The Word on the Street
04 Jul 2006Mbeki in Germany for World Cup handover
South Africa President Thabo Mbeki will visit Germany this week for the official handover of the football World Cup to be hosted by South Africa in 2010.
Mbeki will also meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel during his three-day working visit to discuss South Africa's preparations for sport's most prestigious event, deputy foreign minister Aziz Pahad said in Pretoria.
"The president will participate in the 2010 handover ceremony and launch the logo for the World Cup that we are hosting," said Pahad.
"His visit comes in the context of South Africa's stated commitment to making the 2010 Soccer World Cup a truly African event," he said.
English shun Portugal as holiday resort
England fans seeking solace from their World Cup woe were shunning Portugal as a holiday destination after the national squad knocked England out of the tournament, travel agents said Tuesday.
Portugal beat England on penalties after Saturday's goalless quarter-final in Gelsenkirchen, causing misery for England supporters hoping their team could become world champions.
"Last week, Portugal was our fourth most-searched destination -- but since Saturday it's fallen down to 15th place," said John Bevan from online travel agent Lastminute.com.
"We expect interest will bounce back but at the moment the loss is still a bit raw. But we hope that English holidaymakers don't boycott the Algarve for long as a result of the match."
Meanwhile competitor Thomas Cook said bookings surged by 35 percent on Sunday and Monday as fans looked to get away from it all following England's failure to make the World Cup semi-finals.
Penalty flops were too tired says Crouch
England's abysmal penalty shooting in the World Cup loss to Portugal was due to the players being exhausted playing a man down after the 62nd minute expulsion of Wayne Rooney, according to striker Peter Crouch.
"I honestly felt exhaustion set in at the end against Portugal. We'd played quite a lot of the game with 10 men and I think we took the penalties in a tired way.
"Everyone worked so hard and I genuinely feel everyone had given everything by the time we had to take the penalties. That definitely showed in the penalties we had to take.''
"We have come in for criticism in the past for not practising penalties but I can assure you, we had been practising them all the time after going to Germany in early June - and before that.
"They had been going well in practice - but we were fresh then. We were in an empty stadium as well which is a different ball game to Saturday.
Roberto Carlos retires from Brazil team
Brazil defender Roberto Carlos has announced he is retiring from international football following his country's World Cup quarter-final defeat against England.
"My days playing with the national side are over," the Real Madrid star said on his personal website.
"It's time to move on and I hope I can hand over the number six shirt to someone else who can continue to win for our country.
Cicinho is expected to take his place in the side now.
"Many thanks to all the players and the fans who have supported me."
Roberto Carlos won 125 caps for Brazil and played in the 2-0 win over Germany in the 2002 World Cup final.
He also played in four out of Brazil's five games in Germany ending in the heartbreaking 1-0 loss to France in the quarter-finals.
Beckenbauer says Klinsmann must stay
World Cup organising committee head and former world champion both as player and coach Franz Beckenbauer said Tuesday Jurgen Klinsmann should remain as German coach despite their 2-0 defeat by Italy in the World Cup semi-final in the dying minutes of extra-time.
"I think our team played really well. It was Italian cleverness which sent them through," Beckenbauer told German television.
"I hope Jurgen Klinsmann carries on. He has a young team which he has moulded in his image. The young players trust him and it would be a pity if we lost that. I hope Jurgen carries on.
"We gave a good account of ourselves and today's defeat can't change that," added 60-year-old Beckenbauer, World Cup winner with West Germany in 1974 and then coach to the winning side in 1990.
USA line up Klinsmann: report
The United States are in talks with Germany coach Jurgen Klinsmann to lead their national team to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, it was reported here on Tuesday.
Although Klinsmann has already dismissed speculation linking him with the job, the Daily Telegraph claimed preliminary contact has been made with the man who has defied the odds to take Germany to the semi-finals of the World Cup.
Klinsmann lives in California, his wife is American, and he is viewed as the ideal man to replace Bruce Arena who is leaving the United States hotseat to return to club management.
The newspaper claimed that the Americans will put a deal on the table that exceeds the 1.5 million pounds a year Klinsmann earns with Germany. That would be three times what they have been paying Arena.
Zico heads to Fenerbahce
Turkish giants Fenerbahce said Tuesday that they had signed a two-year contract with Brazilian football legand Zico who quit as coach of Japan's national team following the Asian champions' exit from the World Cup.
The 53-year-old Zico will fly into Istanbul on Wednesday for an official signing ceremony and to meet the players, the Istanbul-based club said.
The financial details of the contract were not dislosed.
He had announced before the competition that he would leave Japan and look for a coaching post in Europe.
His stint at Fenerbahce will be only his second job as a coach.
He will replace German coach Christoph Daum who was ditched by Fenerbahce last month following the loss of the Turkish league title to arch rivals Galatasaray.
Blatter warns Greece to act quickly
FIFA President Sepp Blatter on Tuesday warned Greece to take seriously its suspension from all international football but said he was confident of finding a solution.
"This suspension will be an alarm and I am sure it will be listened to because in my opinion it is more a clash of personalities than people acting in the bad interest of football," Blatter said in Germany.
FIFA announced on Monday it was suspending the Greek Football Federation (HFF) for allowing political involvement in the running of the sport.
The suspension means the reigning European champions will be suspended from all international football, including European club competitions such as the Champions League, until further notice.
Blatter said Greece was one of three countries - Poland and Portugal were the others - who had been warned that the setup of their football federations was contrary to FIFA rules governing neutrality.
Brazilians burn Ronaldinho statue
Angry Brazilian football fans have destroyed a seven-metre tall statue of World Player of the Year Ronaldinho following the national team's World Cup quarter-final exit at the hands of France.
The statue, made out of resin and iron, in the southern town of Chapeco in Santa Catarina state, was burnt in the night of Saturday to Sunday, after the Selecao's 1-0 defeat to Les Bleus, according to the local mayor's spokesperson.
"All that's left is a burnt out metal skeleton of a statue," the source said.
The monument, depicting Ronaldinho with a ball, was inaugurated two years ago to celebrate the player's first World Footballer of the Year award in 2004.
The Barcelona forward, who is from the neighbouring Rio Grande do Sul state, was a major disappointment for Brazil during the tournament, failing to shine as he had done all season in his club's colours.
Czech coach Bruckner agrees two year extension
Czech national team manager Karel Bruckner will sign on for a further two years under a deal that is as good as signed, a top member of the national football federation said on Tuesday.
Czech and Moravian Football Federation board member Vlastimil Kostal said only a few formalities stood in the way of a new agreement with Bruckner being signed.
"We shook on it. All that is needed now is the signature on the agreement, otherwise we agreed on everything," said Kostal.
The two year extension means that 66 year old Bruckner will manage the Czech team through qualification for the 2008 European Championships in Austria and Switzerland.
Bruckner has been manager of the Czechs since the end of 2001.
Germany the favourites in Britain
In the absence of England in the World Cup semi-finals, Germany were the favourites to win the tournament at British betting shops on Tuesday.
The hosts were quoted at between 6/4 and 7/4 at the main high street bookmakers, with France second favourites at between 7/4 and 9/4.
Germany face Italy in Dortmund on Tuesday while France and Portugal clash in Munich on Wednesday in the second semi-final.
Italy were the third favourites at 3/1 to win the tournament outright with England's conquerors Portugal last at between 11/2 and 13/2.
Despite England being knocked out on penalties by Portugal, the fun has not stopped at British betting shops.
Paddy Power are taking bets on the first of the England team's WAGs (wives and girlfriends) to announce their pregnancy after the World Cup final.
Midfielder David Beckham's pop star wife Victoria, already a mother of three, is the 9/4 favourite, followed by striker Wayne Rooney's 20-year-old fiancee Coleen McLoughlin at 10/3.
Maradona hints at interest in Argentina post
Argentine legend Diego Maradona says he is not going to throw his hat into the ring to replace coach Jose Pekerman, who resigned after the World Cup quarter-final loss to Germany.
But he also vowed not to stay in the background either.
"I will neither step aside nor put forward my candidature," said the 1986 champion.
"Maybe I will never become coach of the national team as I don't know if that would go down well with the powers that be. I am not under any illusions," said Maradona.
"What I want is for Argentina to have the best," said Maradona, who in opinion polls last week was rated as a possibility to take the reins - though way behind veteran Carlos Bianchi, former coach with Boca Juniors and who recently ended an unsuccessful stint with Atletico Madrid.
Injury toll from car crash climbs to 25
German police said Monday that the number of people injured when a car ploughed through the Fan Mile area for football World Cup supporters at the weekend had risen to 25 after more victims came forward.
A spokeswoman for the Berlin police said that four more people had reported slight injuries after a man drove his Volkswagen Polo Sunday afternoon through security barriers near the Brandenburg Gate and into the crowd.
Twenty other adults had minor wounds while an 11-year-old boy suffered a concussion.
The driver, a 33-year-old German of Indian origin, was arrested at gunpoint after his car crashed into a fence in front of a stage set up for a classical music concert that evening at the central Berlin landmark.
He is facing charges of attempted homicide.
A 55-year-old woman in the passenger seat was also detained but later released.
Witnesses said he was driving about 50 kilometers/hour (30 miles/hour) and appeared to have intentionally careered into the crowd.
FIFA suspends Greece
Football's world governing body FIFA on Monday announced that they had suspended the Greek Football Federation for allowing political involvement in their running of the sport.
The suspension means that Greece, the reigning European champions, will be suspended from all international football until further notice.
A FIFA press release said that the decision had been taken by its Emergency Committee composed of five presidents and one representative of each of the six world confederations.
The Greece Football Federation had been suspended are they were "not in line with the principles of the FIFA Statues regarding the independence of member associations and the independence of the decision-making process of the football-governing body in each country."
Germany prepares to roar on its team
Millions of German fans were expected to fill the streets of the country on Tuesday to cheer on the host nation in its most important match on home soil since the 1974 World Cup final.
Germany will meet Italy in a World Cup semi-final in a packed Westfalenstadion in Dortmund, but up to a million people were expected to gather in Berlin on the so-called Fan Mile to watch the action on giant TV screens.
The area leading up to the Brandenburg Gate, the capital's best-known monument, was being expanded to allow 900,000 people to squeeze in to watch the match as Germany attempt to secure a place in Sunday's final in Berlin.
The Berlin Fan Mile has hosted more than six million supporters so far during the month-long World Cup, making the celebrations the biggest street party the city has seen since the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.
"This has become much bigger than we ever dreamed," Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit said.
Bank robbers disguised as Germany fans stage heist
Bank robbers disguised as football World Cup fanatics slipped past guards in Germany, decked out in wigs, scarves and hats in the national side's colours, police said Monday.
The three purported supporters, who blended in thanks to nationwide euphoria about Germany's winning streak at the tournament, stormed a bank in the southern Berlin district of Marienfelde covered from head to toe in black, red and gold souvenirs.
One was even wrapped in the German flag.
Brandishing handguns and an automatic weapon and threatening tellers, they collected the cash stored in a safe in less than a minute and ran.
The "fans" are still at large, a police spokesman said.
Japanese star Nakata retires
Japanese midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata, one of the most famous Asian players of his generation, has announced his retirement from professional football, his website said on Monday.
"I will never go out onto the pitch again as a professional football player, but I will never give up football," said the 29-year-old Nakata, whose third World Cup ended in a 4-1 defeat to defending champions Brazil.
Parreira largely to blame says Pele
Carlos Alberto Parreira was mainly to blame for Brazil's failure to justify their favourites tag at the World Cup finals said Brazilian legend Pele on Monday.
Pele told daily newspaper O Globo that he hoped their exit in the quarter-finals to bogey team France would act as a lesson for future campaigns for the five-time champions.
"The expectations from the whole of the world placed on the Brazilians was enormous," said Pele, a World Cup winner in 1958, '62 and '70.
"The psychological pressure, too little time to prepare physically and the lack of strategy on the pitch did not help them.
"I really hope that this unexpected defeat will be a big lesson for the next World Cups'," he added.
While Pele refused to single out Parreira or any individual player he did say that the top players had failed to step up to the plate.
"The feebleness of the best players at the most important moments did not help," said Pele, who added that depsite a poor campaign Barcelona ace Ronaldinho remained the best player in the world.
Terry odds-on to take the England armband
John Terry is the red-hot favourite to take over the England captaincy, bookmakers said Monday, after David Beckham quit the role in the wake of his side's disappointing World Cup campaign.
Terry, 25, who skippered Chelsea to a second straight English Premiership title last season, is so far ahead in the betting that some bookmakers have stopped taking bets on the England captaincy.
Bookmaker William Hill have closed the book on the position after 95 percent of the bets they took were placed on battling centre-half Terry, whose never-say-die attitude has made him a fan's favourite at Chelsea.
"We were finding it difficult to make a market because people only wanted to back Terry," William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe told AFP.
"My information is that it's probably his to turn down and you'd be surprised if he did."
Terry was their 1/2 favourite, followed by Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard at 11/4, Frank Lampard and Gary Neville at 8/1 and Rio Ferdinand at 16/1.