Referee Faces a Lengthy Suspension
Chilean officials said Tuesday they would deal sternly with a referee who kneed a player in the leg during a first division game Sunday and then red-carded him for feigning injury.
Gaston Castro, the head of the Chilean league’s refereeing committee, said referee Francisco Caamano could be suspended for as many as 50 games based on his actions in the closing minutes of a match between Temuco and Audax Italiano.
“If it is proved to be an act of aggression, he will get an exemplary punishment,” Castro told Reuters.
Caamano claims he was simply trying to protect himself, but TV replays showed that the referee, surrounded by protesting Audax Italiano players, kneed one of them in the leg. When the player, Alejandro Carrasco, fell to the ground, Caamano gave him a second yellow card and ejected him from the game.
Caamano, 33, a physical education teacher, told reporters that Carrasco had trodden on his foot, that he “felt threatened” and that kneeing the player was “a reflex act.”
He said he had ejected Carrasco because the player pretended to have been kneed in the groin.
Audax Italiano won the game, 2-1, but that did not stop its coach, Hernan Godoy, from knocking the cellular telephone out of the hands of a radio reporter who tried to interview him. The reporter responded by kicking the coach, only to be chased off the field by the Audax Italiano players.
Brazil Recalls Team
Brazil Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has risked the wrath of European clubs by recalling all 23 players who won the 2002 World Cup for a friendly game against Paraguay in Fortaleza, Brazil, on Aug. 21.
In addition, Scolari included AS Roma defender Emerson in the squad of 24. Emerson, Brazil’s captain, dislocated his shoulder in the team’s final training session before its first World Cup match and missed the tournament.
The game will be Brazil’s first since defeating Germany, 2-0, in the World Cup final in Yokohama, Japan, on June 30.
Sixteen of the 24 players are with clubs in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, where the 2002-2003 league seasons have just begun or are about to begin.
Ronaldo Needs Escort
Brazil World Cup star Ronaldo flew back to Italy from Rio de Janeiro Tuesday and needed a police escort out of the airport in Milan, where angry Inter Milan fans turned out to protest his possible move to Real Madrid.
Meanwhile, Inter Milan’s owner, Massimo Moratti, again denied that the striker is heading for Spain in a multimillion-dollar deal.
“There is only one truth,” Moratti said in Tuesday editions of Corriere dello Sport. “Ronaldo belongs to Inter and will play with us next year as well. That’s that.”
Numan Retires
Defender Arthur Numan, who played for the Netherlands in the 1994 and 1998 World Cups and in the 1996 and 2000 European Championships, Tuesday announced his retirement from international soccer. Numan, 32, played 45 games for the Dutch team. He said he will concentrate on his club career with Glasgow Rangers in Scotland.
On the Move
The Italian Serie A club Perugia agreed to transfer South Korean World Cup star Ahn Jung-Hwan to a team yet to be determined.
Galaxy on the Road
Matt Reis will start in goal tonight at San Jose, where the Galaxy takes on the rival Earthquakes in a U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal match.
The Galaxy has eliminated the Earthquakes from the U.S. Open Cup the last two years, winning, 10-9, on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw last year, and beating them, 2-0, in 2000. The Galaxy advanced to the quarterfinals with a 4-0 win at the A-League’s Minnesota Thunder on July 17, whereas the Earthquakes needed a 120th-minute golden goal from forward Ariel Graziani to beat the A-League’s Seattle Sounders.
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Staff writer Paul Gutierrez contributed to this report.
