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 04/02 Czechs new European champions, says an analysis The Czech Republic will win the next European Championship by beating Italy in the finals, while France and Portugal will suffer dismal failure in the first round. This is the prediction of UBS Wealth Management Research, the company that accurately predicted Italy's win at the 2006 World Cup. The analysis is based on a complex model that takes into account the current estimated quality of the teams, their history in the competition, home field advantage and economic and monetary factors. After all the factors were weighed, UBS worked out that the Czech Republic and Switzerland would go through from the first group, Germany and Croatia from the second, Italy and the Netherlands from the third, Spain and Greece from the fourth group. Switzerland would then upset Germany, the Dutch would kick out Spain, the Czech Republic would take care of Croatia, while reigning champs Greece would succumb before world champs Italy. In the semis, Italy would see off the Netherlands and the Czechs would put an end to the Swiss hopes. Finally, Czech Republic will edge Italy with the narrowest of odds, 51% to 49%, which suggests that the winner will be determined in extra time or on penalties. Dinamo Zagreb closest to the title The month of April has barely begun and one country could already salute its soccer champions. Croatia's Dinamo Zagreb is a mere two points away from their third consecutive title since they are leading Hajduk Split by 19 points with seven games to go. If Dinamo defeat Inter Zapresic on Sunday, or if both Hajduk Split and Slaven Belupo fail to win, the Croatian league will already be solved as far as the top spot is concerned. In the past two seasons, the Zagreb Lions were also quite convincing. Two years ago, their final advantage over Rijeka was 11 poins, whereas last year Dinamo ran away from Hajduk by 20 points. Close to the title, but not just as close as Dinamo, are PSV Eindhoven in Netherlands and Rangers in Scotland. The Glasgow blues are four points in as many matches away of regaining the league after three seasons, while it will take PSV five points to make it four in a row. Finally, Porto will repeat the title if they collect six points in the remaining seven games. Malaysian laws to stop Chelsea's Asia tour Chelsea may cancel their summer tour of Asia if Malaysia does not allow their two Israelis to enter the country (and, presumably, guarantee their safe stay and return). Due to the absence of diplomatic ties between Malaysia and Israel, the midfielder Tal Ben Haim and the coach Avram Grant would not be able to be with the team during the preparations. "We are certainly not go on tour without our head coach. That mini tour is the key part of our preparations for the next season. There is no point of going there withoug the key man from our technical staff," said Chelsea's executive director, Peter Kenyon. However, should Chelsea fail to win a trophy this season then Grant would surely be sacked and then the Blues would be able to enter Malaysia with a non-Israeli coach. Mexico dumps Hugo Sánchez Mexican national team coach Hugo Sánchez has been unceremoniously dumped from his post by decision of the country's FA. "The FA's assembly unanimously voted to terminate our last coach's contract," said the secretary general, Decio de María. The official added that "Hugo Sánchez's tenure was a colossal failure", announcing Jesús Ramírez as the interim successor. Ramírez is the coach who took Mexico's U-17 team to the world title three years ago in Peru. Sánchez's undoing was the failure to win the qualification for the next summer's Olympic's. The greatest Mexican player in history was named coach in late 2006 and his contract would have normally ran out in 2010. Romário postpones retirement again One of the most venerable veterans, 42-year old Romario de Sousa Faria, has yet again postponed the retirement. The great Brazilian forward said this week that the claims of his imminent retirement were false. Curiously, the claims were made by Romário himself a day earlier. "I have not stopped playing. I am jobless and waiting for new offers," said to the Globo television one day after announcing his "adeus" to soccer in an interview to O Dia daily. Romario played his last game for Vasco da Gama last November, when he was given a four month suspension for using a hair-growth product containing an obscure banned substance. In the meantime, he worked as Vasco's coach, but quit the job as the club's chairman tried to interfere with his coaching decisions, including line-ups. Eduardo da Silva on the way to recovery Arsenal's Eduardo da Silva is doing fine in his recovery from a horrific ankle injury. He has had his cast removed and replaced with a protective air boot and now he is about to undertake the next stage of his rehabilitation in Brazil. After a check-up in a London clinic where the surgery had been performed on his shattered left ankle, the doctors informed the Croatian international that the traumatized tissue and the broken bone were healing well. Eduardo had worn cast for exactly five weeks after that misfortunate tackle from Birmingham's Martin Taylor put him out of action for a period estimated at around nine months. Raúl González makes history Who is the most effective Spanish forward besides Liverpool's Fernando Torres? Obviously Raúl. However, unlike Torres, Real Madrid's skipper is not in coach's Luis Aragonés's plans for the forthcoming Euro 2008. The irrational veteran coach does not appreciate the fact that Raúl last week scored his 16th league goal of the season, raising his career totals to 290 official goals for Real Madrid. The captain, who is having his best season after 2000/01, is currently the second all-time scorer for the royals, tied to legendary Carlos Santillana, but is only 26 goals short of the top scorer Alfredo Di Stéfano. Since Raúl is only 30, he will have plenty of time for overtaking Di Stéfano possibly by the summer of 2009. Incidentally, Raúl has played 475 games in the Primera división, scoring 205 goals. In 14 seasons, he has stayed unter 10 goals just in four of them. Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football J-League K-League Betting

Weekly soccer news for week of Nov 28th Raúl: I want to play at the European Championship! Real Madrid's skipper Raúl González still hopes for a return to the national team in order to participate at the European Championship in Austria and Switzerland. The most distinguished Spanish player is not in coach Luis Aragonés's plans, possibly because he is a hard-core Atlético man who, also coached Barcelona. But, since Raúl has been playing great soccer after a brief slump for a long time now, so the fans are right to expect the coach to moderate his unreasonable position towards the all-time top scorer of the national team with 44 goals.