World Roundup

Argentina agrees terms with Bielsa

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) -- An Argentine football director says that terms have finally been agreed for Marcelo Bielsa to continue as national team coach.

Bielsa, who will keep his job despite Argentina's shock first round exit at the World Cup, has been on the point of signing a new contract for the last three weeks and has been declared the only candidate for the job.

"We have agreed on Bielsa continuing, we just need to finish off the last few clauses," said Hector Dominguez, a member of the Argentine Football Association (AFA) committee which has been negotiating with the reclusive coach.

Dominguez, president of first division club Gimnasia-La Plata, said that Bielsa would officially sign next week.

His contract would be to the end of the qualifying competition for the 2006 World Cup and would automatically be extended to the tournament itself if, as expected, Argentina qualify.

"The signature itself is not the most important thing," said Dominguez. "The relevant aspect is that we have an agreement... The key points have been settled."

Bielsa, a brooding, eccentric figure, has been in virtual hibernation on a farm deep in the province of Santa Fe since returning from Japan.

Turkey sticks with World Cup players for Georgia friendly

ISTANBUL (Reuters) -- Turkey coach Senol Gunes has kept faith with all 23 of the players from his successful World Cup squad for Wednesday's friendly against Georgia.

He named a 26-man squad Friday as he seeks to build on the country's performances in South Korea and Japan earlier this year where they came third at the World Cup finals.

Gunes has also included goalkeeper Metin Aktas, defender Cihan Haspolatli and striker Serhat Akin. All three travelled and trained with the main squad at the World Cup although they were not registered to play in the tournament.

The friendly in Trabzon, not far from the Georgian border, is Turkey's last before it starts its qualifying campaign for Euro 2004 against Slovakia on September 7 in Istanbul.

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Rustu Recber (Fenerbahce), Omer Catkic (Gaziantepspor), Zafer Ozgultekin (Ankaragucu), Metin Aktas (Trabzonspor)

Defenders: Bulent Korkmaz (Galatasaray), Emre Asik (Galatasaray), Cihan Haspolatli (Galatasaray), Abdullah Ercan (Fenerbahce), Fatih Akyel (Fenerbahce), Umit Ozat (Fenerbahce), Alpay Ozalan (Aston Villa)

Midfielders: Ergun Penbe (Galatasaray), Hasan Sas (Galatasaray), Umit Davala (Galatasaray), Tayfur Havutcu (Besiktas), Tugay Kerimoglu (Blackburn Rovers), Hakan Unsal (Blackburn Rovers), Okan Buruk (Inter Milan), Emre Belozoglu (Inter Milan), Yildiray Basturk (Bayer Leverkusen), Muzzy Izzet (Leicester City)

Forwards: Arif Erdem (Galatasaray), Serhat Akin (Fenerbahce), Ilhan Mansiz (Besiktas), Hakan Sukur (Parma), Nihat Kahveci (Real Sociedad)

Chapuisat recalled to Swiss squad

ZURICH (Reuters) -- Stephane Chapuisat has been recalled to Switzerland's national squad for Wednesday's friendly against Austria despite earlier retiring from international football.

Forward Chapuisat, 33, announced his retirement after disagreements with coach Koebi Kuhn following a 2-1 World Cup qualifier defeat to Yugoslavia in September.

But the Young Boys striker has been named in an 18-man squad to face Austria in Basel's St Jakob Stadium on Wednesday.

He had a rethink after Grasshoppers' 21-year-old prospect Mladen Petric, who holds dual-nationality, decided to play for Croatia rather than Switzerland so creating an opening in the team.

Defenders Stephan Keller and Remo Meyer are given their first call-ups to the national team following a successful summer in the European under-21 championships.

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Joerg Stiel (Borussia Moenchengladbach), Pascal Zuberbuehler (FC Basel)

Defenders: Bernt Haas (Sunderland), Stephane Henchoz (Liverpool), Stephan Keller (FC Zurich), Ludovic Magnin (Werder Bremen), Remo Meyer (1860 Munich), Patrick Mueller (Olympique Lyonnais), Murat Yakin (FC Basel)

Midfielders: Ricardo Cabanas (Grasshoppers), Fabio Celestini (Marseille), Sebastien Fournier (Servette), Johann Vogel (PSV Eindhoven), Raphael Wicki (Hamburg SV)

Strikers: Stephane Chapuisat (Young Boys), Alexander Frei (Servette), Blaise NKufo (Hanover), Hakan Yakin (FC Basel)

Zagorcic recalled to Bulgaria squad

SOFIA (Reuters) -- Defender Zlatomir Zagorcic was recalled to Bulgaria's squad on Friday after a three-year absence for next week's friendly against Germany in Sofia.

Coach Plamen Markov, who announced a 19-man squad Friday, included the 30-year-old Yugoslav-born libero who became a Bulgarian citizen in 1998.

Zagorcic, who has won 14 caps for Bulgaria, has returned to local club Litex Lovech this season from financially-troubled Swiss side Lugano but has not played for them so far.

The squad includes three Bundesliga players -- Bulgaria captain Krassimir Balakov from Stuttgart, Wolfsburg's Martin Petrov and Dimitar Berbatov of Bayer Leverkusen.

Injured Kaiserslautern midfielder Marian Hristov will miss the friendly.

The squad is due to gather Monday for its training camp when Markov will give a news conference.

There were doubts over whether the coach would be fit for the game after he fractured a bone in his head following a fall down a staircase while making repairs to his home in June, but doctors say he is fit and have allowed him to start work.

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Zdravko Zdravkov (Cherno More Varna), Dimitar Ivankov (Levski Sofia)

Defenders: Radostin Kishishev (Charlton Athletic), Danail Bachkov (Levski Sofia), Rossen Kirilov, Zlatomor Zagorcic (Litex Lovech), Georgi Petrov (Lokomotiv Plovdiv), Predrag Pazhin (Beijing Guoan, China), Ivailo Petkov (Istanbulspor)

Midfielders: Todor Yanchev (CSKA Sofia), Stilian Petrov (Celtic), Georgi Peev (Dynamo Kiev), Milen Petkov (AEK Athens), Krassimir Balakov (Stuttgart)

Strikers: Martin Petrov (Wolfsburg), Zoran Jankovic (Dalian Shide, China), Dimitar Berbatov (Bayer Leverkusen), Vladimir Manchev (Lille), Georgi Ivanov (Stade Rennes).

Japan seeking bye for 2006 World Cup qualifiers

TOKYO (Reuters) -- Japan and South Korea could receive first-round byes in the Asian qualifying competition for the 2006 World Cup, Japan Football Association (JFA) officials said Friday.

Both countries, who finished top of their groups as co-hosts of the World Cup this summer, would join the qualifiers in the second round along with other top teams in Asia if the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) agrees to a new JFA proposal.

"The AFC is looking into it, but nothing concrete has been decided at this stage," JFA press relations manager Hideto Teshima told Reuters. "We don't know yet if the decision will be made by the AFC or FIFA."

Any decision is likely to come after the FIFA executive committee meets in December to determine how many World Cup slots will be allocated to each confederation for the 2006 finals in Germany.

However, FIFA executive committee member Junji Ogura was optimistic that the likes of Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia would be excused from playing in the first round of Asian World Cup qualifiers, which kick off in 2005.

The JFA vice president returned from Kuala Lumpur on Thursday and told reporters: "We are examining the possibility of seeding teams, so Japan and South Korea etc. will probably be able to join in at the second round of qualifying."

Asian mis-matches

The first round of World Cup qualifying in Asia normally produces a high number of mis-matches in a continent where the standard of football varies drastically.

Japan played Oman, Macao and Nepal in the first round of qualifiers for the 1998 World Cup in France and finished top of the group with five wins and one draw and a goal difference of plus-30, boosted by two 10-0 wins over tiny Macao.

Japan went on to finish behind South Korea in second-round group B before beating group A runner-up Iran 3-2 in a playoff to qualify for the World Cup for the first time.

Six teams, including Japan and South Korea, have already been given first-round byes from the 2004 Athens Olympics qualifiers which begin next year and the AFC is hoping to extend the privilege to the World Cup preliminaries.

Japan midfielder Shinji Ono was sidelined for a year after tearing knee ligaments playing in an Olympic qualifier against the Philippines in 1999 and the JFA are anxious to avoid any repeats in the first round of World Cup qualifying.

South Korea, who grabbed the spotlight at the World Cup by becoming the first Asian team to reach the semifinals, are expected to throw their support behind the Japanese proposal.

Miriuta re-called to Hungary squad for Spain friendly

BUDAPEST (Reuters) -- Energie Cottbus playmaker Vasile Miriuta has been re-called to Hungary's 20-strong national squad for Wednesday's friendly against Spain for his first international in nearly a year.

Hungarian coach Imre Gellei called up Miriuta, who will be 34 next month, for the first time since he won his fourth cap against Italy last October in Hungary's final World Cup qualifier. Hungary, already eliminated, lost 1-0 to Italy in Parma.

Florian Urban, capped a great week by being called up just two days after his club side, Hungarian champion Zalaegerszeg, beat Manchester United 1-0 in the first leg of their Champions League qualifier.

Pal Dardai of Hertha Berlin was left out on compassionate grounds following the sudden death of his younger brother Balazs in a Hungarian third division match last month. He died almost immediatly when he suffered a burst artery jumping for a high ball.

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Gabor Kiraly (Hertha Berlin), Gabor Babos (NAC Breda)

Defenders: Laszlo Bodnar (Dinamo Kiev), Attila Dragoner (Ferencvaros), Gabor Gyepes (Ferencvaros), Tamas Juhar (Ujpest), Zsolt Low (Energie Cottbus), Florian Urban (Zalaegerszeg)

Midfielders: Zoltan Boor (Debrecen), Csaba Feher (NAC Breda), Peter Halmosi (Graz AK), Krisztian Lisztes (Werder Bremen), Vasile Miriuta (Energie Cottbus), Tamas Peto (NAC Breda), Vilmos Sebok (Energie Cottbus)

Forwards: Miklos Feher (Benfica), Zoltan Gera (Ferencvaros), Peter Kabat (Denizlispor), Krisztian Kenesei (Zalaegerszeg), Attila Tokoli (Ferencvaros).

Ban for Romanian club that posed as Olympic side

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) -- The Romanian Soccer Federation has banned a team from playing international matches for one year after the team apparently played two friendly matches against Egypt as Romania's Olympic team, officials said Friday.

A disciplinary panel banned the second division team Tractorul from playing against foreign clubs for one year and fined the club 50 million lei (US$1,500) for failing to notify the federation of its international matches, said Dumitru Tatar, a federation official.

The scandal surfaced last month when a newspaper revealed that Tractorul pretended to be Romania's Olympic team in a series of matches against Egypt's Olympic squad.

Tractorul officials had denied the allegations, saying that organizers asked them to play in Romania's colors because the club's jerseys were too similar to Egypt's.

An Egyptian businessman who organized the tournament denied he marketed the two matches in Egypt as played by two Olympic teams, but those matches were televised in that country as such.

Calls to Tractorul seeking comment on the ruling went unanswered Friday afternoon, but Paul Enache, the chairman of Tractorul, told the sports newspaper Pro Sport that his club was too poor to pay the fine.

"We don't even have money to pay for food for our players, we can't afford this fine," he said.

The Egyptian government last month ordered an investigation into the matches.

The Romanians beat Egypt 2-1 in the first match and lost 0-3 in the second.

Romania is a favorite destination for Egyptian soccer teams seeking preseason training camps in cooler Europe.

Three uncapped players in Belgium squad

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -- Belgium's newly-appointed national coach Aime Antheunis named three uncapped players in a 20-man squad Friday for next week's friendly away to Poland.

Uncapped midfielders Koen Daerden, Jonathan Blondel and Stijn Vreven were included as Antheunis starts to re-build following the international retirement of several experienced players.

Captain Marc Wilmots as well as Johan Walem, Yves Vanderhaeghe and Branko Strupar have all quit the national side.

Antheunis, the successful former Anderlecht coach, was chosen in late June to lead the Red Devils through qualifying to the 2004 European championships in Portugal.

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Geert De Vlieger (Willem II), Frederic Herpoel (Ghent)

Defenders: Glen De Boeck (Anderlecht), Didier Dheedene (Austria Wien), Bob Peeters (Vitesse Arnhem), Jacky Peeters (Ghent), Joos Valgaeren (Celtic), Daniel Van Buyten (Olympique Marseille), Peter Vanderheyden (Club Bruges)

Midfielders: Jonathan Blondel (Tottenham Hotspur), Koen Daerden (Genk), Bart Goor (Hertha Berlin), Yves Vanderhaeghe (Anderlecht), Stijn Vreven (Utrecht) Timmy Simons (Club Bruges)

Strikers: Walter Baseggio (Anderlecht), Gaetan Englebert (Club Bruges), Mbo Mpenza (Excelsior Mouscron), Emile Mpenza (Schalke 04), Wesley Sonck (Genk)

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