Zungul also has been negotiating his own deal with the Stars, a Weyerhaeuser franchise which recently hired Alan Hinton as coach and has given president John Best a free reign to spend money.

The Stars (12-17) are in desperate need of a goal scorer and superstar attraction. Best has said that Zungul is the player in the league most capable of putting the ball in the net and people in the seats.

Zungul spent Monday meeting with Carl Berg in San Jose. Berg is the minority owner of the Sockers, Zungul’s business consultant and former owner when he was with the Earthquakes.

Bell said he spoke with Zungul, Berg and Best on Monday.

Zungul, 31, leads the Major Indoor Soccer League in scoring with 28 goals and 32 assists for 60 points. He is the most prolific scorer in the history of the indoor game with 515 goals in 246 regular season games.

“Even after I make the final decision,” Bell said, “I’ll probably regret it one way or the other.”

Then why would he even considering selling a key member of a championship club that has won 13 straight games? He needs money.

“With Steve here,” Newman said, “we still haven’t sold out the arena. If our average attendance was closer to 11,000 than 9,000, we wouldn’t be put in that position.”

In other Socker news, club vice president Francis Reilly served his final day with the club on Friday, Jan. 31, owner Bob Bell said Monday.

In early December, Reilly submitted his resignation effective at the end of the season. On Saturday, Reilly said, “At Bob’s (Bell) insistence, we’ve talked about me leaving sooner.”

Bell said he thought it would be a good managerial move for the club if Reilly left before the end of the season.

Reilly said he is scheduled to meet with Bell this morning.

“I wish to withhold comment until I meet with Bob (Bell) late (Tuesday) morning,” Reilly said.

Reilly joined the Sockers’ sales department in the 1982-83 season and served as sales manager and director of sales before being appointed vice president for marketing in December 1984.

“Fran came to me in December and said he was wiped out and the job was really getting to him,” Bell said. “He was burned out on all the time and effort he was putting in and he said he wanted to leave at the end of the season.

“Fran is such an involved person and he cares so much. He had such a frustrating struggle and felt his time and effort could achieve more elsewhere.

“When it comes to running a business, Fran likes to do it perfect and right. In a struggling sport like soccer, you just can’t do it that way.”

Bell said he and Reilly resolved the matter on a friendly basis.