Soares, Oteo Suspended Five Games
Two players from Universidad de Nueva Leon, the Mexican league runner-up, have been handed five-match bans for their part in the ugly scenes that marred the league’s championship final in Monterrey on Saturday.
Brazilian forward Irenio Soares was suspended for head-butting Pachuca’s Andres Chitiva late in the second match of the two-game series, which Pachuca won, 3-2, on aggregate.
David Oteo, who was on the bench, also was banned for five games for insulting referee Marco Rodriguez and for punching an unidentified Pachuca player in the back.
Another Tigres player, midfielder Antonio Sancho, was suspended for three matches for insulting Rodriguez after being red-carded, and UNL Coach Nery Pumpido, a World Cup winner with Argentina in 1986, was given a one-match ban for his criticism of the referee.
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Monterrey’s Choice
Former Mexican champion Monterrey on Wednesday selected Uruguay’s Hugo de Leon as its new coach after dismissing Daniel Passarella, captain of Argentina’s 1978 World Cup-winning team, in a dispute over player signings.
De Leon, who played for and coached Nacional in Uruguay, was chosen over several other candidates, including former Real Madrid coach Vicente del Bosque and former Mexico national team coach Manuel Lapuente, according to Mexico’s Notimex news agency.
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Team of 2003
The French daily newspaper L’Equipe named its team of the year for 2003 and the 11 players selected come from only five clubs, led by the Real Madrid quartet of forward Ronaldo, midfielders Zinedine Zidane and David Beckham and defender Roberto Carlos.
Also chosen by the newspaper’s soccer writers were goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, defender Lilian Thuram and midfielder Pavel Nedved, all of Italian champion Juventus; Alessandro Nesta and Paolo Maldini of European champion AC Milan; midfielder Claude Makelele of Chelsea and forward Thierry Henry of Arsenal.
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Butcher’s Tirade
In one of the more entertaining outbursts of the Scottish season, Motherwell Coach Terry Butcher has lashed out at what he called the “bizarre” transfer rules of the Scottish Football Assn.
European clubs cannot trade players until the transfer window opens Jan. 1, but Scottish Cup regulations require players to be registered two weeks before they play for a team. The result is teams can sign new players come Jan. 1, but they will not be eligible for the next round of Cup games, which take place before Jan. 14.
“It’s just rubbish,” Butcher said. “I feel like I’m banging my head against a brick wall. Players have to be registered 14 days before a Cup game, but you can’t register a player in December.
“If an alien came from outer space and saw this he would wonder what was going on.”
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Beckenbauer’s View
World Cup-winning coach and player Franz Beckenbauer believes the time has come to limit the number of foreign players, not only in the German Bundesliga but across Europe.
The percentage of foreigners in the Bundesliga has jumped from 21% in 1996 to 60% this season.
“The consumer doesn’t care if a German or a Brazilian scores the goal, but in the interest of German soccer it would be desirable to limit the number of foreigners again,” Beckenbauer told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag.
“In Holland or Italy there are regulations, but for me it would make sense to have European Union-wide rules. Some of our national players already have problems competing with foreigners at their clubs.”
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Rivaldo Too Costly
Rivaldo, a free agent since being released by AC Milan, will not be joining Sao Paulo of the Brazilian league, the club said.
“There’s no chance of Rivaldo being signed,” Juvenal Juvencio, the club’s director of soccer, said in explaining why talks with the 31-year-old 2002 World Cup winner had ended. “Sao Paulo are a responsible club and are not going to pay over our limits. He’s an excellent player ... but Brazilian football doesn’t have the financial resources to hire him.”
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Times wires services contributed to this report.
