SOCCER / GRAHAME L. JONES : FIFA Chief Fights Palace Coup to Try to Hold On to Office
He is autocratic. He is boastful. He is cunning.
But what Joao Havelange, the 78-year-old Brazilian who has ruled international soccer for the past 20 years, also might be is unbeatable.
For the past few weeks, an intense, behind-the-scenes struggle has been going on within soccer’s corridors of power in Zurich, Switzerland, to see whether Havelange could either be tempted to step down or tossed out as president of FIFA, international soccer’s governing body.
But Havelange seems to have found a way to have the last laugh. Call it bribery, if you will. Havelange’s detractors certainly will.
By promising a third team in the 1998 World Cup in France to both Asia and CONCACAF (the North and Central American and Caribbean confederation), Havelange just might have swayed enough votes to win reelection to a sixth four-year term when FIFA’s 167 member nations cast their ballots in Chicago in June.
But not many of those votes are likely to come from Europe, which would lose two of its World Cup places if Havelange delivers on his promise.
On Tuesday in Zurich, Havelange will meet with leaders from each of the five confederations that make up FIFA. He will seek their support in his bid for a final term.
With Asia and CONCACAF already in his corner and Africa leaning that way, the Brazilian would appear to have a lock on the election. South America, certainly, is unlikely to oppose him.
But the Europeans are another matter. If UEFA (the European Football Union) decides to put up a candidate to challenge Havelange, and then starts a campaign to discredit him, the next two months could see all sorts of fireworks.
As for long-term impact, what happens in the election in Chicago on June 16 is likely to have far greater importance than what happens in Pasadena on July 17 during the World Cup championship game.
The winner at the Rose Bowl will be world champion for four years. A new, much younger FIFA president, however, could control and shape the sport for decades.
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Graham Taylor, the luckless coach who presided over England’s humiliating 2-0 loss to the United States last summer and its subsequent failure to qualify for the World Cup, has landed on his feet.
“Turnip” Taylor, as he is known by Britain’s tabloid press, was fired as England coach in November but last week was named coach of Wolverhampton Wanderers, one of England’s oldest and most illustrious clubs.
The Wolves, who are down on their luck at the moment, were founded in 1877 and were original members of the English League. The three-time league champions and four-time F.A. Cup winners will be familiar, perhaps, to some Los Angeles-area fans.
As the Los Angeles Wolves, playing for Jack Kent Cooke in the summer of 1967, the club captured the United Soccer Assn. title in the United States, winning a dramatic championship match at the Coliseum, 6-5, over the Washington Whips, represented by Aberdeen of Scotland.
Also working for Cooke at that time was a young lawyer named Alan Rothenberg, now U.S. Soccer Federation president, chairman of World Cup USA 1994 and the man who hired the coach who built the U.S. team that defeated England last summer and cost Taylor his job.
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Just before Germany played Italy a couple of weeks ago in Stuttgart, German Coach Berti Vogts fired the first salvo in the psychological battle that goes on between World Cup rivals.
“It is good for the Italians to get used to losing to us,” Vogts said, no doubt thinking ahead to a possible meeting in the summer tournament.
If both teams perform as expected in the United States, they will meet in the quarterfinals.
For the record, the Germans won in Stuttgart, 2-1.
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For almost a dozen years, soccer fans worldwide have believed that Bryan Robson’s 1982 goal for England against France after only 27 seconds was the fastest in World Cup history.
Not so, it appears.
Research has determined that the fastest goal was, in fact, scored by Vaclav Masek of Czechoslovakia after 15 seconds of his country’s match against Mexico at Vine del Mar in Chile in 1962.
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Atletico Madrid is one of Spain’s most famous teams, founded in 1901 and boasting a glittering trophy room that contains more than a dozen league and cup championship trophies.
Not to mention the heads of innumerable coaches.
Atletico’s unpredictable and exceptionally short-fused owner, Jesus Gil, has set a record of sorts for firing coaches at the drop of a hat, but this season he has outdone himself.
Gil has axed no fewer than four coaches since August, bringing to 14 the number he has let go in the last seven years. According to those who keep track of such comings and goings, no Spanish club has ever played under five coaches in a single season.
Atletico is now on No. 5 and counting.
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When lowly Celta upset Real Madrid, 3-2, in a Spanish League match on Saturday, it did so in odd, if not unique, fashion.
Celta’s goals, which came in a 20-minute span on either side of halftime, were scored by Milorad Ratkovic, Stjepan Andrijasevic and Vladimir Gudelj.
Ratkovic is from Serbia, Andrijasevic is from Croatia and Gudelj is from Bosnia.
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The African Championship, currently being played in Tunisia, has produced a most unlikely semifinalist.
Mali, which has never been a force in African soccer, let alone world soccer, reached the final four by defeating favored Egypt in the quarterfinals Saturday. Earlier, Mali had beaten host Tunisia in the tournament’s opening match, a result that cost the Tunisian coach his job.
Mali next plays Zambia in the semifinals on Wednesday. The other semifinal pits 1994 World Cup qualifier Nigeria against the Ivory Coast, the defending African champion.
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One of the many top strikers the United States will have to contain if it is to have any chance in World Cup ’94 is Switzerland’s Stephane Chapuisat.
And the news is not good. Chapuisat is rounding into top form. On Saturday, playing for Borussia Dortmund against defending German champion Werder Bremen, Chapuisat scored a hat trick in 15 minutes to move into first place in the Bundesliga scoring charts.
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After being trounced, 7-1, by the United States earlier this year, the Cayman Islands might want to look seriously at Noel Arguelles’ application for political asylum.
Arguelles, who tried to defect while in the Caymans for a match last week, is Cuba’s national team goalkeeper.
