SOCCER / GRAHAME L. JONES : New Faces Abound in England, but They Did Not Come Cheaply
The 1995-96 English season began over the weekend amid news that the 20 clubs in the Premier League spent a staggering $142.8 million buying new players during the summer, many from overseas.
Newcastle United, under the care of former England national team captain and future national team coach Kevin Keegan, was the biggest spender at more than $21.7 million.
Liverpool made one of the largest individual purchases, breaking the British record by paying Nottingham Forest $13.19 million for striker Stan Collymore.
Among the foreign stars who will grace (or disgrace, if Frenchman Eric Cantona’s kung-fu style attack on a fan last year is an example) England’s playing fields for the first time this season are Ruud Gullit and Dennis Bergkamp of the Netherlands; Savo Milosevic of Yugoslavia; David Ginola of France; Marc Degryse of Belgium and Andrea Silenzi of Italy.
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It was interesting to see last week that among the five people designated by FIFA to visit South Korea and Japan to report on their rival bids to stage the 2002 World Cup was Hank Steinbrecher, general secretary of U.S. Soccer.
His appointment can no doubt be traced to Alan Rothenberg, Steinbrecher’s boss as U.S. Soccer Federation president, and from there, in turn, to Joao Havelange, FIFA’s president.
It was Havelange who last year rewarded Rothenberg for his handling of World Cup ’94 by naming him to the FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee. Now, Rothenberg has passed a perk along to Steinbrecher.
Of more concern, however, from South Korea’s point of view, is that Rothenberg, as chairman of Major League Soccer, has been courting Japanese investment in the league. There will no doubt be questions raised in Seoul about Steinbrecher’s ability to give an impartial assessment of the two bidders.
The delegation, which will visit South Korea from Oct. 31-Nov. 3 and Japan from Nov. 4-7, will be led by Horst Schmidt, general secretary of the German soccer federation.
The other delegates named were Solomon Morewa, president of the South African soccer federation; security expert Ernie Walker of Scotland, and Richard Bunn of the International Television Consortium.
Schmidt’s and Morewa’s inclusion in the group also is worth noting because both Germany and South Africa are bidding to stage the World Cup in 2006.
The delegation will submit its report to FIFA, whose Executive Committee will select the 2002 host country early next year.
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Aging Mexican dentist Hugo Sanchez, who today will be trotted out as Major League Soccer’s latest signing, better hope that when the league finally decides to get some coaches, Miguel Mejia Baron is not among them.
Mejia Baron was put out of work recently when he was fired as Mexico’s national team coach. It was something that Sanchez, 37, had called for long ago.
“He failed in the World Cup and should have been fired,” an angry Sanchez said last May when he learned that the coach wouldn’t select him for the national team.
“Everyone remembers me for my successes, but he [Mejia Baron] will not have the same luck.”
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As long as MLS officials are hiring the aged, it seems odd that they let 39-year-old Mario Alberto Kempes slip through their fingers. In 1978, Kempes scored a tournament-high six goals while helping Argentina win the World Cup for the first time. Last week, he emerged from retirement to join Fernandez Vial, a club in Chile’s second division.
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Authorities in Brazil last week outlined just what is and is not appropriate celebratory behavior by players in the new season.
The Brazilian federation said that players who score goals will not be allowed to climb the fence surrounding the fields or run to the telephones usually located behind each goal and pretend to make calls.
It has also banned players from wearing two shirts in order to pull the top one off and throw it to fans.
Goal scorers will, however, be allowed to perform previously banned dance routines behind the goal and on the running track around the field, cover their heads with the front of their shirts and run to the team bench and hug the substitutes.
