Nigeria Cancels Warmup Game
Nigeria’s minister for sport--and a man closely involved in his country’s World Cup plans--was among the 149 killed when a domestic airliner crashed in Nigeria over the weekend.
Amid national mourning for the loss of Ishaya Mark Aku and fellow passengers, Nigeria on Tuesday canceled a Korea/Japan ’02 warmup game against China that had been scheduled for Saturday in the southern Chinese city of Kumming. The game would have pitted the “Super Eagles” against Bora Milutinovic, the coach who led them to the second round of the France ’98 World Cup and who now coaches China.
In addition, Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria’s president, scrapped a sendoff reception planned for the team next week.
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Tens of thousands of Egyptians turned out in Cairo on Tuesday for the funeral of one of the country’s greatest players, Saleh Selim, who died of liver cancer Monday at the age of 72.
Nicknamed “Maestro” during a playing career that lasted from 1947 to 1967 and saw him become one of the first Egyptian players to turn professional, Selim later appeared in three movies and served for 18 years as president of Al Ahly, one of the country’s top clubs.
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South Africa’s World Cup fortunes took a sharp downturn when it learned that forward and team captain Shaun Bartlett, who has scored 24 goals in 60 games for the “Bafana Bafana,” will miss the tournament because he needs surgery to repair an Achilles’ tendon injury suffered during the African Nations Cup in Mali in February.
Europe
Defender Igor Tudor has been lost to Croatia for the World Cup after being told he has to undergo ankle surgery. The 23-year-old Juventus player was a towering presence on the back line for Croatia, which finished third in the France ’98 World Cup.
“He was and is one of our key players,” Coach Mirko Jozic said. “His absence means we have lost some 20% of our value. If we had some advantage over two of our World Cup rivals before, now I can no longer say that.”
Croatia plays Ecuador, Mexico and Italy in the first round.
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Authorities in the Netherlands determined that today’s UEFA Cup final in Rotterdam between the Dutch club Feyenoord and Borussia Dortmund of Germany will go ahead as planned despite the murder of Dutch politician and Rotterdam resident Pim Fortuyn.
Latin America
Uruguay Coach Victor Pua’s decision to include veteran striker Daniel Fonseca, 32, in a squad of 27 players that he will bring to Washington, D.C., for Sunday’s game against the U.S. at RFK Stadium has drawn the ire of the country’s media.
Several newspapers said younger players deserved the chance ahead of Fonseca, a former Juventus and Napoli forward who played in the Italia ’90 World Cup but has been sidelined by injury for much of the last three years.
The most influential of the newspapers, El Pais, said the impression given is that Fonseca’s agent, Francisco “Paco” Casal, and not Pua, is picking the team.
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Brazilian media reacted with anger at Brazil Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari’s decision to leave Romario off his World Cup roster.
Tuesday’s editions of the Jornal dos Sports branded Scolari “public enemy No. 1” for ignoring the player who led Brazil to its 1994 victory in the U.S.
