Spat With Beckham Costs Alpay
The highly publicized clash between England’s David Beckham and Turkey’s Alpay Ozalan, which sparked a halftime brawl between the teams two weeks ago, on Thursday cost Alpay his job in the English Premier League.
Aston Villa announced it had terminated Alpay’s contract despite the fact that it still had more than eight months to run.
“In light of recent events, it would have been difficult for Alpay to represent Aston Villa again in the future, and the player himself was aware that life in England had become increasingly difficult for him and his family,” said Doug Ellis, Aston Villa’s chairman.
Alpay, who is known by his first name only, taunted Beckham after the Real Madrid star missed a penalty kick during England’s 0-0 tie with Turkey in Istanbul in a crucial European Championship qualifying match Oct. 11.
The Turkish defender also poked Beckham in the face, leading to a brawl in the tunnel as the players left the field. Alpay, 30, claimed that Beckham had sworn at him and had spat on his national team jersey.
The fracas subsequently involved Turkey’s foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, who said Alpay had been affected by nerves because of the importance of the match.
Aston Villa paid Fenerbahce more than $8.5 million for Alpay in 2000, but he failed to settle well, having run-ins with a succession of coaches. In an interview with Britain’s Sky Sports News, he blamed Beckham for his dismissal.
“This wouldn’t have happened if the confrontation had been with any other player than David Beckham,” he said.
“The time and effort the English media give to David Beckham is unfair. It is [an] injustice to the other players in the England team. The other players work harder than he does.”
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Coelho’s Korean Woes
Humberto Coelho, the Portuguese coach whose thankless task it was to replace Dutchman Guus Hiddink as South Korea’s national team coach after Hiddink had led the Koreans to fourth place in the 2002 World Cup, is on the verge of being fired.
Furious protests from fans after South Korea lost, 1-0, to Vietnam on Sunday and 3-1 to Oman on Tuesday in Asian Cup qualifying games in Muscat, Oman, have left Coelho’s position in jeopardy.
“I will seriously consider going to the [Korean Football Assn.’s] technical committee to discuss whether to sack Coach Coelho,” Cho Chung-Yun, general secretary of the KFA, told the Yonhap news agency.
Coelho was selected as Hiddink’s successor in January but has had mixed success while coming under intense scrutiny.
“We will examine everything, including dismissing Coelho, as soon as the national team returns to South Korea” after playing Nepal today, a KFA spokesman said.
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Afro-Asian Farce
The soccer tournament at the inaugural Afro-Asian Games in Hyderabad, India, has gotten off to a farcical start.
Thunderstorms led to a sparse turnout for the opening match between India and Rwanda on Wednesday, causing stadium officials to play recorded applause over the public address system to provide some atmosphere.
On Thursday, with the rains continuing, Ghana pulled out of the soccer tournament altogether, leaving it unbalanced with seven teams.
Meanwhile, delays in connecting flights between Tehran and Hyderabad caused Iran’s team to arrive only six hours before its first match, which it promptly lost to Uzbekistan, 1-0, in an embarrassing upset for the former Asian champion.
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Quick Passes
Canadian Dick Pound, president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said in Montreal that he finds “puzzling” comments by Joseph Blatter, FIFA’s president, that apparently disagree with WADA’s automatic two-year suspension for drug violators. Pound wants a meeting to hash out the problem.
Times wire services contributed to this report.
