|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Eriksson for England Lazio coach will remain in Italy until July
Updated: Tuesday October 31, 2000 2:24 PM
ROME (AP) -- Sven Goran Eriksson has pledged his 'exclusive commitment' to Lazio until the end of his contract with the team, the club said Tuesday. Eriksson, whose contract with Lazio expires at the end of June, made the pledge to Lazio president, Sergio Cragnotti, when the two men met Tuesday morning, a Lazio statement said. The English Football Association on Tuesday named Eriksson as the first foreigner to coach England's national soccer team. Cragnotti had "taken note with regret" of Eriksson's decision to sign a contract with the FA, Lazio said. FA chief executive Adam Crozier termed Eriksson a "unanimous choice" and said he would take over full-time on July 1 -- on a five-year contract - when his Lazio contract ends. "Any speculation that Eriksson will leave before then s just unfounded rumor," Guido Pagliam, Cragnotti's spokesman, said, dismissing reports that Eriksson would be available on a part-time basis for En he informed the club of his decision to take the England soccer manager's job, Lazio's president Sergio Cragnotti said earlier Tuesday. "He is full of pride in becoming the first foreign manager of the England team and I understand this," Sergio Cragnotti said. Lazio, Italian Serie A champions, on Tuesday refused to elaborate on the reports that Eriksson was on the brink of signing a a 5-year contract with the England Football Association to coach the national side from July 2001. The English F.A. said Monday that talks were under way with the Swede, and that "real progress had been made." Eriksson declined to speak to reporters at the end of a team scrimmage at Lazio's Formello training camp outside Rome on Tuesday morning But Cragnotti, speaking to reporters outside his home, seemed to suggest the Rome-based club was already on the lookout for Eriksson's replacement. Cragnotti, who attributed Eriksson's decision to a need for 'new challenges and new ambitions' said the club needed a manager of great experience. Before his Serie A championship title with Lazio the soft-spoken Swede won league titles with Goteborg in Sweden and Benfica in Portugal. He also took Benfica to the Champions Cup final in 1990, led Roma to second place in Serie A and Lazio to runners up in the 1998 UEFA Cup before collecting the last Cup Winners Cup title with Lazio in 1999.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
