Fulham captain Coleman injured in car crash

Fulham captain Coleman injured in car crash
AGENCIES

LONDON, JANUARY 4: Captain of English First Division leaders Fulham and Welsh international footballer Chris Coleman has sustained multiple fractures to his lower right leg after surviving a car crash.

Thirty-year-old Coleman who earns œ 10,000 a week, lost control of his high-powered Jaguar on a bridge near Bletchingley, Surrey on Tuesday night, police said today.

The car demolished 60 feet of wrought iron fencing, careered off the road, hit two trees and uprooted them before finally coming to rest in a ditch on the edge of a field.

A spokesman for Surrey Fire Brigade said, "we had to cuthim from the car because it was a mangled wreck. He was in lot of pain so the paramedics had to sedate him while we worked to free him."

Coleman was taken to New East Surrey Hospital in Redhill where his wife and mother are at his bedside, police said adding they would interview Coleman when he was fit about the accident.

The accident will seriously disrupt what has probably been the most successful period of Coleman's career which began with the arrival of Frenchman Jean Tigana as the Fulham manager last summer.

Coleman, who helped Tigana's team move seven points clear at the top of the First Division, was due to face Manchester United in the FA Cup third round on Sunday.

Maradona role

ROME: Napoli president Giorgio Corbelli said on Wednesday he was prepared to meet Argentinian legend Diego Maradona to discuss a future role as a `figurehead' with the Italian first division side.

Corbelli, speaking on the TG1 news programme, said he was ready to meet the 40-year-old but ruled out Maradona being made Director-General of the club.

"One thing is true," said Corbelli. "There have been two meetings between (Napoli administrative delegate Corrado) Ferlaino and Diego in which they have chatted about his possible return. But I exclude the position of director-general because to give such an assignment to a person with no experience would seem too much to me. I foresee more a role of director, a figurehead."

"Diego can contribute a lot to the club. The time he was at Napoli remains vivid. I have heard he is arriving tomorrow. If that is so I will go to Rome on Saturday and clarify the possibility of a future together," Corbelli said.

Cup tickets

TOKYO: Only about 10,500 tickets for the 2002 World Cup Soccer final to be held in Japan will be available for sale to the general Japanese public, a national domestic daily said today.

Of the total 70,000 seats in Yokohama International Stadium, about 30,000 will be reserved for overseas sales and 10,000 for media and guests, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported. The remaining 19,500 seats will be reserved for Yokohama area residents, individuals involved in the sport and others.

In the last World Cup final in 1998 held in France, about 40,000 of the 100,000 seats were made available to the French public, it said.

German convicted

SINGAPORE: A German soccer player was found guilty today of three charges of "agreeing to accept" bribes in a Singapore match fixing trial and could face up to five years in jail when he is sentenced this weekend.

Lutz Pfannenstiel, 27, grimaced and cursed when he left the courtroom after the verdict was read. "This is ridiculous," he said, shouting an obscenity at an official from the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau, which lead the investigation.

Pfannenstiel was found guilty of agreeing to let bookmaker Sivakumar Madasamy bet 18,000 Singapore dollars on the player's behalf in exchange for influencing the outcomes of three of his own matches in Singapore's local S-League.