Newman to Advise National Indoor Team

Socker Coach Ron Newman has been named a consultant to the U.S. national five-a-side team, FIFA’s version of indoor soccer.

The team, to be coached by John Kowalski, will participate in the five-a-side World Cup in Hong Kong in October.

Newman first will help with player procurement.

“I’ll see if I can’t take the best ex-MSL players with me,” Newman said.

Newman will be with the team for exhibitions in Holland and Belgium next month.

Socker chairman Oscar Ancira said he will decide whether to bring the Sockers into the proposed Continental Indoor Soccer League by next Friday, the deadline set by league founder Ron Weinstein.

“It will be a few steps back as far as the quality of players,” Ancira said. “That’s obvious. We would go from a salary cap of $550,000 to $160,000. So you suffer there. But as far as the concept of unity and the concept of commitment, the CISL could be five steps forward from where the MSL used to be.”

Weinstein has received commitments from owners in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Sacramento, Portland and Dallas as well as interest from three groups in Anaheim. He expects commitments from the Sockers, Memphis, Indianapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Boston and Charlotte.

He also will ask owners who commit by next Friday’s deadline to give more time to groups who have stepped forward recently from Pittsburgh, Virginia, Atlanta, Miami, Houston and Tacoma.

The Cleveland Crunch two weeks ago were reported to have committed to the National Professional Soccer League, a minor league based in the Midwest and Northeast. But Ancira and Weinstein said that isn’t true and owner George Hoffman is looking into the CISL as well as the NPSL.

Paul Wright, a forward with the Sockers the past four years and one of the MSL’s top scorers, is trying out for Luton Town of the English second division.