Unlikely Co-Hosts Selected
Austria and Switzerland were selected Thursday as co-hosts of the 2008 European Championship, edging out six rivals in the bid to stage international soccer’s second-most important event.
The tournament will be played in the Austrian cities of Innsbruck, Klagenfurt, Salzburg and Vienna, and in the Swiss cities of Basel, Berne, Geneva and Zurich. Vienna will host the opening ceremony and the final.
Austria has never staged a major international soccer tournament and Switzerland has not done so since hosting the 1954 World Cup.
“This was the most positive decision for Austrian football in the past 30, 40 or even 50 years,” said Austria’s coach, Hans Krankl. “It is the best thing that could happen, simply wonderful.”
It took the executive committee of UEFA, European soccer’s ruling body, four hours to select Austria and Switzerland.
Hungary finished second in the voting and a joint bid by Greece and Turkey was third.
Failing in their efforts were joint bids from Ireland-Scotland and Bosnia-Croatia, a four-way Nordic bid by Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, and a solitary bid by Russia.
Portugal will stage the 2004 European Championship.
World Cup 2006
Africa’s soccer leaders reversed course and decided that the 2006 African Nations Cup in Egypt would not serve as qualifying for the World Cup in Germany later that year as they had previously agreed upon.
Instead, the Confederation of African Football, meeting in Cairo, settled on a two-tier qualifying system that will allow 16 of the continent’s 52 nations a bye into the second qualifying round.
USA Winners
Aly Wagner, Santa Clara University and United States women’s national team midfielder, and forward Alecko Eskandarian of the University of Virginia were named winners of the Missouri Athletic Club’s Hermann Trophy as college soccer’s outstanding players for 2002.
FIFA Decision
An agreement was reached between FIFA, world’s soccer’s governing body, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland, that gives CAS final jurisdiction over all soccer disputes except those concerning interpretation of the rules of the game.
Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s president, called the agreement “a significant step toward resolving the regrettable proliferation of disputes in the world of football.”
Mexican Semifinals
Morelia scored a convincing 4-0 home victory over UNAM on Thursday night in front of 42,000 at Estadio Morelos in the first game of a two-game Mexican championship playoff semifinals.
Goals by Adolfo Bautista in the 14th and 61st minutes led the way for the Monarcos, who also saw Javier Saavedra and Alex Fernandes score in the 30th and 43rd minutes, respectively.
The second game of the series is Sunday at the Estadio Olimpico Universitario Mexico 68 in Mexico City.
Ronaldo, Etc.
International soccer’s leading English-language magazine, World Soccer, selected Real Madrid striker Ronaldo as its player of the year, Dutchman Guus Hiddink as its coach of the year and Brazil as its team of the year for 2002.
Ronaldo beat out Bayern Munich and Germany midfielder Michael Ballack and Real Madrid and Brazil defender Roberto Carlos for the honor, which he also won in 1996.
Hiddink, who led South Korea to the World Cup semifinals, was chosen ahead of Brazil’s World Cup-winning coach Luiz Felipe Scolari and Frenchman Arsene Wenger, who led Arsenal to the English Premier League and FA Cup “double.”
European champion Real Madrid finished second in the team-of-the-year voting and Arsenal was third.
