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

World Soccer News: for week of January 20th Maradona invited to a Holocaust museum Diego Armando Maradona has been invited to a Holocaust museum in Buenos Aires to learn of Nazi atrocities. The invitation has been extended by the head of the Argentinian Jewish community Aldo Donzis, due to Maradona's repeated praise of Iran and its president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, known for his denial of the Holocaust and calls for the destruction of Israel. "We do not mind Maradona's support of the Iranian people, because the Jews are not against the Iranians. We object to his sympathies for Ahmadinejad, who is not an ordinary person," said Donzis in his invitation to the famous player. The Argentinian government has long suspected the Iranian leaders of having orchestrated in 1994 a slaughter of 85 local Jews in Buenos Aires and protecting the perpetrators. Maradona said he would like to meet the Iranian president, in his opinion the third "giant" of today's politics, alongside Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez. He even sent a replica of his number 10 national team shirt to Ahmadinejad by diplomatic mail. Zlatan reaches a hundred... Inter's Zlatan Ibrahimovic has completed his first century of League goals. With two hits against Sienna he raised his tally to 49 in Italy alone, after having scored 16 times for Malmő Ff, 35 for Ajax and 23 for Juventus. In the past 18 months in Inter the Swede of Bosnian and Croatian origins has been going at 0.6 goals per game, having netted 26 times in 43 appearances. ...Totti a hundred more While taking Roma to the quarterfinals of the Italian Cup, Francesco Totti performed an extraordinary feat. With two goals in his team's 4-0 win over Torino, Totti reached 200 goals in all competitive games for Roma. "Scoring the 200th goal was one of my dreams and I wanted to realize it at this stadium, my stadium," said Totti, whose next objective is to become the most capped Roma player of all time. With 386 appearances, the legendary defender Giacomo Losi is just four games ahead of Il Capitano. Going strong at 31, Totti is allowed to glimpse another milestone: "I hope to score my 300th goal before I retire." Since he plans to play until the summer of 2012, this particular goal is not beyond his reach. * Since his debut in 1993, Totti has scored 161 goal in Serie A, 17 in the Italian Cup and Supercup and 22 in the European Cups. His best season was 2006/07 with 32 goals on all fronts. Iker Casillas plans to be Real's chairman Real Madrid's Iker Casillas, currently the world's top goalkeeper, is looking far into the future. Although only 26, he already has it clear he would like to be his club's chairman, perhaps in 20 years' time. "My dream is to be Real Madrid's chairman, in which case I would try to bring back Santiago Bernabeu's old style," said Iker, not concerned what the current club's boss Ramón Calderón will think may be wrong with his own style of governing. Still, Casillas does not intend to take over just yet. First he's going to coach. "I'd like to be like Camacho, Del Bosque or Irureta. I'll work with youth players, then with seniors. All of this will not happen so soon. I believe I'll be good in goal until I'm 35, maybe even 38. I hope to play at Real Madrid until the end, I don't want to move." Cukaricki's coach orders his players to sing There's going be music in Cukaricki Belgrade's dressing rooms. The coach Dragoslav Stepanovic has come up with a brilliant idea for improving his players' mood: they're going to sing at the end of every practice or game. The former Yugoslav international and Eintracht Frankfurt's coach considers the boys too serious and obedient, even though they are performing decently on the pitch (all-time best fourth in the League). "When the spring season starts, my players will have a special daily task. Football must be enjoyed and a good atmosphere is essential for success," said Stepanovic to Kurir daily. The Serb has apparently been inspired by José Mourinho, who requested of each new player to perform before his teammates for bonding purposes. In Cukaricki they'll all sing. "I'm fed up with coming to the dressing rooms and finding the guys silent, with their heads down. The player I select will have to mount a chair in the center of the room and sing something of his choice. Let them choose what they will, but I'd prefer Serb folk music. First they'll be a bit shy, but later on they'll beg me to perform." Munúa to be tried for punching Aouate The Spanish District Attorney has instituted criminal proceedings against the Uruguayan goalkeeper Gustavo Munúa for punching in the face and injuring Dudu Aouate, his colleague at Deportivo La Coruna. Although the Israeli, who received eight stitches for a cut on his left cheek, did not press charges personally, the Attorney is prosecuting Munúa ex officio. The South American snapped simply because Aouate had expressed his surprise at having been relegated to the bench in Munúa's favour. On the other hand, Deportivo's coach Miguel Angel Lotina has also reacted unreasonably by suspending indefinitely both the aggressor and his victim. Copyright: Soccerphile & Ozren Podnar Last week's world soccer news Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football Betting

World Soccer News for week of November 22th Tradition smashed as England exit Euro England's elimination from the European championship was the top story around the world: foreign fans and the media respect English soccer far more than those at home and the failure of the Three Lions has been greeted with as sense of shock and awe. In Croatia, the fans celebrated the triumph with crackers and fireworks, seeing the 3-2 win at Wembley as one of the three greatest ever in the 16-year history of the national team. The other two are the 3-0 thumping of Germany in the 1998 World Cup quarter finals and the 2-0 defeat of England last year in Zagreb. Although England is not at their finest hour, beating them away from home will guarantee a place in the national soccer history for the Croatian team that achieved that.