World Soccer News for week of 03/23 Slaven Bilic vows to keep coaching Croatia The Croatian coach Slaven Bilic has said he will stay on the national team's bench beyond the European Championship in spite of a sweet offer from Germany's Hamburger SV. Bilic said that at a press conference putting an end to speculations caused by the Croatian FA's inertia. The FA inexplicably hesitated to renew the supremely popular coach after the momentous win at Wembley last November, fuelling the nation's concern Bilic could go to accept a financially more profitable offer abroad. "I'll stay as Croatia's coach. Salary doesn't matter to me. Let them give me a bianco contract and I'm going to sign it," said the former West Ham and Everton defender. "I do want to work in a club, but it will not be before 2010," added Bilic. What the fans think of FA's slowness to tie the coach for at least two more years has been reflected in a poll conducted by Vecernji list dails. No less than 77% of the voters believe the FA's president Vlatko Markovic should quit if Bilic goes. Record ban for a Chilean coach Marcelo Vega, former coach to the youth team of Chile's Santiago Morning was hit by a record 50 games ban for assaulting a referee. The former international was found guilty by the FA for knocking out the ref at the game between his team and Universidad de Chile on March 8th. This is the heaviest ban ever imposed in the history of the Chilean soccer. Club's vicepresident Luis Faundez called upon Vega to "leave the club in order not to cause more damage." The 37-year-old coach collected 30 caps and one goal in the national team between 1991 and 1998 playing as a midfielder. Capello recalls Beckham for France friendly David Beckham will finally get his chance of making the 100th appearance for England as Fabio Capello showed him mercy after several months of uncertainty. Capello, who was at odds with Becks during their spell at Real Madrid, had said he had left out the former captain for the Switzerland game due to his lack of fitness. Tottenham goalkeeper Paul Robinson has also won his return to the national side instead of the injured Scott Carson, Liverpool's keeper on loan to Aston Villa. On the other hand, other two in-form Spurs' players, Jermaine Jenas and Jermain Defoe, have been left out by the Italian coach, traditionally determined to keep the public guessing about his moves and motives. Donadoni's future at Italy uncertain Roberto Donadoni has not reached a new deal with the Italian FA, whose leaders say they will not consider extending his contract before the end of the European championship. "The issue will be dealt with when the current coach's contract expires on July 18th," said FA's chairman Giancarlo Abate. The man growing increasingly linked to the spot is Carlo Ancelotti, whose era at AC Milan is inexorably reaching the finale. Ancelotti has admitted he is interested in coaching his country but not before 2010. "I believe Donadoni deserves to stay. He has worked well so far and I trust he will do well at the European championship and the next World Cup," said Ancelotti. Ever the fair player, Milan's coach does not want to make an impression of being too eager to replace Donadoni, his former teammate in club and the national team. Athletic's keeper has his head smashed by a Betis fan The Spanish FA has punished Betis with two home games behind closed doors and awarded their game against Athletic to the visitors, confirming the scoreline of 1-2 prevailing before an incident forced the referee to signal the end. With 23 minutes remaining, a 40-year-old Betis fan threw a full plastic bottle in Athletic's keeper Armando's face. The Bask goalie suffered a deep cut and an injury to the left eye, which doctors fear may lose its function due to the detachment of retina. The fans helped the guards and the police catch the perpetrator, who was arrested and released on 3000 euros bail. Betis hoped the FA would enable them to play the remaining 23 minutes of the game, but the authorities would not heed their pleas remembering last year's incident in which the former Sevilla's coach Juande Ramos was also hit with a bottle thrown from the stands. The perpetrator of that incident will likely be sentenced just to a hefty fine since Ramos was not seriously injured. The recent bottle-thrower may be looking at a prison sentence should Armando lose the sight on the injured eye. Francesco Totti prefers Champions League to scudetto If he could chose, Roma's captain Francesco Totti would rather win the Champions' League than the Italian league, since an European club trophy is what is missing from his trophy room. "To win a title would be special because it would mean overtaking Inter, but I would prefer the Champions League as I have never won a international trophy at the club level.Who knows, maybe it would also boost my chances of achieving the Golden Ball. Still, if the performance at the European Championship turns out to be decisive for the Golden Ball, then I will not win it because I'm not going back to the national team," said the forward who has not played for the Azzurri after the victorious World Cup in Germany. On Roma's path to the European title lies, lest we forget, Manchester United. Copyright Soccerphile & Ozren Podnar Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football J-League K-League Betting

European qualifiers Greatest day for English soccer. And England did not even play. Ozren Podnar reports... What a wonderful Saturday for English soccer! England did not play, though, but Israel did, and Macedonia too. Not only one result went England's way on that glorious day, but two! Israel achieved the unimaginable feat of beating Russia by 2-1, when even a draw seemed unassailable; an hour later, an unbeaten Croatia finally succumbed to lowly Macedonia, who so rarely win a game at home (four in the last seven years, to be precise). Any of these unlikely scores would have saved the Three Lions from the instant ignominy of elimination from the forthcoming Euros. In the end, both results came out just as if Steve McClaren himself had designed them.