Yet, Nepali football fans, long disenchanted with the national team, especially so after the big letdown in the football final of the SAF Games last year, when the much-fancied national team lost out to Bangladesh, may have something to look forward to.the national under-16 team has made it to the quarterfinals of the 9th Asian Youth Football Championships to be held in Vietnam in September.
This is the first time ever that Nepal has advanced beyond the qualifying rounds of an international tournament.
The last game with Uzbekistan played at Dasrath Stadium on 14 June ended in a goalless draw, but Nepal went on to the quarterfinals because of goal difference. The energetic Nepali team had humiliated a somewhat breathless Maldivian team 7-0, and also clinched a well-deserved 5-3 victory against Turkmenistan.
The euphoria over this achievement soon soured, however, when news from Bangladesh reached home that the under-19 Nepali contingent had lost 7-0 to a much superior Iraqi team in the 32nd Asian U-19 Youth Football Championships qualifiers. The Nepali under-19s also went down 2-0 to Bangladesh and lost their their chance to qualify.
(Alok Tumbahangphey)
Chinese swimmer barred from Olympics
Lausanne - Wu Yanyan, the Chinese world record holder in the women\'s 200-metre individual medley, tested positive guilty for a banned substance and will not be allowed to compete at the Sydney Olympics, announced swimming\'s ruling body FINA last week.
The 22-year-old world champion from Perth 1998 was banned by FINA after it was determined she had taken the anabolic steroid norandrosterone.
The Chinese swimming federation had already suspended the swimmer, who faces a four-year ban from international competition as a first-time abuser of steroids.
Wu set her world record on October 17, 1997 with a time of 2 minutes 9.72 seconds
Italian TV caused Euro 2000 scuffle, court says
The Hague - A Dutch court ruled last week that an Italian television crew caused the scuffle which broke out between journalists and police ahead of the Euro 2000 final in Rotterdam.
Dutch Interior Minister Klaas de Vries said the magistrate determined that charges from Rome that Dutch police were guilty of assault and battery, extra use of force and unlawful imprisonment were unfounded.
A seven-member crew of the Italian state television channel Rai were detained on July 2 after reacting angrily to officers who prevented them from filming police carrying a group of disabled Italians from their wheelchairs to their seats inside De Kuip stadium.
"The reason for this incident rests first of all with the arrival of large group of disabled fans with tickets for seats which were not suited for the disabled," de Vries said. He added that 50 seats were reserved for disabled fans, eight issued to Italy. Two days before the European championship final, Italy said some 150 disabled fans would be arriving to watch the match.
Italian media sources had said Mario Mattioli, one of Rai\'s leading sports reporters, was beaten and bleeding. Two more well-known reporters, Donatella Scamati and Ignazio Scardina, were also detained until after the match.
Maurizio Scelli, one of the organisers who accompanied the group of 140 disabled Italians -100 of which in wheelchairs, said the group was searched, stripped of its water bottles and carried up eight flights of steps.
De Vries said the stadium stewards and police acted properly and followed the rules at the football tournament. He said the journalists should have heeded the police request not to film their actions.
De Vries added however that one of the stewards was wrong in possessing a nightstick and using it against one of the journalists when he attacked a policeman
Bill to bar hooligans
London - On 14 July, the House of Commons backed emergency legislation to crack down on football hooliganism abroad, despite civil liberties concerns on all sides of parliament\'s lower house.
Although there remain several stages to go before the Football (Disorder) Bill becomes law, Home Secretary Jack Straw hopes to have the bill passed before the summer recess in two weeks.
Both the Conservative Party opposition and the Liberal Democrats want to see changes made in committee before the bill passes to the House of Lords, where strong reservations on civil liberties grounds are certain to be voiced-. Labour backbenchers are also concerned over the proposal to give police officers the power to stop suspected troublemakers from travelling abroad during key matches.
The bill is a direct response to the rioting by England fans in the Belgian town of Charleroi during the Euro 2000 championships last month.
