Ozren Podnar reports The only 1930 WC survivor celebrates 100th birthday The former Argentinian player Francisco Varallo, the only survivor from the first World Cup finals in 1930, turned 100 last Friday. Varallo was the youngest member of Argentina's squad that got beaten 4-2 by Uruguay in the decisive match at the Centenario stadium in Montevideo. Varallo, called "Canoncito" (Little Cannon) was born on February 5th of 1910 in La Plata, 50 km south of Buenos Aires, and until recently held the scoring record for Boca Juniors with 194 goals, until overtaken by Martin Palermo last year. With Boca, Varallo played for nine seasons winning three championships and five top-scoring titles. "I remember that final match quite well. It was a tough game in which the Uruguayans overwhelmed us. We went 2-1 up, but ended up losing 2-4. We had a great team but some of the players lost stamina in the second half. I believe I should not have played that match because I was too young and inexperienced and also could not run due to a knee injury," Varallo told the media, while Argentina celebrates the jubilee of one of the countries heroes. The plaudits include the creation of the award labelled "For career and chivalry", which will be presented to the veteran next Friday. John Terry stripped of captaincy over sex scandal England manager Fabio Capello punished John Terry for his umpteenth sex romp by removing him as captain. The Chelsea defender came under the scrutiny of the British tabloids over his affair with Vanessa Perroncel, who is the former companion of England teammate Wayne Bridge. Their relationship was crowned with Vanessa's pregnancy, which was terminated in agreement with Terry. Terry's role as the captain was first questioned by sport minister Gerry Sutcliffe, who observed that "a captain's responsibilities reach beyond the field of play." The defender's fate was sealed when Capello travelled to London to visit him and resolve the captaincy issue in direct talks. Terry was promoted to team leader by Steve McClaren in 2006, and was confirmed in the role by Capello when the Italian took over in early 2008. His successor is Rio Ferdinand, until now Terry's deputy as appointed by Capello. In the meantime the press has compiled an enviable list of Terry's erotic conquests, which has singled out the Chelsea man as one of the top Casanovas in the country. Jose Mourinho not taking over at Real The media have again placed Jose Mourinho in the context of coaching Real Madrid since their president Florentino Perez is not satisfied with Manuel Pellegrini's work. The allegations meant that Mouringo's agent Jorge Mendes had an exhausting Friday having to deny his client's intentions of leaving the Italian champions Inter's bench. "I have heard Mourinho say on several occasions that he would respect his contract. Real rumours? They are not surprising, because most journalists tend to publish some kind of fantasy all the time," said Mendes. "It is obvious that Mourinho is doing fine at Inter, where he has a great team. Therefore I'm asking you why he would leave?" Inter have yet again built a solid lead on top of the Serie A table and are likely to wrap up their fifth consecutive Italian title, which would equal Juventus' and Torino's "ancient" records. Salvador Cabanas' condition improving The Paraguayan international Salvador Cabanas has surprisingly improved twelve days after being shot in the head in a Mexico City bar. Still with the bullet lodged in his skull in an apparently harmless position, Cabanas is capable of sitting up, taking his own food and exchanging a few words. Among those is his desire to improve in order to take part at the World Cup in South Africa. That may be slightly too optimistic, as the doctors are very happy that the Paraguayan has come this far in view of the severity of his wound. "He speaks, obeys orders and moves his extremities without a major problem," said the surgeon Enrique Martinez, who performed the operation on the player's head. There is no infection usually associated with bullet wounds, but there is still some presence of blood in the ventricular cavity, which required the doctors to set up a draining system "for the sake of safety," added the doctor. The Mexican authorities have attempted to interview Cabanas over the incident, but the doctors have estimated he is still uncapable of making a full statement regarding the circumstances of the shooting. Zlatko Kranjcar named Montenegro coach Former Croatia national team manager Zlatko Kranjcar has taken over Montenegro on Friday after accepting FA chairman Dejan Savicevic's offer. Tottenham's Niko Kranjcar's father said he welcomed the new opportunity with enthusiasm, hoping to take Montenegro to Euro 2012 just as he did Croatia to the 2006 World Cup. "Our common goal is to make a step further in comparison to what Montenegro did so far. I am well acquainted with the team's qualities and we'll try to achieve the best possible result", said Kranjcar, whose achievements include two League and Cup doubles with Dinamo Zagreb and one League with NK Zagreb, probably the biggest upset in the history of Croatian club competition. "We managed to hire a coach with great experience at all levels," said Savicevic. "I am convinced we made a great choice and that our national team will be a tough competitor in the second qualifying cycle in our history." Tags Soccer News football

World Soccer News For week of 05/20 FIFA threatens to expel Bosnia and Poland from World Cup The international football governing body has threatened Bosnia and Herzegovina and Poland with the expulsion from the current World Cup qualifiers because of their fans' ill conduct. FIFA has fined Bosnia with 45,000 USD and Poland with half as much, saying it has no intentions to tolerate hooliganism. Next time, the football bosses warn, both teams will have points deducted or will be immediately disqualified.

World Soccer News for week of 05/19 Pompey celebrates 69 years later Portsmouth have finally won a piece of silverware thanks to the inspiration of their two Nigerians, Kanu and Utaka. A full 69 years after their first FA Cup the team coached by Harry Redknapp fulfilled the dreams of their fans by defeating Cardiff City at Wembley 1-0. The only goal was scored by Nwankwo Kanu, who took advantage of keeper Enckelman's blunder after John Utaka's cross. Pompey hardly showed their Premiership class against their Championship League rivals, but the result is what finally counts in Portsmouth and in...Croatia! The Croatian media devoted the FA Cup finals the same amount of space as to their own cup, which saw Dinamo Zagreb smash Hajduk Split by 3-0. The reason? Niko Kranjcar, of course. The 24-old midfielder has become the first Croat with the most prestigious national cup in the world, a distinction which is certain to increase his appeal among his compatriots. Inter "threepeat" the scudetto in high drama Internazionale have defended their Italian League title warding off a dangerous Roma assault in the last half hour of the competition. A 2-0 win at Parma guaranteed Inter's win regardless of what Roma did at Catania, at the same time condemning Parma to the Second Division. Both goals came from Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the 62nd and 78th minutes, snatching the title from Roma, who had laid their hands on the trophy when Mirko Vucinic brought them ahead after just eight minutes. In the end, after Zlatan's goals a demoralised Roma conceded the equaliser and the celebrations of Inter's fans in Parma, Milan and elsewhere could begin. The nerazzurri's joy after a third title in a row was doubled by the fact that their city rivals from AC Milan did not even make the Champions' League! The Italian representatives in the top club competition will be Inter, Roma, Juventus and Fiorentina, while Milan will take part in the UEFA Cup. The relegation of Parma, alongside Empoli and Livorno, on the other hand signalled the end of a famous 18-year spell of the former Parmalat's team in the top flight, during which period they won four European trophies and three Italian Cups. The bankruptcy of the gigantic dairy industry company finally ended up condemning a once glorious side to Serie B. Lyon's magnificent seven No team in the top European leagues can boast more than five consecutive League titles. Juventus and AC Torino have that in Italy, Real Madrid did the same, on two occasions, in Spain. Olympique Lyon on the other hand now have as many as seven French championships. Olympique Marseille also won the Championnat five times in a row, but their 1993 title was declared void by the FA for having fixed the match against Valenciennes. Lyon stretched their already record-breaking run on Saturday thanks to a 3-1 win at Auxerre, which was more than enough to keep them ahead of Bordeaux, who could only draw at struggling Lens. The 2-2 result saddened both teams, because it meant that the 1998 champions will have to play in the Second division exactly ten years after winning the League. They will be joined by Metz and Strasbourg, while Paris SG reached salvation owing to a good 2-1 win at Sochaux. Nantes on the other hand return to the top flight after just one season. Lens will certainly want to emulate them in the forthcoming campaign. Barcelona: 65 million for another trophyless season The era of rational business operations at Barcelona did not last for long. The disastrously extravagant era of the chairman Joan Gaspart, who spent hundreds of millions of euros on signings between 2000 and 2003 for zero titles, was interrupted by the first three years of Joan Laporta's mandate. Still, after the Champions League victory in 2006, the good old ways returned to Barcelona, which allowed Real Madrid to regain the pole position in Spanish soccer. Last summer Laporta's club signed players to the tune of 65 million euros and in return the team finished third, 18 points behind Madrid, while in the FA Cup and the Champions League the semifinals turned out to be an unsurmountable obstacle. Thierry Henry was brought from Arsenal for 24 million euros in order to be deployed in the wrong position on the left wing. Defenders Gaby Milito and Eric Abidal cost a mere 17 and 15 million euros respectively, while midfielder Touré Yayá's signing required nine million. On the other hand, this spring Barcelona saved 35 million euros in unpaid bonuses promised for the trophies the expensive players failed to win. The savings will no doubt be used in the next transfer window. How cleverly is another question. Dinamo Zagreb – a club that eats the coaches Incredible but true: Dinamo Zagreb have sacked or forced the resignation of no less than nine different trophy-winning coaches since 1996. Two of them were laid off twice, which means that there has been eleven departures of coaches immediately or soon after they led the team to one or more trophies! This must be the world record, but the fans are not at all amused. The last coach to go has been Zvonimir Soldo, who resigned minutes after his boys added the FA Cup to their 10th Croatian League title. Soldo, who had a supremely distinguished 10-year long spell at Stuttgart, refused to explain his reasons, but he did not need to. The fans and the media know that Soldo could not stand the attempts of the club's officials to interfere with his work, neither could he condone the continuous transfers of the club's best players. Midfielder Luka Modric's move to Tottenham for 21 million euros will soon be followed by Ognjen Vukojevic's transfer to Celtic and others. Since 1996, no amount of domestic success was able to keep a coach on the bench for more than 18 months. Among those who won stuff and then left were Zlatko Kranjcar (Niko's father) twice, Otto Baric, Ilija Loncarevic (twice), Marijan Vlak, Miroslav Blazevic, Nikola Jurcevic, Josip Kuze and Branko Ivankovic. Kranjcar and Baric, like Soldo, even won the double, while Ivankovic collected all three prizes – League, FA Cup and Supercup, winning 28 championship games in a row. He quit last January, fed up by insults directed at him by the club's power broker, Zdravko Mamic, over losing an utterly irrelevant indoor soccer game to Hajduk. However, Ivankovic is tipped to succeed Soldo as the quarrel with Mamic seems to be forgiven, if not forgotten. 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Did Nastase take the money? Dinamo Bucharest's Valentin Nastase has been accused by a Romanian daily, Fanatic, of having been paid by Lazio Rome to cause a penalty in favour of the Italians in their recent Champions' League preliminary tie. The penalty early in the second half enabled Lazio to draw level and start a turnaround on the way to a 3-1 away win. While the Italians qualified with a 4-2 aggregate score, Nastase has to defend himself. "I am being massacred from all sides. I have sent a note of denial to all Romanian newspapers, but they don't want to print it. I have sued the paper that published the lie. I'm not interested in money, only in truth and an apology," said the former Genoa, Palermo, Bologna and Ascoli player.

04/24/2007 Croatian FA to demand 3.5 million € from UEFA over loss of Euro 2012 Croatian FA chairman Vlatko Markovic says his organization will demand 2.5 to 3.5 million Euros in damages from UEFA after the joint Croatia/Hungary bid was rejected as host to stage the 2012 European championships. "We'll ask between 2.5 and 3.5 million because all of our projects were suspended during the campaign to organize Euro 2012," Markovic told the Jutarnji list daily. Markovic, who spoke to UEFA's chairman Michel Platini in Nyon over the issue, believes Croatia and Hungary were deceived in the Executive Committe's final vote last Wednesday that was won by Ukraine and Poland.

03/31/07 Greek leagues suspended over death in volleyball The Greek government has suspended for 15 days all league competitions in all sports after violent clashes between rival fans before a volleyball game left one dead and several injured. A Panathinaikos women's volleyball team fan died of 15 stabbing injuries and blows on the head inflicted upon him by Olympiacos fans on Thursday. The two teams are principal rivals in soccer and basketball, but even a women's volleyball match was considered a good opportunity to pick a fight. The murderer has not been identified, but the authorities say he is not among the 13 arrested aged between 17 and 30.

Weekly Football News Roundup 03/17/07 Inter Milan going at 90% ! There is no doubt that the Italian Serie A is among the strongest leagues in the world and if a team from that league have won 90% of the points in play, now that is something. Internazionale of Milan currently lead the table with 23 wins and 4 draws after 27 games played, which means that Roberto Mancini's team collect nine points out of every ten. The most efficient British team are Manchester United with 72 out of 87 possible points, half a percentage point above the Scottish leaders Celtic.

Weekly World News Mahdavikia suspected of faking a penalty Hamburger SV have scored their first home win this season but the authorities are now questioning whether it was achieved in an ethical fashion. Hamburger's player Mehdi Mahdavikia is being investigated by the German FA for supposedly having simulated a foul to win a penalty for his team in the game against Borussia Dortmund (3-0). The Deutsche Fussballbund started the investigation after analyzing the TV images which suggest that the Iranian feigned a fall in the penalty area in the 10th minute of the game, without having been touched by the Dortmund keeper, Romann Weidenfeller. Referee Lutz Wagner awarded the penalty to the relegation threatened HSV, which resulted in the first goal for the hosts. Capello's Real equal their best ever away record as Becks returns By winning 2-1 at San Sebastian, Real Madrid equalled their best-ever number of away wins at this stage of the season. Real also had eight wins after the first 22 games during the 1960/61 and 1987/88 seasons, winning the title both times. This time, however, the Castillians have no more than five wins out of ten home games, which is one of their worst home records in the history of the club. In spite of supposedly terrible results this season, Fabio Capello's side is just five points behind leaders Barcelona, a deficit that can be overturned in two games. The other bright point in the match against Real Sociedad was the return of David Beckham, who even got one of the goals. At the end of play at Anoeta Stadium, euphoria broke out around Becks as everybody approached the hero of the day and among the congratulators was even Capello himself, who had found he could not ignore the pro-Beckham pressure from inside the dressing room. Phrases such as "you had to come on for us to win" and "it's los galácticos all over again" were commonplace, as Becks smiled at this unexpected return to fame at the club that had almost ostracized him over his U.S. transfer. £100 FREE BET BASKET FOR NEW CUSTOMERS Register with bet365 to qualify for up to £100 in Free Bets. Your first bet will be matched (up to £25) with 3 x free bets (up to £25) available once you’ve placed an additional 10, 20 and 30 bets of £5 or more with bet365 .