World soccer news for week of 05/10 Boavista relegated for corruption The Portuguese League has kicked Boavista to the second division and punished Porto with a six points deduction because of their involvement in soccer corruption during the 2003/04 season. Porto officials have been found guilty of having attempted to bribe referees in two League games, but the six minus points will not greatly upset the team, who lead Sporting by 20 points with a game to go. In the meantime Porto's president Jorge Pinto da Costa was handed a two year suspension. Boavista of Oporto were punished by outright relegation for bribing referees on three occasions during the same season. The former club chairman Joao Loureiro was suspended for four years and fined 25,000 euros. Five referees were found guilty of receiving bribes and were suspended for periods between two and a half and five years. José Mourinho's name was not mentioned in the procedure, although he was Porto's coach in that season, culminating with a Champions League triumph. Why did Domenech support Liverpool? Chelsea's win over Liverpool in the Champions League semis angered the French national team coach Raymond Domenech because of the alleged damage it will cause to France. It is not that Domenech has anything against Chelsea. His preference was due to the fact that Liverpool have no French internationals, while the Londoners have three. Just like Manchester United. This means that six French players will be engaged with their teams until May 21th, when they are scheduled to meet in the final in Moscow. Evra, Saha and Silvestre will be in action for Manchester, while Anelka, Malouda and Makelele will be there for Chelsea. Another inconvenient detail for Domenech is the French Cup final, featuring Lyon and Paris SG, who provide 12 players to the national team. Dramatically, the FA Cup final will take place only on May 24th, which will leave Domenech little time to prepare the team for the European Championship. Return of the King: Eriksson in Benfica for the third time He may be somewhat despised in England, but in Portugal he is the boss. Sven-Gőran Eriksson reached an agreement with Benfica to take over the team for the third time in his coaching career. The first two times he was sensationally successful, as he won League titles and took the Eagles to European finals on both occasions. Former Benfica stopper Carlos Moser is said to have been designated by Eriksson as the assistant coach. Eriksson himself will make a reported 2.2 million euros per year, a sizeable cut compared to the 4 million he earned at Manchester City. The 60-year is one of the most successful active coaches, having won the UEFA Cup with Göteborg, a Cup Winners' Cup with Lazio and plenty of other national trophies with Benfica, Roma and Sampdoria. England's fans did not appreciate the three consecutive quarterfinals at major tournaments during Eriksson's tenure, but then came Steve McClaren and a sense of nostalgia for the good old days with Sven. Fans mad at Flamengo's historic shame América of Mexico City achieved the seemingly impossible by overturning a 2-4 home defeat against mighty Brazilian Flamengo. In the return game at Maracaná, América scored an amazing 3-0 win, which set the scene for a series of incidents carried out by the local fans. Some of them engaged private guards in and around the stadium, others devastated property, and still others pelted the Flamengo team bus with stones. The coach Caio Junior, who took charge after the Copa Libertadores round of 16 tie was surrounded by local hooligans and threatened as if he had had anything to to with Flamengo's elimination. "This is Flamengo, you are going to have to win the championship now," shouted the angry fans. In the history of international club cups only once had a team come back from a 2-4 home defeat. The distinction was owned by the French side Metz, who overturned such a defeat against Barcelona by winning 4-1 at Camp Nou. Real Madrid rally behind Raúl Raúl González has to play at the European Championship. This is the unanimous opinion of Spanish fans and media alike. Raúl's teammates in Real have all spoken in his support. The only opposition seems to come from the only person that really matters: a stubborn, bigoted coach Luís Aragonés, who for reasons beyond rational analysis refuses to call on Spain's most capped player. Real players have rallied behind their captain, calling for Aragonés to change his position on the best Spanish forward in the domestic game. "We will try to help him improve his goal tally in the remaining two rounds," said a member of the team that retained the title last week with a win at Osasuna. Ironically, two years ago, after his least convincing season, Raúl was called up for the World Cup in Germany, while the current sensational campaign does not seem to perturb Aragonés. With two matches to go in La Primera, Raúl has scored 17 goals in 35 games, out of a total of 45 shots. He has also distinguished himself in defensive tasks, having won 57 balls. In 2005/06 his records were by far inferior, with a meagre five goals in the League in a mediocre Madrid season. That seemed to please the coach more than the current brilliant display by the still only 30-year-old striker. At the moment, his international record stands at 102 games and 44 goals, both of which constitute the highest figures in Spanish soccer. Steaua's incentive did not work CFR Cluj have won their first Romanian championship amid controversy involving Steaua's attempt to pay a substantial incentive to CFR's last matchday rivals, Universitatea Cluj. The team from Transylvania clinched the title by defeating local rivals Universitatea 1-0, making Steaua's 5-0 drubbing of Gloria Buzau irrelevant. This is the first time since 1991 that the title has gone outside of Bucharest to the provinces. On the eve of the decisive match, police in Cluj arrested five men carrying a bag containing 1.4 million euros, presumably intended for the Universitatea players. The money is suspected of belonging to Steaua's flamboyant boss Gigi Becali, who promised it to Universitatea in case they drew or won against CFR. Becali cynically commented that his associates must have been to Cluj in order to buy some property. The law does not treat the incentives to win as bribes, but other charges could be brought related to illegal monetary transactions. Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News Romania Raul

World soccer news for week of 04/30 Eriksson to be sacked from Manchester City Manchester City plan to dismiss the Swede Sven-Göran Eriksson at the end of the season, according to the team's owner, the Thai businessman and politician Thaksin Shinawatra. According to the former Thai Prime minister, Eriksson is not the suitable individual to manage the expensive and ambitious City squad. The players are said to be disgruntled with Shinawatra's decision and some have already announced they are ready to follow the boss. The Asian tycoon is apparently unhappy with the ninth position City currently holds, and the home defeat to Fulham by 2-3 after being 2-0 up has been the last straw. "Sven reacted calmly, as is usual for him, but he was very surprised and disappointed. He does not want to leave the club and will not resign," an anonymous source close to the former England manager told the BBC. Tottenham snatches Modric from Newcastle Croatia may have defeated England twice in the recent qualifiers for Euro 2008, but four of their most distinguished internationals are now members of Premier League clubs. After Niko Kranjcar (Portsmouth), Eduardo da Silva (Arsenal) and Vedran Corluka (Manchester City), midfielder Luka Modric has become the fourth Croat in the Premiership as he signed for Tottenham Hotspurs from Dinamo Zagreb. The Spurs will reportedly pay the Croatian champions 21 million euros, and Modric will earn in the proximity of 50,000 pounds a week. Only last week the 22-year old offensive midfielder was alleged to be close to signing for Kevin Keegan's Newcastle United, but Dinamo's power broker Zdravko Mamic put the Magpies' offer on hold so that Tottenham could step in and better whatever Newcastle had offered. Modric said he was overjoyed with the transfer and admitted the Croatia manager, Slaven Bilic, had advised him to choose the Spurs over Newcastle. Liverpool and Barcelona were also rumoured to be interested in the youngster. Labelled the "Cruyff of the Balkans", Modric is a supremely dynamic player capable of covering all midfield roles and is known for setting up forwards just as easily as scoring himself. After joining Dinamo in February 2005, he led the team to three consecutive championships, an FA Cup and a Supercup win, with another FA Cup appearance against Hajduk Split just a week away. Luka may be the right man to revolutionize the Spurs' midfield, but if Juande Ramos now allows the superstar striker Dimitar Berbatov to leave, it will be just another season of mediocrity at White Hart Lane. Exemplary punishment: jail sentence for a leg fracture On the same day the Croatian player Mario Andricevic from Cibalia was banned for six months for breaking a Hajduk player's leg, the Dutch Supreme Court confirmed the six month suspended jail sentence for the former Sparta player Rachid Bouaouzan for a similar infraction. Now at Wigan, four years ago the Morroccan broke a rival's leg with a brutal tackle during a Dutch league game. The first court ruling was appealed by Bouaouzan's lawyers, but the Supreme Court reasserted the initial sentence by explaining that the injury was caused by a reckless tackle that "flagrantly violated the regulations of the sport." Birmingham's Martin Taylor should indeed consider himself lucky since he received just a three game suspension for breaking Arsenal's Eduardo da Silva's leg on February 23th. Ronaldo in a shemale's clutches Ronaldo Nazario Lima, the Brazilian "Phenomenon", stands to lose a nine figure contract with Nike plus his girlfriend as a consequence of a scandal he was involved in after watching a Flamengo vs Botafogo game in Rio. The Milan striker, receiving treatment for a recent knee surgery in his homeland, apparently came across three female-looking persons in the street and suggested they all went to a motel to have a spot of fun. Once there, it became obvious to Ronaldo that the "girls" had certain features not entirely typical of the female sex, so he called off the party and left the scene. Lest his companions should feel betrayed, he offered them 400 euros apiece, but one of them, a certain Andre/Andreia refused and asked Ronaldo for much more unless he wanted the story to leak to the press. The footballer refused and Andre(ia) went to the police claiming Ronaldo had offered him money for the purchase of drugs. The athlete then presented himself at a police precinct denying the drug accusations. Still, Andre(ia) presented evidence Ronaldo had hooked up with him and his pals for "entertainment" purposes, which alone may cost the player much of his reputation in the eyes of sponsors and media alike. For now, his girlfriend Maria Beatriz has already dumped him and moved from Rio back to her parents in Brasilia, while Nike is considering unilaterally terminating a 100 million dollar endorsement contract on account the scandal could hurt their image. The funniest penalties: Robert Pires tops the chart Cristiano Ronaldo's non-fatal miss in the first leg of the Champions League semifinals inspired The Mirror to choose the ten worst penalty scenes in soccer's history. The United player certainly did not deserve a place in the top ten, having simply shot past the Barcelona keeper's post, but the authors had to justify somehow their sudden interest in the world of penalty taking. The top spot deservedly went to Arsenal's Robert Pires and Thierry Henry, who performed a breathtaking play in 2005 against Manchester City. Apparently the duo agreed they would repeat the exhibition invented in 1982 by Johan Cruyff and Jesper Olsen in Ajax. The play started by Cruyff passing the ball from the spot for the incoming Olsen. The Dane then took a few steps forward and passed back to Cruyff, who easily scored past the goalkeeper, who had already headed towards Olsen. However, in attempting to flick the ball towards Henry, Pires missed it altogether and stopped in confusion, while the City players rushed in and carried the ball away. The not entirely serious ranking includes the singer Diana Ross (!), who missed the open goal from about eight meters during the 1994 World Cup inauguration ceremony and the even funnier scene from a 2004 Olympic tournament game between Tunisia and Serbia. The Haitian referee Edwards ordered the Tunisian penalty to be taken six times, due to the Tunisian players trespassing into the area. Finally, the sixth shot, which ended in a goal, stood. The worst penalties 1. Robert Pires (Arsenal, Premier League) 2. Peter Devine (Lancaster, England lower leagues) 3. Roberto Baggio (Italy, World Cup) 4. David Beckham (England, Euro) 5. Stuart Pearce (England, World Cup) 6. Chris Waddle (England, World Cup) 7. Diana Ross (singer, World Cup) 8. William (Botafogo, Copa Sudamericana) 9. various Tunisians (Tunisia-Serbia, Olympics) 10. Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester Utd., Champions League) Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football J-League K-League Betting