SOCCER / JULIE CART : Money Is the Root of Russians’ Revolution

The problems on the Russian national soccer team, which Coach Pavel Sadyrin called “normal,” threaten to disrupt the team’s World Cup preparations.

Sadyrin dismissed the problems Saturday night in Seattle, where the United States tied a depleted Russian squad, 1-1. More than half of the national team refused to make the trip. Two months ago, 14 players met in Athens and sent a letter to Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s sports adviser demanding that Sadyrin be replaced by former national coach Anatoly Byshovets.

The mutiny involves most of the team’s best players, including eight from the powerful club team Spartak Moscow and several from the Italian, German and English leagues. Even without the support of the country’s top players, the Russian federation is fully behind Sadyrin.

The coach said most of the problems can be traced to club teams’ refusal to release players for matches before the World Cup.

“It is a normal process with the Russian national team,” Sadyrin said after Saturday’s game. “Some people are not happy with something. Some don’t like what he sees. But only the players who want to play will play on this team. In soccer, there are always replacements.”

The dissident players say Sadyrin is incompetent. But the hidden agenda includes anger at the Russian federation over financial deals. Some players say they haven’t received promised bonuses for qualifying for the World Cup. The main concern is about an official team deal--brokered by Sadyrin--with Reebok.

Russian players are angry that the team deal conflicts with their own endorsement contracts.

Shades of the U.S. team’s deal with Adidas.

Sadyrin was not in a kiss-and-make-up mood. But if the Russians hope to get out of the first round in the World Cup’s Group B--with Brazil, Cameroon and Sweden--all parties will have to learn to live together, if only for a short while.

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The report on Roy Wegerle’s knee injury has gone from minor to serious, which might keep the England-based forward, who plays for the U.S. national team, sidelined for two months.

U.S. soccer officials learned earlier this month that Wegerle suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament during a match against Coventry City on Jan. 8. After hearing that, U.S. team trainer Rudy Rudawsky estimated Wegerle would miss only 10 days.

However, a diagnostic arthroscopy revealed a 50% tear of Wegerle’s anterior cruciate ligament, which doctors repaired. The more serious nature of the injury has team officials worried, almost as much as the behavior of Coventry’s medical team. Rudawsky has requested that Wegerle’s medical reports be faxed to him, but there has been no response.

Normally, U.S. officials would ask a player to return to the United States for rehabilitation, but in this case there is concern that such a move might offend Wegerle’s English doctors.

U.S. General Manager Bill Nuttall said Coventry City must approve any travel for Wegerle, and the club is unlikely to allow him to return to the United States for treatment. Nuttall said it is possible that U.S team doctors would go to England to examine Wegerle’s knee.

Wegerle expects to be playing again in mid-March.

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Major League Soccer held a bidder’s conference last week in Santa Monica, where groups from 29 cities were briefed about the process of franchise approval. Bidders were told that MLS would expect each group to sell a minimum of 10,000 season tickets, and to have plans for the use of or construction of a stadium with a capacity of 20,000 to 30,000.

Bids are due by May 15, and the announcement of the 12 finalists is set for June. The league is expected to begin play in 1995.

General Secretary Hank Steinbrecher of the U.S. Soccer Federation said Saturday night that MLS, which has been sanctioned by his organization as a Division 1 professional soccer entity, is expected to have most of its financing in place by the end of April. The federation’s advisory board monitoring the progress of MLS start-up activities will meet again next week, Steinbrecher said.

Soccer Notes

Roger Milla of Cameroon, sentimental star of the 1990 World Cup, said he is considering a comeback with the team he currently directs. Milla, 42, added: “Everything depends on my form.” If Milla does participate, he would be the oldest player ever in a World Cup. . . . Indications are that AC Milan owner and media magnate Silvio Berlusconi is preparing a campaign to become prime minister of Italy. Berlusconi has bought advertising time on television, and his slogan, interestingly, is identical to that of the Italian national soccer team. . . . Riot police fired tear gas and charged about 200 fans who went on a rampage outside the training camp of AS Roma last week. The fans were apparently angry after the team lost its sixth game of the season. . . . Terry Venables is expected to be named England’s national coach. Venables would replace Graham Taylor, who resigned in November after his team failed to qualify for the World Cup. Concern about Venables’ still-unresolved business dealing while running Tottenham Hotspur has reportedly prompted the English Football Assn. to build an escape clause into Venables’s two-year deal should the coach be implicated in any wrongdoing.