Portuguese Coach Rejects Offer by U.S. Soccer
Carlos Queiroz, in an abrupt turnaround, rejected an offer to coach the U.S. national soccer team Monday and agreed to a three-year contract extension with Sporting Lisbon of the Portuguese first division.
Hank Steinbrecher, the U.S. Soccer Federation’s executive director, confirmed that Queiroz had been offered the job. Queiroz, 42, notified Sporting Lisbon’s management last Friday that he was resigning at the end of the season. But after an all-night bargaining session with team officials in Lisbon, he changed his mind.
“It caught us by great surprise,” Steinbrecher said. “As of last Friday evening, we were discussing the fine points of the contract.”
Bora Milutinovic, who took over the U.S. team in March 1991, was fired as coach April 14.
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Frenchman Bernard Tapie, the flamboyant leftist politician who led Olympique Marseille when the club won France’s only European club soccer title, was sentenced to a year in prison for masterminding a game-fixing scandal.
Tapie, 52, was accused of attempting to cover up three $50,000 bribes to players on the Valenciennes club. The bribes were paid for Valenciennes to go easy against Olympique Marseille in a French League game on May 20, 1993.
Marseille won that game, 1-0, and six days later beat AC Milan, 1-0, to win the European Champions Cup. Marseille was stripped of the 1993 French League title and demoted to the second division. The team was placed in receivership in April.
Pro Football
Ernest Givins, the Houston Oilers’ leading receiver with 542 receptions in nine seasons, was released by the team, which cited the economic realities of the salary cap. He was to make $1.4 million this season.
“It is always hard to release a player who has given so much to the franchise over the years, let alone the franchise’s all-time leading receiver,” said General Manager Floyd Reese. “Unfortunately, this is football in the ‘90s.
Said Givins, “I came here for a passing [mini-]camp and then all of a sudden, bam, bam, bam, I’m not an Oiler anymore. REality keeps setting in. I hope and pray someone is interested in a Pro Bowl receiver. My goal is still to try to stay here if they can meet me halfway.”
Tennis
Second-seeded Michael Chang one of the shortest players on the tour at 5-feet-9, defeated 6-4 Mark Philippoussis of Australia, 6-4, 6-3, in the first round of the Italian Open, a clay-court tune-up for the French Open. . . .No. 11-seeded Lori McNeil was upset by Russia’s Tatiana Panova, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3, in the first round of the German Open at Berlin.
Names in the News
Boxer Jimmy Garcia lapsed into a coma with kidney failure and his doctor said he did not think the 24-year-old Colombian would survive. “We’re not winning the battle,” Dr. Al Capanna said. . . . Undefeated Orzubek Nazarov of Kyrgyzstan knocked out South Korean Park Won in the second round at Tokyo to retain his World Boxing Assn. lightweight crown.
Massachusetts center Marcus Camby will bypass the NBA and stay in school for his junior year. . . . Theresa Grentz, who coached the U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team to a bronze medal in 1992, is leaving Rutgers after 20 years to take over as coach at Illinois. . . . All-state guard Shomario Richard of La Puente Nogales High signed a letter of intent with San Diego State. The 6-1 senior still needs a qualifying score on the college entrance exams.
