International Roundup

FIFA president: Future of football is on artificial surfaces

SINGAPORE (AP) -- FIFA President Sepp Blatter said Tuesday artificial pitches were the "future of football" and called on nations to build more of them to improve their standard of soccer.

"Playing on artificial surfaces, that is the future of football," said Blatter. "An artificial turf means less injuries," he said without elaborating.

On a two-day visit to the city-state, Blatter told Singapore soccer officials they had the infrastructure and the "footballing pedigree," but said they needed more artificial surfaces to train on.

He spoke briefly to the media after visiting Singapore's National Football Academy trainees here.

The tiny Southeast Asian city-state is ranked 114 in the world but Football Association of Singapore General-Secretary John Koh told Blatter his country hoped to be "below 60" in three to five years.

After a series of disappointing results, Singapore last month scrapped its "Goal 2010" program aimed at qualifying for the World Cup finals in 2010.

Singapore has yet to win an international match in 2004.

Blatter leaves for Beijing Wednesday morning.

English fiasco prompts FIFA substitution review

LONDON (AP) -- FIFA plans to clarify a new rule on substitutions after a club game in England had to be abandoned last week.

Fulham's preseason match against Watford was scrapped at halftime after both teams made six changes, although the players stayed on the field and the match became more of a training session without an official referee.

That prompted the Football Association to hold discussions with FIFA about the rule change agreed in February by the International Football Association Board and imposed July 1, which states no more than six changes can be made per team in non-competitive matches.

Earlier on Tuesday, the FA said FIFA had agreed to limit restrictions on subs only in international friendlies, meaning unlimited changes in club friendlies. But FIFA spokesman Markus Siegler said that's what the rule was intended to mean all along.

"It's about misinterpreting the rule," he said. "Now we will have a look to better specify and clarify the rule. It's a matter of understanding the interpretation going back to February."

The IFAB will examine the issue later this week, Siegler said.

Last year, England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson used two different teams in a friendly against Australia, prompting FIFA president Sepp Blatter to label the match "a farce."

In preseason club matches though -- especially early ones -- players rarely play a full 90 minutes.

Debt-laden Napoli at risk of dropping out of Serie B

ROME(Reuters) -- Debt-laden Italian Serie B club Napoli missed a deadline on Tuesday to show its finances were in order, putting in jeopardy the former Italian champion's chances of qualifying for the new season.

Napoli, at risk of being thrown out of the second division, needed to assure the Italian Football League it had met a shortfall of millions of euros in its accounts by midnight on Monday.

The league's offices had remained open to receive the documentation, the first in a series of financial deadlines for Italian clubs to register for the 2004/05 season.

"We did not receive any documents by midnight last night and we have not received them today," a league spokeswoman said.

Many Italian clubs are battling record debts and heavy losses but they must prove their finances in order to register for the season. Napoli has around 70 million euros ($87 million) of debt, Italian media reported.

Serie A club SS Lazio (SSL.MI) had been at risk of missing the first of three deadlines but according to local media Rome-based entrepreneur Piero Tulli paid between 25-30 million euros to ensure the club was not immediately disqualified.

Several Naples-based entrepreneurs are also seeking to pay over six million euros in unpaid salaries of Napoli players but the businessmen needed three more days to work out the deal, Italian newsagency ANSA reported.

Napoli has two further deadlines this month when it may be allowed to present the documents, said a spokesman for the Italian soccer federation, Federcalcio.

Federcalcio holds the final decision on barring Napoli from Serie B, possibly relegating the club to Serie C or sending it to the bottom of the league system.

Some of Napoli's rivals on Tuesday said Serie C would be too good for the club and wanted it to follow the fate of twice Italian champions Fiorentina who were relegated to the fourth division after being declared bankrupt.

"If Naples makes it into Serie C it will be a disgrace. It has been in a terrible financial state for years and the only way to resolve the situation is to raze the whole thing and start again with people who are capable of success," Genoa Chairman Enrico Preziosi told ANSA.

Minister: Troubled AEK to stay in Greek first division

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- AEK Athens will remain in the first division next season despite a financial crisis which has brought the club to the brink of collapse, Greece's sports minister said Tuesday.

"No one is going to go bankrupt, at least not in 2004," Giorgos Orfanos said.

AEK -- which sent five players to the Greece squad that won the European Championship earlier this month -- is grappling with debts to players and the state, and had previously faced relegation to amateur divisions.

A group of Greek investors is bidding to rescue the club, in an effort headed by Greece and Atletico de Madrid striker Demis Nikolaidis, who met Orfanos Tuesday.

AEK's management has suffered frequent changes and upheavals and has so far failed to resolve disputes with players and put forward a viable rescue plan.

But Orfanos said a new legislation to reform professional soccer, due to take effect before the start of the season, will give AEK more time to deal with its debts, worth more than euro104 million (US$125 million). He did not elaborate.

Orfanos said AEK, one of the capital's three major clubs, will use the newly renovated Olympic stadium as its home field after the Aug. 13-29 Games.

Last month, thousands of angry AEK fans staged a protest march to parliament, demanding that the government intervene to spare the club from relegation.

Both the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.