Demand for World Cup Spots Rises
South America might be willing to give some ground in the battle over how its teams qualify for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, but it is not about to budge on how many teams will be allowed to qualify.
Nicolas Leoz, who has ruled CONMEBOL, the South American soccer confederation, since 1986, said Monday in Asuncion, Paraguay, that the continent deserves five guaranteed places at the quadrennial world championship.
That would be an increase from the guaranteed four places it had in 2002, when Uruguay defeated Australia in a playoff to earn a fifth spot at the Korea/Japan ’02 tournament.
“We think it should be five,” Leoz told Reuters, indicating that FIFA could be in for a fight because Asia also has demanded five places, instead of four, and Oceania has demanded one guaranteed spot without having to go through a playoff.
Meanwhile, Leoz said CONMEBOL’s executive committee today would reconsider its plan to have each of its 10 nations play the other nine in a marathon, 18-game, home-and-away World Cup qualifying series that would stretch from 2003 to 2005.
Leading European clubs have denounced the plan, since it means they would have to give up their South American players far more frequently.
Summer Tour
The details of Manchester United’s summer tour of the United States were hammered out Monday, and the English Premier League team will play Club America of Mexico at the Coliseum at 2 p.m. on Sunday, July 27.
The exhibition will be the second in a four-game, four-city trip for Manchester United, which also will play Glasgow Celtic at Seahawks Stadium in Seattle on July 22; Juventus at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on July 31 and Barcelona at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, on Aug. 3.
Toluca’s Coach
Rafael Lebrija, president of the Mexican league club Toluca, named Alberto Jorge as the team’s new coach following the resignation Sunday of Wilson Graneolatti after the Red Devils had won their quarterfinal series against Chivas of Guadalajara.
Jorge, who is from Argentina, will have only a couple of days to familiarize himself with the players before Toluca’s two-game semifinal series against Santos Laguna on Wednesday and Saturday.
Graneolatti said his decision to quit was “irrevocable” after Lebrija tried to bring former coach Ricardo Lavolpe back for one game after Toluca’s loss to Chivas in the first game of the quarterfinals.
Robson’s Choice
Former England and current Newcastle United Coach Bobby Robson said he had turned down an offer to coach Benfica before the Portuguese club last week named Spain’s 2002 World Cup coach, Jose Antonio Camacho.
“I knew that if I took the job, I would have become the only manager in the history of football in Portugal to have managed the top three teams in their country as, of course, I have also been with Sporting Lisbon and Porto,” Robson told the Evening Chronicle newspaper.
“They gave me an hour to make my mind up, but I only needed minutes to tell them no.”
Quick Passes
The United States will send its men’s under-23 national team -- its potential Athens 2004 Olympic team -- and its women’s under-19 national team to the 2003 Pan American Games, Aug. 1-17 in the Dominican Republic, U.S. Soccer announced.... Two goals by striker Richard Morales earned Nacional its third consecutive Uruguayan championship Sunday as it defeated Danubio, 2-1, in the second game of the two-game series in Montevideo, Uruguay. Nacional won the first game by the same score.... Universidad Catolica, Cobreloa, Colo Colo and Universidad de Chile advanced to the semifinals of the Chilean championship.... Sporting Cristal won its 14th Peruvian championship.
