Aigner Critical of Salaries
Too much money concentrated in too few hands could spell the death of soccer, Gerhard Aigner, the retiring chief executive of UEFA, told a German newspaper Sunday.
“We have a dangerous situation, because it should not be that success is only possible with money,” Aigner told Welt am Sonntag. “If that ... remains the case, then football will lose credibility and fascination.
“Sport needs competition [and] interesting opponents, otherwise boredom sets in and no one wants to come to the games anymore.”
Aigner, who steps down from his position Wednesday, criticized the huge salaries being paid to players by the wealthiest teams.
“It is not sustainable that some clubs spend 80% or more of their budgets on salaries,” he said. “That is a fight with death that you cannot win.”
He said he wanted to see a return to the days when clubs developed their players through the youth ranks and also wanted teams to field a minimum number of domestic players rather than importing talent.
“Perhaps it is a romantic idea, but if we don’t return to this, then football will just suffer more damage and lose its public,” he said.
Brandenburg Gate
The opening ceremony for the 2006 World Cup could take place not in Berlin’s Olympiastadion, site of the 1936 Olympic Games, but at the city’s Brandenburg Gate.
“Naturally, we want to hold the party at the most attractive place in Berlin, Brandenburg Gate,” said Thomas Haertel, Berlin’s secretary for sport.
Germany’s 2006 World Cup Organizing Committee would prefer that the Olympiastadion, site of the championship match July 9, be used.
A final decision is not expected until March.
Best in Custody
Former European player of the year George Best spent 11 hours in an English jail after being taken into custody for allegedly assaulting his estranged wife, Alex, British newspapers reported.
Police at Reigate would say only that they had held a 57-year-old man and later released him without charges being filed.
Two tabloids, the Sun and the Daily Mirror, identified him as the former Manchester United and Northern Ireland star.
Best and his 31-year-old wife separated in September after he began drinking again.
He underwent a liver transplant in July 2002 and had been warned by doctors to avoid alcohol.
“I just wanted to have a nice Christmas,” Alex Best told the Mirror. “I invited him out of the goodness of my heart. It was meant to be amicable.”
Premier League
Defending champion Manchester United will end the year at the top of the English Premier League no matter whether second-place Arsenal defeats Southampton today.
Coach Alex Ferguson’s team made sure of that with a 1-0 victory at Middlesbrough on a goal by South African international Quinton Fortune, whose 13th-minute shot deflected in off defender Danny Mills.
United is four points ahead of Arsenal and Chelsea, which bounced back from a midweek loss to beat Portsmouth, 3-0, on goals by Wayne Bridge, Frank Lampard and Geremi.
Dortmund Woes
Borussia Dortmund, European champion as recently as 1997, denied that it faces a $62-million operating loss this season and will be forced to sell some of its high-priced players.
“That’s absurd,” Gerd Niebaum, the Bundesliga team’s president, said of reports that the club is in serious financial difficulty.
“Naturally, we’re missing money because the team was ousted in the Champions League, UEFA Cup and German Cup. But we’ve reacted by cutting the players’ salaries [by 20%].”
Niebaum admitted, however, that unless Dortmund, currently in sixth place, qualifies for next season’s Champions League, selling players “can’t be a taboo theme anymore.”
Times wires services contributed to this report.
