PARIS, June 24: Argentine striker Gabriel Batistuta may not be shy about his World Cup tally of four goals but at least four other scorers at the finals are keeping pretty quiet about theirs.Scotland's Tommy Boyd, Youssef Chippo of Morocco, South African Pierra Issa and Sinisa Mihajlovic of Yugoslavia have joined the club of players who have scored goals against their own teams in France.As World Cup pitches do not open up and swallow own goal scorers, they have to live with the embarrassment of inflicting potentially terminal damage to their nation's World Cup hopes with the eyes of the entire world on them.Another four players at the Finals may be highly grateful that their names will not be permanently recorded as scoring against their own team, thanks to official confusion as to what constitutes an own goal.With so many different views on the subject, Fifa has never been able to make a firm definition of an own goal.Fifa president Sepp Blatter said this week that he preferred to see playersfrom the attacking team credited with goals where possible - and so they have been at the Finals.That is a great relief to Spanish keeper Andoni Zubizaretta, Mexican defender Duilio Davino, German Midfielder Jens Jeremies and even to Issa.Many observers felt these four also scored own goals - with Issa getting a second in the same match - but all were officially awarded to a player on the other team.Zubizarreta was clearly at fault with Nigeria's second equaliser against Spain when he palmed Garba Lawal's cross into his own net but organisers credited the goal to the Nigerian.Davino jumped in the Mexican wall and totally changed the trajectory of South Korean Ha Seok-Ju's free kick, sending it over his keeper and into his own net. But Ha was given the goal.In the most confusing goal of all, Dejan Stankovic claimed Yugoslavia's opening goal against Germany though Jeremies appeared to chest the ball over the line as he despairingly tried to stop it. In the end, neither was given the goal. Otherquestions abound. Did Thierry henry score France's third goal in their 3-0 win over South Africa, or should it go down against Issa, who had already been `credited'with an own goal for France's second? Issa was philosophical about one of the occupational hazards of playing at the back.``Strikers miss goal-scoring opportunities and often they miss penalties. Sometimes defenders score own goals. That's life.''It is a personal calamity for the player and team perhaps, but there has only ever been one genuinely tragic own goal - the one conceded by Andres Escobar of Colombia against the United States at the 1994 finals.It cost the South American his life when he was murdered a few days after returning home.Every other own goal in soccer history pales into insignificance.
