Ballack's back

Germany calls up Bayern playmaker to face Scotland

BERLIN (Reuters) -- Playmaker Michael Ballack returns to the Germany squad for a Euro 2004 qualifier against Scotland on June 7 in Glasgow.

Ballack, who returned to action for German champion Bayern Munich last month after seven weeks on the sidelines with an ankle injury, has not played for Germany since a 3-1 defeat by the Netherlands in a friendly international in November.

The 26-year-old was included Monday by coach Rudi Voeller in a 23-man squad for a friendly against Canada on Sunday in Wolfsburg and qualifiers against Scotland and the Faroe Islands, on June 11 in Torshavn.

Germany, Scotland, whose manager is former Germany coach Berti Vogts, and Lithuania are tied on seven points at the top of Group Five. Germany has played three games, Scotland four and Lithuania five.

Ballack and the other players in the squad from Bayern Munich and Kaiserslautern will not play against Canada on Sunday. Bayern and Kaiserslautern face each other in the German Cup final on Saturday in Berlin.

Voeller had to make do without defender Christoph Metzelder and midfielders Dietmar Hamann and Christian Ziege, all injured. The former Germany striker also left out defender Jens Nowotny and midfielder Sebastian Deisler, who have both just resumed training after long injury breaks.

There is no newcomer in the squad.

Goalkeepers: Hans-Joerg Butt (Bayer Leverkusen), Oliver Kahn (Bayern Munich), Frank Rost (Schalke 04)

Defenders: Frank Baumann (Werder Bremen), Arne Friedrich, Michael Hartmann, Marko Rehmer (all Hertha Berlin), Andreas Hinkel (VfB Stuttgart), Tobias Rau (VfL Wolfsburg), Christian Woerns (Borussia Dortmund)

Midfielders: Michael Ballack, Jens Jeremies (both Bayern Munich), Joerg Boehme (Schalke 04), Paul Freier (VfL Bochum), Torsten Frings, Sebastian Kehl (both Borussia Dortmund), Carsten Ramelow, Bernd Schneider (both Bayer Leverkusen)

Strikers: Fredi Bobic (Hanover 96), Miroslav Klose (Kaiserslautern), Kevin Kuranyi (VfB Stuttgart), Benjamin Lauth (TSV 1860 Munich), Oliver Neuville (Bayer Leverkusen)

Hain faces sanction over Leverkusen deal claim

BERLIN (Reuters) -- Arminia Bielefeld goalkeeper Mathias Hain faces disciplinary action for suggesting that Bayer Leverkusen had struck a deal with Nuremberg to make sure of escaping relegation from the Bundesliga.

The German Football Association (DFB) said Monday it had asked Hain for an explanation. The ruling body said the player could be sanctioned for unsportsmanlike conduct if he failed to provide evidence to back his accusations.

Leverkusen, which beat relegated Nuremberg 1-0 in the Bundesliga's final programme Saturday, needed victory to make sure of remaining in the top flight.

Hain, whose Bielefeld club was eventually relegated and would have needed Leverkusen not to win to have a chance of staying up, pointed out that Klaus Augenthaler had just been appointed Leverkusen coach after being sacked by Nuremberg and suggested the two teams had made an arrangement.

"I trust the players but not the officials who dealt with Augenthaler's move," he told Thursday's issue of soccer magazine Kicker. "They talked about the result of Saturday's game."

Both clubs rejected Hain's accusations as nonsense.

Dortmund boss wants Brazilian striker to stay

DORTMUND, Germany (AP) -- Borussia Dortmund's boss wants Brazilian striker Marcio Amoroso to stay in the Bundesliga club despite a disappointing season.

"We need special players for special targets. Marcio is such a player," Dortmund president Gerd Niebaum told the Sport-Bild magazine.

Amoroso battled with an Achilles' tendon injury, argued with coach Matthias Sammer and scored only six goals this season, mostly coming off the bench. The year before, Amoroso led the Bundesliga with 18 goals and helped Dortmund win the title. Dortmund finished a disappointing third in the season that ended Saturday and will have to qualify for the Champions League.

Niebaum said Sammer didn't deserve any criticism.

"For the third year in a row, he's guided us to one of the top three places," Niebaum said.

"It's more difficult to defend the title as it is to win it. Young players easily become complacent," he said.

Niebaum spoke in an interview for Wednesday's issue of Sport-Bild. The weekly released parts of it in advance.

Salaries to drop in cash-strapped Bundesliga

BERLIN (Reuters) -- With televison money drying up and the clubs facing severe financial difficulties, players in the Bundesliga have been told that they will have to accept salary cuts.

"Salaries will drop," Hertha Berlin commercial manager Dieter Hoeness said on Monday.

"When a player changes team, he can no longer assume that his salary will go up."

Not only will clubs pay less money to their players but they will also invest less in the transfer market with spectacular reinforcements unlikely for most clubs.

"We need a new midfielder but if we have to pay a transfer fee, it will have to be a very low one," Hoeness, whose Hertha club have qualified for the UEFA Cup, told a news conference.

Officials from several teams have said that they will have to save money. Some clubs, such as Bayer Leverkusen, which narrowly escaped relegation and will not play in Europe, has to take drastic measures.

"We have to save 25 to 30 million euros (US$35.44 million) and that will affect salaries and transfers," said Leverkusen commercial manager Reiner Calmund.

"The players with the biggest salaries will have to make an effort," he told Monday's edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily.

Salaries have soared in Germany over the last few years with television costs spiralling out of control but the golden age is over.

Bundesliga rights-holders KirchMedia filed for insolvency last year with huge losses and the German clubs missed out on 70 million euros from television money last season as a result. Lost revenues for the season which ended this weekend could reach 200 million euros.

Bundesliga clubs have a total 599 million euros worth of debt and average 14.7 million per club. A study by the German Football League (DFL) suggested the clubs would have to reduce their costs by 20 percent on average next season.

FIFA, Germany fail to resolve World Cup differences

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- German organizers of the 2006 World Cup and FIFA failed to resolve their differences over the distribution and pricing of tickets during a meeting Monday.

"We've come closer in fundamental questions but details need to be worked out," said organizing committee president Franz Beckenbauer.

"We've made a step forward in the big things," said FIFA's general secretary Urs Linsi.

But the key dispute over the distribution and pricing of the tickets remains a sticking point between the two sides.

"We've sold the problem by saying we are going to let everyone in for free," Beckenbauer joked, tounge-in-cheek.

German organizers want to retain control over the price and distribution of tickets. Beckenbauer has accused FIFA of being greedy and trying to set "crazy" prices for VIP tickets.

FIFA, soccer's world governing body, wants to turn the distribution of tickets over to Byrom, the British company that runs FIFA's ticketing operation, despite problems with ticket distribution at last year's World Cup in Japan and South Korea.

In three weeks, FIFA representatives and German organizers will meet again in another attempt to resolve their dispute.

 

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Both the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.