CZECHO’S SOCCER CORNER
It took Jose Mourinho only one day in his new job before he started the cleaning process at Inter Milan. His list of players that will be put up for sale includes Hernan Crespo, Dejan Stankovic, David Suazo, Adriano and Nicolas Burdisso. Muorinho is planning to use the money from the sale to do a couple of big signings, one of them is rumored to be Frank Lampard from Chelsea.
Most of the EURO 2008 matches are sold out and one way to get tickets is to bid for them on Ebay.com. The website has set up a special section where fans can bid on them. Asking prices vary anywhere from a couple of hundred dollars for single ticket to 12,500 dollars for package of four tickets for the finals.
Sven-Goran Eriksson is the seventh European to coach the Mexican national team. Just days after he was let go from Manchester City club, he got the vote of confidence from the Mexican Soccer Federation. Several of Mexico’s biggest stars were against his hiring, arguing they need someone who is familiar with Mexican soccer and who speaks their language.
FC Porto was banned by UEFA from competing in the Champions League next season. Porto was involved in the Portuguese Liga bribery scandal in 2004. Despite the fact that the club lost 6 points and was fined 15,ooo euros, they won the Liga’s title and qualified for Champions League.
The Italian national team suffered a blow before the start of the EURO 2008 after their captain Fabio Cannavaro injured his ankle during training practice. Cannavaro had successful surgery today, but is out of the EURO 2008 tournament. He will be replace by Fiorentina’s Alessandro Gamberini.
Mark Hughes became the new manager of Manchester City after his former club Blackburn agreed on a compensation package worth of 9.2 million dollars from Manchester. He will replace Sven-Goran Eriksson who was released by Manchester on Monday. The 44 year old Hughes who played for Barcelona, Man Utd and Bayern Munich among other clubs retired from playing in 2002 and became Blackburn’s manager in 2004.
