WORLD SPORTS SCENE / RANDY HARVEY : ‘Lords of Rings’ Is Out to Break What They See as a Bad Hobbit

After initially dismissing “The Lords of the Rings,” a book recently published in Great Britain that takes a critical look at the International Olympic Committee, as “unimportant, maybe also malicious and full of mistakes,” IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch has taken legal action.

He filed a criminal complaint last week in Switzerland, accusing British authors Andrew Jennings and Vyv Simson of libel. Relying heavily on previously published works in Spain, the authors recount Samaranch’s close political ties to the country’s late dictator, General Francisco Franco.

Concluding that Samaranch has adopted Franco’s management style, the authors write that the IOC, in the 12 years since Samaranch became president, has become a “secretive, elite domain” where “practices considered corrupt in any other sphere of life appear to be accepted as the norm.”

The authors are even more pointed in their criticisms of Primo Nebiolo, the Italian president of track and field’s international federation, who has called the book a “salad of silly stupidity.”

Occurring too late for inclusion in the book but widely reported last winter by the media, Nebiolo held South African track and field athletes hostage until he was guaranteed a much-coveted seat on the IOC.

Using the power awarded him in February by the IOC to appoint two at-large members, Samaranch recently granted Nebiolo his wish. Nebiolo held up his end of the bargain last week, giving his blessing to South Africa’s participation in track and field in the Olympics at Barcelona.

The book seems to have deepened the division between non-Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Saxon factions within international sport; most of the British authors’ targets are from the former group. Speculation in the British media is that the authors were encouraged by Great Britain’s two IOC members, Mary Alison Glen-Haig and Princess Anne.

Non-Anglo-Saxons have become increasingly powerful in recent years. The presidents of the IOC and two of the most prominent federations, track and field and soccer, are Spaniard Samaranch, Italian Nebiolo and Brazilian Joao Havelange. The president of the Assn. of National Olympics Committees is Mexico’s Mario Vasquez Rana. They have become known within some Anglo-Saxon circles as the “Spanish Mafia.”

That sort of disparagement lends credence to the non-Anglo-Saxons’ contention that the criticisms are racially motivated. On the other hand, they invite cynicism because of the autocratic methods they sometimes use within their supposedly democratic organizations.

Then again, are their methods different from those employed by the Anglo-Saxons during all those decades when they controlled international sport? Probably not.

Trivia question: Since 1990, only two countries have qualified for all of soccer’s major championships--the under-17 World Championships, the Women’s World Championships, the Youth World Championships, the Five-A-Side World Championships, the 1990 and 1994 World Cups and the 1992 Summer Olympics. Who are they?

The U.S. national soccer team put its best team ever on the field Saturday at Washington in a 3-1 victory over Ireland, which, earlier this year, beat the United States by 4-1 at Dublin.

Three players who have been regulars in European first divisions, John Harkes and Roy Wegerle in England and Thomas Dooley in Germany, and Tab Ramos, who probably will earn a promotion next season to Spain’s first division after two years in the second division, played for the United States in the opening game of the first U.S. Cup.

Harkes and Ramos, two of the best players for the U.S. 1990 World Cup team, scored. Marcelo Balboa of Cerritos scored the other. Wegerle and Dooley were playing their first game for the United States after recently gaining citizenship.

The United States will play Wednesday against Portugal at Chicago, where it also will meet Italy on Saturday in the final game of the U.S. Cup.

Trivia answer: Italy and the United States.

The U.S. water polo team will play in the Alamo Cup on Friday through Sunday in El Toro, Newport Beach and San Diego. Other teams involved are Canada, Italy and the Commonwealth of Independent States. . . . The U.S. men’s volleyball team will continue play in the World League against the CIS Friday at San Diego’s Sports Arena and Saturday at the Forum. The U.S. women’s team finished third in the recent China tournament, beating 1991 World Cup champion Cuba.