Ex-Bulgaria Midfielder Is Shot
Former Bulgaria national team midfielder Stoicho Stoilov was shot and wounded Thursday after becoming engaged in a heated argument with another driver after a traffic accident in the southwestern Bulgarian town of Blagoevgrad.
Stoilov, 31, was fired at four times and hit in the stomach and leg. A hospital spokesman declined to reveal his condition. The other driver, Simeon Mechev, 43, turned himself in to police and was being held for questioning.
Meanwhile, in Sofia, Bulgaria, photographer Ivaylo Donchev was hospitalized with head wounds that were not considered life-threatening after being injured when an unidentified fan tossed a homemade bomb onto the field during Thursday’s UEFA Cup match between Levski Sofia and Sturm Graz of Austria.
Several arrests were made, but the culprit was not immediately identified.
That 149-0 Game
The sports ministry of the island nation of Madagascar dissolved the country’s soccer federation, apparently because the government is unhappy with the appointment of Switzerland’s Hans Heineger as national coach and unhappier still that the federation has not acted in wake of the 149 own goals scored in protest during a recent league match that drew worldwide attention.
If FIFA follows precedent in such matters, the move is almost certain to cause world soccer’s governing body to suspend Madagascar from all international competition because FIFA opposes any government interference in the administration of the sport.
A Very Red Card
An unidentified amateur player has been banned for eight games by the Dutch soccer federation (KNVB) for kissing a referee who had tossed him out of a game last month.
“First, the player got a yellow card, then he made remarks to the referee,” KNVB spokesman Joris Gieske said. “The second yellow was also for talking [dissent], and then the player got angry.
“He took the referee by the head and kissed him on the mouth.”
... And in Germany
A lack of respect for referees was the subject of some angry comments from Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, president of the German soccer federation (DFB).
“The current situation in the Bundesliga is no longer acceptable,” he said in Berlin. “It cannot be tolerated that every refereeing decision is heavily discussed and criticized.”
Mayer-Vorfelder has the backing of Bayern Munich President Franz Beckenbauer, head of the 2006 World Cup Organizing Committee.
“It’s not only the [starting] players who don’t behave well, but also the substitutes and the coaches and their assistants,” he said. “It’s been that way for years and it must stop. It’s not like that in other leagues, and it hurts the image of the Bundesliga.”
World Cup 2006
Beckenbauer could not resist a dig at the Netherlands, Germany’s longtime soccer rival, when the Dutch electronics giant Philips agreed to become the 10th official sponsor of the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
“We now know for sure that the Dutch will be here [in 2006],” Beckenbauer joked. “They were not there in 2002. We naturally hope that the Dutch team will be here too.”
The other nine official sponsors are Adidas, Avaya, Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola, Deutsche Telekom, Gillette, McDonald’s, Toshiba and Yahoo.
