LONDON – This has to be the ultimate in sin bin punishment: a total of nine players from rival Uruguayan clubs Penarol and Nacional are likely to be missing from their respective squads for this weekend’s matches – because they are all in jail.
The ball-juggling group of cons was rounded up Monday, the day after their involvement in a brutal and prolonged on-field brawl at the conclusion of the 1-1 tie between the clubs. It’s bad enough for the players to miss out on daily practice, but it goes further than that – they also may still be behind bars as the season reaches its climax.
Only two points separate the clubs at the top of the standings going into the final stage of the championship. Penarol went to its next-to-last match, a road game at River Plate last night without six of its regular starters, all in the slammer along with coach Julio Ribas, who is accused of kicking off the whole ruckus.
Likewise Nacional was without three key players going into last night’s matchup against Defensor Sporting. If the jailbirds are to be sprung by the weekend, officials on both sides will have to be mighty persuasive, as the earliest bail will be allowed at present is Dec. 10.
And depending on how results go, there could yet be an explosive sequel to the battle. Should Penarol finish top of the standings at this, the second stage of the championship, it will face Nacional, winner of stage one, in a playoff to determine the overall champ.
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THOUGH the Brazilians of Flamengo ducked the fight, it emerged yesterday that Brazil’s league is one of the world’s most violent, with matches averaging a blood-curdling, bone-shaking 55 fouls per game.
The frightening stats were produced by the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper, a damning indictment of a nation which continues to delight soccer fans across the globe with the skills and artistry of its national team, but seems unable to control the ferocity of its teams at domestic level.
“It’s a world record,” was the verdict of the great Tostao, a teammate of Pele on Brazil’s World Cup championship team of 1970 and now a sports columnist. “There aren’t more fouls only because there isn’t enough time. The coaches only think about winning. They don’t care how.”
In that sense, Tostao could be speaking of a worldwide epidemic, too. But the culture of foul rather than fair play has taken a particularly tight grip round Rio de Janeiro way. One coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari of Cruzeiro, even admits that he instructs his players to put in dirty tackles and claims many of his counterparts do the same but won’t admit it.