SOCCER / JULIE CART : Milutinovic Faces Tough Task
World Cup decisions that once appeared clear cut for U.S. national team Coach Bora Milutinovic have clouded of late, what with injuries and tight championship races in various European leagues.
Milutinovic has 35 players on his roster, the majority of them at the Mission Viejo training facility and about a dozen playing overseas. In the case of U.S. players in the English first division, good news for their clubs is bad news for Milutinovic. For example, midfielder John Harkes plays for Derby County, which is in contention for a spot in the playoffs that could earn it a promotion to the Premier League. Same goes for Tab Ramos with Real Betis in the Spanish second division.
What this means to Milutinovic is that he may not get some of his key offensive players back until the end of May, less than three weeks before the World Cup begins.
Then there is the rash of injuries U.S. players have suffered lately. Roy Wegerle, who plays for Coventry City in the Premier League, has suffered the most recent and potentially devastating injury. Last week, Wegerle had surgery on his right knee, for the second time since January. He is not expected to return to the team before the end of the season, the first week in May.
The U.S. team’s general manager, Bill Nuttall, said last week that the team would like Wegerle to return to Mission Viejo for rehabilitation, as he did after the first surgery in January. But, Nuttall conceded, Coventry is unlikely to release its highest-paid player to rejoin his national team, even if he is injured.
Other injured players are recovering, just in time. Harkes missed 10 games with an ankle injury and is now playing again, as is Ramos, after missing three weeks with a calf injury. Cle Kooiman’s knee injury seems to have gotten better, but he is not yet back in the lineup.
Milutinovic will have all this to consider when he cuts his roster to the final 22 on June 3.
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The meeting that had been scheduled last week between World Cup Organizing Committee and Internal Revenue Service officials has been reset, after the IRS determined that its Los Angeles office, not its Washington, D.C. office, should handle the examination of WCOC’s 1991 and 1992 tax returns.
The WCOC had asked the IRS for a ruling after some members of the World Cup board of directors grew concerned about the amount of money flowing from World Cup coffers to the accounts of Major League Soccer, the proposed new professional soccer league. Because the WCOC is a nonprofit entity, they reasoned, it might be construed as improper to transfer money to a for-profit venture.
At least one tax attorney has called the practice “risky, at best.” The WCOC’s tax-exempt status may be at risk if the IRS determines the as-yet undefined gifts or loans were outside tax guidelines.
Another cause for concern, board members say, is the appearance the payments of more than $3.5 million leave: WCOC president Alan Rothenberg also heads the proposed professional league.
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And Now The News:
Item: The European soccer authority, UEFA, last week endorsed FIFA President Joao Havelange’s bid for reelection.
Comment: Let’s see, how was that done? Havelange already had courted the African confederation in 1990 by awarding it a much deserved third place in the World Cup finals. He’d already increased the field from 16 teams to 24 in 1982, adding slots to Asia, Africa and CONCACAF.
After a flurry of deal-cutting, Havelange has spent just about all of his political capital to buy his support. Now, there are two separate but parallel realities: Both the Asian and CONCACAF regions believe they will gain another place in the 1998 finals, presumably coming from Europe’s 13 slots, and UEFA President Lennart Johanssen told the Associated Press last week that, “We have guarantees that no (World Cup) places will be taken away from Europe” and that some might even be added.
Now that Havelange has promised so much to so many, just where are all those World Cup places coming from?
Hint: Reports surfaced last week of Havelange’s wish to expand the World Cup tournament to 32 teams. Wonder if there’s any connection?
Item: The English Football Assn. last week backed out of the match against Germany in Berlin that had come to be known as the ‘Hitler’s Birthday Game,’ citing fears that German neo-Fascists and English hooligans would disrupt the game.
Comment: Why did it take so long to figure this one out? And who did the Germans think they were kidding when they maintained that Hitler’s birthday, April 20, carried no symbolism. Isn’t there another day available for what could have been an exciting match, absent the political overtones?
Soccer Notes
Major League Soccer, the proposed first division professional league, has cleared a major hurdle on its way to legitimacy: it has a television contract. The three-year agreement calls for 35 regular-season and playoff games to be televised on ESPN and ESPN2 and the championship game on ABC. . . . Single-game World Cup tickets are expected to go on sale May 1. These tickets are among those returned by sponsors and other national federations. . . . The World Cup Legacy Tour has officially started. Thirty skills events for children will be held in each of the nine venue cities. The winners of those events will participate in Soccer Celebration at the Santa Monica Pier, April 22 and 23. For registration information, contact the World Cup office in Century City. . . . World Cup’s mural program is in progress on underpasses and walls near freeways throughout the city. Five murals are expected to be completed. . . . Tourism officials in Chicago and Dallas report World Cup hotel reservations are running well below expectations. In Chicago, half the 10,000 rooms set aside for World Cup-related tourism were unreserved. A venue spokesman in Chicago said the failure of France, England and Japan to qualify has reduced the expected number of visitors.
