World Cup Round up: South Korea Scandal, Diouf un-retires, An American to head Iran?

October 31st, 2007 | by: WC Bob | Comments(1)

Those weren’t tears of joy at a press conference in South Korea today. Those are the tears of South Korean goalkeeper Lee Woon-jae and striker Woo Sung-yong, who feel absolutely horrible about getting drunk and messing around with prostitutes on the eve of their country’s Asian Cup match against Bahrain back in July. The pair, along with Lee Dong-Gook and Kim Sang-sik, could face an international ban of up to six months if some in the South Korean football federation have their way. “We made a grave mistake for which we have absolutely no excuses,” Woon-Jae said, adding he was trying to boost morale. Ahhh, “morale” is what they call that these days. I received an email just this morning claiming a pill could boost my morale too.

You know who won’t be standing on the sidelines for Albania’s next three matches? Otto Baric, that’s who. He got himself in trouble for insulting a referee and as a reward he won’t have to watch his team lose its next three games.

Some politicians in Washington, DC aren’t going to like this one very much. There is a possibility that an American might take over the reigns of Iran’s national team. Let’s hope those new sanctions don’t get in the way. This is a good story.

After a couple of weeks of lounging by the pool, playing shuffle board and cashing his pension checks, 26-year-old El-Hadji Diouf has decided that the retired life ain’t for him. He has decided to return to international duty with Senegal at least until he gets called up again and doesn’t feel like making the flight back to Africa.

The England FA is rolling in the dough after pimping out the television rights to its national team’s games to all corners of the globe. $300 million is a lot of dough especially considering England might not even qualify for Euro 2008. The contract runs through 2012.

Dunga has announced the cast of characters who will suit up for Brazil in their upcoming qualifier against Peru. If it looks familiar that is because it is. He’s going with the gang that drew against Colombia and spanked Ecuador in mid-October.

The next round of Asian World Cup qualifying is set with the dudes from Turkmenistan psyched because they get a free trip to Hong Kong.

MATCH DAY 1 (9 November 2007)
Hong Kong (seed 17) vs Turkmenistan (seed 14)
Indonesia (16) vs Syria (12)
Singapore (19) vs Tajikistan (15)
Yemen (18) vs Thailand (13)

MATCH DAY 2 (18 November 2007)
Turkmenistan (14) vs Hong Kong (17)
Syria (12) vs Indonesia (16)
Tajikistan (15) vs Singapore (19)
Thailand (13) vs Yemen (18)