British Cup Team Upstaged by Party
England Coach Sven Goran Eriksson on Thursday unveiled the team he will be taking to the World Cup, but English fans appeared more interested in who will be going to “Beckingham Palace” this weekend than to Japan next week.
Barely a month after breaking a bone in his left foot and putting his World Cup place in doubt, midfielder David Beckham has recovered sufficiently to be among the 23 players chosen by Eriksson and to announce that he and his wife Victoria, formerly of the Spice Girls, will host a lavish garden party Sunday at their Hertfordshire estate.
More than 400 guests, including the entire England team, have been invited to the charity event, which will be televised and will feature an Asian theme, in keeping with Korea/Japan ‘02, the first World Cup to be held in Asia.
Elton John is among the dozens of celebrity guests expected to attend.
The event is intended to raise $730,000 for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
In naming a relatively young squad--half the players are 24 or younger, including France ’98 standout Michael Owen--Eriksson produced few surprises.
“I think it’s a good squad,” he said. “But you can only pick 23 players. I have made my choice and that’s it. If I did right or wrong, I have no idea.”
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Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, the FIFA president targeted in a lawsuit by members of his own executive committee who are trying to root out corruption within soccer’s international ruling body, said Thursday he is not bothered by the impending legal action.
“The threat of any charges leaves me unperturbed,” Blatter said. “I find the threat of legal action disappointing, but it does not come as a surprise to me. This merely represents the logical consequence of months of relentless and systematic attacks on the FIFA president by my opponents in an attempt to destroy my personal integrity.”
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Fikret Unlu, Turkey’s minister for sports, has proposed a half-holiday on June 3 so fans can watch Turkey play four-time world champion Brazil in the opening round of the World Cup.
The game, scheduled for early in the work day, will mark the Turkish team’s first appearance in the World Cup in 48 years.
“For the Brazil match, we will put a suggestion to the prime minister for a public holiday; it could be a holiday at least until the afternoon,” Unlu said.
Or at least until Brazil scores.
The Americas
The AC Milan team that will play three games in the United States in the next two weeks will bear little resemblance to the team that annually challenges for the Serie A title in Italy.
No fewer than eight “guest” players have been called in to fill in for players unavailable because of the World Cup. The eight include former FIFA world player of the year George Weah of Liberia.
Milan will play Ecuador in New Haven, Conn., on Saturday; Major League Soccer’s New York/New Jersey MetroStars on May 16 in East Rutherford, N.J.; and Mexico at the Coliseum on May 19. Weah will play only against the MetroStars.
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Abstinence will not make the heart grow fonder, according to Brazil’s World Cup players, who were taken aback by Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari’s apparent ban on sex during the May 31-June 30 tournament.
Scolari last week was quoted as saying he favored “sexual abstention” by his players during the event, adding that “any individual who cannot control this aspect of his life is not a human being but an irrational animal.”
That remark did not set well with his players, and Scolari Thursday clarified his statement, saying of Brazil’s players: “In their off-duty days, they are free to do whatever they want. I am simply not interested in what they do in their own time.”
