Maradona Gets Suspended Sentence
Former Argentina World Cup star Diego Maradona received a two-year suspended sentence for a 1994 shooting incident involving four journalists, a Buenos Aires news agency said Friday.
Maradona was found guilty of assault with a weapon, Hugo Wortman, Maradona’s lawyer, told the independent Diarios y Noticias.
The case involved a February 1994 incident when he fired an air rifle at photographers and journalists outside his country home.
Prosecutors had sought a four-year sentence and rejected an offer by the soccer star to do community service.
The judge’s ruling clears the way for the former Argentine team captain to travel to France for the World Cup. Maradona is expected to be a color commentator for several television networks covering the month-long competition.
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Dennis Bergkamp won’t be around for the 2002 World Cup, no matter how well he’s playing or how good his Dutch teammates may be.
With the Cup set for the other side of the globe, Bergkamp is staying home. He’s afraid to fly.
On the eve of the Netherlands’ World Cup opener today, Bergkamp said his refusal to fly makes any thought of appearing at the next tournament in Japan and South Korea impossible.
“I am 29 and it’s difficult to know what will happen in the future. But I don’t think the situation will change when it comes to me flying,” Bergkamp said.
Bergkamp won’t specify the exact reason for his fear of flying, but he hasn’t set foot on a plane since returning from the 1994 World Cup in the United States.
During that tournament, a Dutch journalist flying with the team from Orlando, Fla., to Dallas caused a bomb scare and the aircraft was delayed on the runway.
Counseling has failed to ease Bergkamp’s anxiety, and the striker will travel separately from his teammates between World Cup venues.
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A threatened strike by London subway workers is turning into the best excuse soccer fans have heard to stay home and watch England’s World Cup opener Monday.
The game against Tunisia would coincide with the first workday of the 48-hour strike, which is expected to start late Sunday.
“Let’s Have It Off For England,” the tabloid Sun newspaper blared Friday in a front-page headline, starting a campaign to make Monday afternoon an unofficial holiday.
In any case, much of the capital is expected to grind to a halt as employees stop work to watch the game on television.
“If the industrial action continues and either of the British teams progress to the late stages of the World Cup, it could be an extremely costly summer for business,” chamber of commerce chief executive Simon Sperryn said.
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One reason the Iranians chose Yssingeaux for their World Cup base was because its mild June temperatures and sunny clime were like home.
But judging by the cold, wet weather that has welcomed them since they arrived in this small town in the heart of France, the players may be wondering if they took a wrong turn somewhere.
The mercury plunged to 32 degrees Friday, about 50 degrees less than the norm for this time of year.
So far, every one of the team’s practice sessions has been under heavy rain.
