Sweden Gets Welcome Befitting the Winner
Germany won the Women’s World Cup in Carson on Sunday, but runner-up Sweden was given an equally tumultuous welcome Tuesday when both teams arrived back in Europe.
The aircraft carrying the Swedish team was flanked by two fighter planes as it circled Stockholm before landing. Later, thousands of fans lined the city’s streets for a glimpse of the silver medalists, who were heading for a celebration that included Prime Minister Goran Persson.
“It’s so fantastic,” Coach Marika Domanski Lyfors said. “Now it almost feels like gold.”
Sweden lost the championship final, 2-1 in overtime, in Carson in a game watched on television by nearly 4 million Swedes, making it the country’s highest-rated sports program in history.
In Frankfurt, meanwhile, Germany’s Coach Tina Theune-Meyer and her players were presented with flowers as they stepped off their aircraft. The victorious team’s arrival was shown live on national television.
Later, the world champions were honored at an official civic reception at city hall, where an estimated 5,000 fans turned out to greet them.
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FIFA vs. Ferdinand
Unless the English Football Assn. (F.A.) adequately punishes Manchester United and England defender Rio Ferdinand for missing a random drug test last month, FIFA will step in and impose more severe sanctions of its own.
Michel D’Hooge, the Belgian head of FIFA’s medical committee, told Associated Press that “the case is serious and he certainly has to be punished.”
Ferdinand’s future depends on whether the F.A. charges him with failure to appear for the test or with “willful failure” to appear. The latter charge could lead to the England international being banned for up to two years.
“FIFA will now wait and assess whether a serious sanction is forthcoming, one which fits the infringement,” D’Hooge said. “We’ll let the English do their work first. If everything is correct, we [FIFA] won’t have to do anything.”
Ferdinand told the F.A. on Monday that he simply forgot to show up for the test.
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Italian Fouls
Reacting to two recent incidents of unfair play, the Italian league has appointed a commission to study whether greater use should be made of television replays to help identify, and subsequently punish, players who use their hands or dive.
Two weeks ago, Argentine midfielder Andreas Guglielminpietro used his hand to score a goal for Bologna in a 2-0 victory over Udinese. Last week, Juventus midfielder Gianluca Zambrotta acknowledged that he had purposely dived to earn the penalty kick that resulted in the Serie A champions’ 2-1 victory over Bologna.
Sergio Campana, president of the Italian Players Assn., who suggested the increased use of replays, said they should “be used only for serious cases” and not during matches.
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Athens 2004
The United States under-23 national team will play Haiti in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., tonight in its final warmup match before its two-game Olympic qualifying series against St. Kitts and Nevis, on the road on Nov. 15 and at a U.S. site that has yet to be announced on Nov. 19.
If Coach Glenn Myernick’s team wins the series, as expected, it will advance to a final eight-team qualifying tournament in Mexico Feb. 2-12, from which the top two finishers will qualify for the Athens 2004 Olympics.
Maldini Return?
Italy’s Coach Giovanni Trapattoni told reporters in Milan on Tuesday that there still was an outside chance that veteran AC Milan defender Paolo Maldini would come out of international retirement and play in the 16-nation European Championship in Portugal next summer.
Maldini, 35, retired from the national team after playing in his 126th game, against South Korea at the 2002 World Cup.
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Quick Passes
Fernando Clavijo, the former U.S. World Cup player and former coach of Major League Soccer’s New England Revolution, today will be introduced as coach of Haiti’s national team. Clavijo, 47, signed a three-year contract on Sunday.
Chilean national team midfielder Nelson Acuna left Newcastle United of the English Premier League by “mutual consent” and returned home to care for his ailing mother, the club said.
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Times wire services contributed to this report.
