Galaxy to Play in Eight-Team Event in Spain
The Galaxy, Major League Soccer’s defending champion, will travel to La Manga, Spain, in mid-February to take part in the La Manga Cup, an eight-team tournament featuring clubs from Norway, Russia and the United States.
In addition to the Galaxy, MLS will be represented by its 2001 champion, the San Jose Earthquakes, in the Feb. 17-28 event.
Coach Sigi Schmid’s Galaxy team, which begins training for the 2003 MLS season on Jan. 29 at the Rose Bowl, will arrive in La Manga on Spain’s central Mediterranean coast on Feb. 15, three days before its first match, against Lyn Oslo of the Norwegian league.
The Galaxy, which was drawn into Group B, also will play Torpedo Moscow of Russia on Feb. 21 and Odd Grenland of Norway on Feb. 24 in the first round.
The Earthquakes will play in Group A in the first round, against Norwegian champion Rosenborg Trondheim on Feb. 17, Rubin Kazan of the Russian second division on Feb. 20 and Viking Stavangar of Norway on Feb. 24.
The playoffs for placement will be held Feb. 27 and 28, with the MLS teams returning to California on March 1.
The New York/New Jersey MetroStars are also supposed to train in La Manga in March.
FIFA Bans Addo
Farah Weheliye Addo, president of the Somali Football Assn., was banned from soccer for two years by FIFA on Monday for what the sport’s world governing body described as “unfounded allegations of unethical conduct [that] undermined the interests of football as a whole.”
During Joseph “Sepp” Blatter’s successful campaign last year for reelection as FIFA president, Addo claimed that he was offered $100,000 to support Blatter in his 1998 FIFA presidential bid and that Mohamed Bin Hammam of Qatar, now a FIFA executive vice president, had negotiated that and similar bribes.
In announcing Addo’s ban, FIFA said Addo had been unable to produce evidence before its disciplinary committee to substantiate his claims.
Addo’s ouster marks the latest move by Blatter to remove from power all those who opposed him during his 2002 election campaign.
Milbrett at Home
Striker Tiffeny Milbrett, in China with the U.S. women’s national team that will take part in the Four Nations Cup starting Thursday, said she feels perfectly at home in Shanghai, where the U.S. team is staying.
“My [hotel] room is great, the Internet works fine, my cell phone works, it’s overcast all the time, and there’s a Starbucks on the corner. If it wasn’t for all these Chinese people walking around, I could be in Portland,” Milbrett told U.S. Soccer press officer Aaron Heifetz.
Zidane Rules
Real Madrid and France midfielder Zinedine Zidane has been voted France’s most important sports figure in a poll conducted by L’Equipe magazine. Zidane topped a list of 100 personalities who were ranked according to their influence on sport in France.
Finishing second was Xavier Couture, president of pay television channel Canal Plus, while former French World Cup star and national coach Michel Platini, now a UEFA vice president, was third.
Maradona on Course
Diego Maradona, who inspired Argentina to its 1986 World Cup triumph before drug use put a premature and inglorious end to his career, has taken up golf.
The 42-year-old, who has lived in Cuba for the last three years, plays regularly in Havana, where he competes in a monthly tournament, although his scores have not been revealed.
“I admit that I don’t feel the same emotions on the golf course as I did kicking the ball around,” he told the Associated Press. “But I play absolutely every day, training like an animal.
“Sometimes, I talk loudly, I yell, I get excited and everyone gives me dirty looks. It bothers me a bit, but I still find golf an exceptional sport.”
