THE BEST OF THE REST
David Beckham is about to be the dominant figure in Real Madrid's thoughts, but only in a manner that will embarrass him. It is becoming essential for the club to sell him because he is the one member of the squad whose value could readily be realised in the transfer market.
The Spanish title was surrendered sloppily to Valencia at the weekend, with Real, losing to Mallorca, beaten for the third match in a row. After that, the president Florentino Pérez doesn't need a psephologist to tell him it's time to worry about the elections later in the summer.
As with most stars, he [Beckham] seems to send mixed signals. Some interpretations have him scampering back to England to repair his marriage whereas others visualise him sticking it out at Real for another year to prove himself. The club, however, may well nudge him out of the Bernabéu despite his supposed worth as a marketing tool in the far east.
Back in August, on his Liga debut, he scored against Real Betis within three minutes and he went on to earn the fans' liking for his industriousness. The honest endeavour still puts some team- mates to shame, but it has been an increasingly inadequate quality since the turn of the year. With his side grinding to a halt, there have been too few outlets for the lavish long passes.
Beckham went to Spain with the belief that he could free himself of the Old Trafford servitude to the wing and become a genuine playmaker. The attempted transition has failed. The veteran Mallorca coach, even before his team had won on Satur day, delivered a judgment which was all the more devastating for being made without malice.
"He's finding it difficult in the middle," Luis Aragonés said. "He passes acceptably and works hard, but he doesn't think quickly. In the centre of midfield it's very important to know where you are going to place the ball before it comes to you. He doesn't think in a hurry."
Sir Alex Ferguson might like to frame the cutting on his office wall at Carrington. The Manchester United manager never budged from his belief that Beckham's proper position was on the flank. If a devastating cross is a player's greatest weapon, after all, it helps if he sticks to the wing.
Real have not transformed Beckham or our perceptions of him. As well as being the first of Pérez's galacticos to complete his debut season without a medal, he is the only one who cannot speak conversational Spanish. In Madrid they view him as something of a recluse and he has not embedded himself in the local culture.
Life for Beckham may soon be almost exactly as it was before he began the Spanish experiment. Should Chelsea stump up £20m, he will be the adornment of the Premiership who plays on the right flank. In addition, he will be one more Englishman who failed abroad and it will soon feel as if his year in Madrid was just a figment of the imagination
United’s supposed “feeder club”, relegation-threatened Antwerp, resort to desperate measures:
BRUSSELS, May 12 (Reuters) - The Belgian Football Association is to hold an inquiry into Royal Antwerp's recent 2-1 defeat by St Truiden after a complaint that the winning team received money from Charleroi.
"I officially received a complaint from Royal Antwerp," Belgian FA lawyer Rene Verstringhe told Reuters on Wednesday.
"The rules of our FA are very clear," Verstringhe added. "There is falsification of the competition if players receive money from another club to play well and here Royal Antwerp allege that players from St Truiden received money from Charleroi.
"I must stress the fact that even if I had received no complaint from Antwerp I would have taken action because there had been public comments by Royal Antwerp players about a possible falsification of the game.
"I just ordered the inquiry commission from the Belgian FA to act right away," said Verstringhe.
"The inquiry will last at least two weeks and then I will take my decision based on the collected facts."
Verstringhe also said he had received a complaint from St Truiden about Royal Antwerp bringing the name of the club into disrepute.
Charleroi, whose coach Jacky Matthijssen joined three weeks ago from St Truiden, are third from bottom in the 18-team first division and need to win their final match at home to Mons-Bergen to avoid relegation.
Royal Antwerp are bottom of the league with 27 points and could also avoid the drop with victory on Saturday if other results go their way. Two teams are relegated from the first division.
If the allegations are upheld, the result of the match will not change but players and club officials could be suspended. The maximum punishment would be the closure of the club.
Shock! Horror! Allegations of corruption in Italian football (surely not!). From the Guardian:
Italy has been hit by a betting scandal as anti-mafia police investigate alleged links between Italian clubs and organised crime.
Police are looking into claims that 12 Italian football clubs have been involved in suspected match-fixing. Four Serie A clubs - Chievo, Lecce, Siena and Reggina - are being investigated, along with two in Serie B and six from Serie C.
The investigation by a Naples-based anti-mafia unit started after phone conversations involving five players -the former Siena and Italy Under-21 goalkeeper Generoso Rossi, who is now out of contract, Siena midfielder Roberto D'Aversa and striker Nicola Ventola, and two Serie C players - had been intercepted.
Public prosecutors said that "agreements for fixing matches . . . led to illegal ways of gaining money. The investigations want also to prove the involvement of organised crime and mafia in this procedures".
The main evidence is an alleged telephone conversation between Rossi and D'Aversa. When his former team-mate asked him the results of the coming Sunday's matches, the goalkeeper is said to have replied: "Chievo and Ascoli will draw, Crotone and Catanzaro will win."
Two days later Crotone v Fermana ended 3-0; Taranto v Catanzaro 0-1; Ascoli v Piacenza 0-0; and Chievo-Reggina 0-0.
In another conversation with one of the two Serie C players before a match between Chievo and Siena, Rossi allegedly said that "there was a general agreement between the two clubs" adding that only the Chievo coach Luigi del Neri wanted the match to be played normally. It ended 1-1.
Rossi was alleged to have talked about "the possibility of gaining £20-25,000" on a match between Siena and Udinese. Interrogated by judges on the matter, the 25-year-old goalkeeper refused to reply and to make any comment.
Siena's president Paolo de Luca said: "As regards our players involved, they are normal citizens when they are not playing football. We have nothing to do with their behaviour outside the pitch." He suspended D'Aversa and Ventola until the results of the investigations are known.”