WHO SAID THIS WAS ABOUT FUN?

By HELENE ELLIOTT and MIKE PENNER

June 20, 1998 12 AM PT

Colombian Coach Hernan Dario Gomez, under siege from soccer officials and journalists in his country and pressured by powerful club owners, said he will resign after the tournament.

“I was happy until I arrived [in France], but it has made the World Cup with Colombia a punishment, suffering instead of a happy time,” he said.

Meanwhile, Faustino Asprilla, dropped from the Colombian team for criticizing Gomez after Colombia’s opening 1-0 loss to Romania, has asked for forgiveness--and his old job back.

Gomez has until Monday, when Colombia plays Tunisia in Montpellier, to consider Asprilla’s petition.

More to Read

Soccer

Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.

WHO SAID THIS WAS ABOUT FUN?

More to Read

More From the Los Angeles Times