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Arrivederci Italian voted off UEFA executive committee
Posted: Saturday July 01, 2000 01:21 PM
LUXEMBOURG (AP) -- The day before Italy plays France in the European Championship final, the nation's long serving member of the UEFA executive committee, Antonio Matarrese, was surprisingly ousted on Saturday. A member for 12 years, the Italian, who celebrates his 60th birthday on Tuesday, left the Congress stunned and without comment. "We were very shocked," said Luciano Nizzola, chairman of the Italian soccer federation. "I cannot give an explanation. We thought we had at least 40 votes and we feel betrayed by the smaller and medium-size countries." Matarrese's ousting wasn't the only surprise of the two-day Congress in Luxembourg. Three days after Portuguese players condemned UEFA after they lost a Euro 2000 semifinal over a disputed penalty, Portugal's candidate for a UEFA executive committee position withdrew. Gilberto Parca Madail said he had too much work to organize the next European Championship in 2004 in Portugal. Geoff Thompson was voted on to give England its first voice on the influential committee for four years despite UEFA's threat to ban England from the European Championship because of its violent fans. The election gained more importance this time around after events at the Euro 2000 championship, which ends on Sunday with a final between France and Italy in Rotterdam. Matarrese, who had been on the UEFA executive for 12 years but remains a FIFA executive committee member, polled 25 votes. Matarrese was the leading campaigner of UEFA president Lennart Johansson in the unsuccessful election campaign to replace Joao Havelange as FIFA president two years ago, making his ousting all the more surprising. Johansson was sad to see him go. "Our president expressed strong concern that UEFA needs the participation of big nations to ensure that decisions are properly implemented. Italy is one of them," said UEFA chief executive Gerhard Aigner. "I am sorry for Antonio Mattarese," Thompson said. "He's done a very good job for a considerable period of time. I am very sorry about it." Matarrese's departure from the committee maintains the roller-coaster year for Italian soccer. Serie A failed to get a team into either the Champions Cup or a UEFA Cup it has dominated for the past decade. Yet the national team surprised its critics by reaching the Euro final for the first time since 1968 after upsetting co-host Netherlands in a penalty shootout in Amsterdam on Thursday. A day earlier, the Portuguese team were incensed that the referee awarded France an extra time penalty, converted by Zinedine Zidane for a "golden goal" which put the French into the final and eliminated Portugal. The Portuguese players accused UEFA of being behind a conspiracy to oust Portugal and make sure France, being World Cup holder and one of the European powerhouses, got into the final. Although it was clearly a penalty, the Portuguese were furious and defender Abel Xavier, the player who gave away the penalty for handball, was quoted as saying that UEFA had "secret policies" to favor teams from big soccer nations. "I think if the same thing had happened inside the French penalty area, the [referee's] decision would have been different," he told reporters on his arrival home in Lisbon. Madail said the controversy didn't affect his decision. "No, not at all, It had nothing to do with it," he said. "I was appointed chair of the 2004 committee so I considered withdrawing before Euro 2000. [Euro 2004] takes a lot of time. It helps of course to have someone on the executive but we still have the 2002 [election]." Thompson's election came despite UEFA's threat to kick England out of the European Championship because of the violent scenes involving its fans at Brussels and Charleroi. "I think the fans are society's problem, not the FA's," said Thompson who has served on UEFA's disciplinary committee for eight years. "I am an Englishman and I don't like to see my countrymen misbehaving in the way they do. "This is a big step forward. It's something we have been trying to achieve since Sir Bert Millichip retired in 1996. I am very pleased for English football. We have been on the outside for four years but now we have an opportunity to discuss strategy." Madail and Thompson were initially among 13 candidates for seven openings on the UEFA executive. His withdrawal, along with that of Welsh delegate Des Shanklin, cut that to 11 and the seven who got seats on the influential committee were Marios Lefkaritis of Cyprus (42 votes), Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, Germany, (40), Mathieu Sprenges, Netherlands, (39), Per Ravn Omdal, Norway, (38), Claude Simonet, France, (31), Thompson (29) and Joseph Mifsud, Malta, (26). In elections to the FIFA executive committee, Mifsud lost his place with only 22 votes while the successful four were Angel Villar Llona of Spain (44), Michel D'Hooghe, Belgium (41), Senes Erzik of Turkey (34) and Viacheslav Koloskov of Russia who regained the place he lost two years ago by collecting 28 votes.
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