Raúl: I want to play at the European Championship!
Real Madrid's skipper Raúl González still hopes for a return to the national team in order to participate at the European Championship in Austria and Switzerland. The most distinguished Spanish player is not in coach Luis Aragonés's plans, possibly because he is a hard-core Atlético man who, also coached Barcelona. But, since Raúl has been playing great soccer after a brief slump for a long time now, so the fans are right to expect the coach to moderate his unreasonable position towards the all-time top scorer of the national team with 44 goals.
"I still believe I'll return to the Spain's team. Specially if I keep on playing well this season. But, I am aware I've been out for quite some time now and that other players have done a great job in the country's shirt during my absence. This certainly makes my return less likely," said the golden boy of the Spanish soccer.
Asked about the possibility of Bernd Schuster taking over England, Raúl believes the German will stay in Real.
"I think he will not be going. Surely, one must be flattered to be associated with such a challenge. But, I believe Schuster is happy at Real and that winning trophies in our club is his primary objective."
Klasnic's doctor accuses Werder's medical team
Croatian player Ivan Klasic's doctor Arno E. Lison has expressed serious accusations against the medical services of Bundesliga's Werder. His patient has recently returned to the first team action after kidney failure and two kidney transplants earlier this year.
In an interview for Radio Bremen, prof. Lison from the Bremen clinic said that it was strange for Werder's doctors not to have recognized the early signals of Klasnic's illness.
"There were symptoms six years ago indicating that Klasnic's kidneys were not healthy, but the doctors did not pay attention to it. They should have dealt with the case much earlier. I have known Klasnic since November of 2005, when he had an appendix removal surgery. At that point 70% of kidney function was lost under supervision of several physicians, without any of them having intervened," said prof. Lison, claiming to be unable to found the explanation for such irresponsibility.
"It is really surprising that somebody could be making the same mistake for five years. Any doctor should be capable of discovering such a medical problem."
While prof. Lison claims he had warned of Klasnic's condition before it escalated, the club has not yet commented on the issue.
Marcello Lippi hungry for coaching
Sixteen months' rest was quite enough for Marcello Lippi. The coach who led Italy to their fourth World Cup in 2006 now admits that his motives for going back to work have returned.
"Now I am starting to miss soccer, really miss it," he said in the Stadionews24 tv program.
"As far I am concerned, I have the will to return to coaching, but I don't know how soon you will see me on the bench. Surely it would not be ideal to jump in the middle of the season."
Lippi has also denied he was close to England bench.
"These are just rumours. So far noone has contacted me and I am not negotiating with anyone," said the coach who was allegedly on the hold to step in for Roberto Donadoni, should his qualifying campaign go wrong. But, Donadoni made it, thanks to Scotland's amazing slip-ups in the final phase of the competition.
"The Azzurri players are still highly motivated and I am certain they will do very well at the
European Championship," predicted the former Juventus and Inter's manager who will surely make some nice team happy when he really does return.
Ferguson charged after raging at referee
Sir Alex Ferguson was so enraged by Manchester United's 1-0 defeat at Bolton that he vented his anger at referee Mark Clattenburg with harsh words and gestures. And will have to answer for it to the FA.
The Scot has until December 11 to respond to the charge of "using abusive and insulting words towards an official" during last weekend's match. If found guilty, he could receive a fine and the possibility of a touchline ban.
Ferguson, who has praised Clattenburg in the past, was unhappy with the way in which he dealt with the "over-aggressive" tactics of a Bolton side who only achieved their second win of the season.
"You can expect a team in Bolton's position to play that way. You expect a team near the bottom to battle, scrap and fight. Obviously they do not have the quality of opponents like ourselves. That is why they we are in different positions in the league," he said on Monday, adding that he told the referee "exactly what he thought of him."
Now the FA will tell Ferguson exactly what they think of him, which may entail some punishment.
The stadium of the disaster will be demolished
Seven people were killed last Sunday when a part of a terrace collapsed during a third division game in Salvador. Some 50 people fell to a 15 meter precipice when a piece of the concrete on a stand of Fonte Nova stadium gave way in the course of Bahia vs Vila Nova match in front of 60,000 spectators.
Jaques Wágner, the governer of the federal state of Bahia, has announced that the decrepit stadium would be demolished, regardless of the findings of the independent police investigation into the tragedy.
Wágner also promised a new stadium would be built on the same site within Salvador's bid to host some of the games of the World Cup 2014 to be held in Brazil.
Salvador is one of the 18 cities that have applied to stage the World Cup games. FIFA will elect ten or twelve host cities and whether Salvador will be one of them must now be in question because of the Sunday's incident.
Still, Wágner says a new stadium was always on plans and that Salvador's bid was not threatened by the disaster at Fonte Nova.
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