Romanian player dies on the pitch

Earlier Dinamo president Marcel Popescu said that according to the team’s doctor, Haldan suffered a cerebral attack and was clinically dead on the pitch before being taken to hospital in Oltenita, 60 km southwest of the Capital.

Haldan, 24, played eight matches for Romania, scoring one goal. He was in Romania’s squad for the 2000 European Championship in the Netherlands and Belgium but he did not play during the tournament.

At Euro 2000 Haldan fainted during the first training session of the romanian team. Medical investigations revealed no serious health problems.Reports from Belgium said at the time Haldan had fainted after an accidental collision with teammate Miodrag Belodedici.

They said the National team’s doctor had helped Haldan to avoid swallow his tongue and the player resumed training a few minutes later.Two years ago another Romanian player, midfielder stefan Vrabioru of first division Astra Ploiesti, died after collapsing on the pitch in a match against Rapid Bucharest.

Vrabioru died on his way to hospital in a car. The cause of his death has not been clarified.

Finland gear up
HELSINKI: Authorities are taking no chances ahead of Wednesday’s World Cup qualifier in Helsinki when 3,000 English fans will be welcomed by the largest police presence for a soccer match in Finland.

Juha Karjalainen, a police offer on loan to the Finnish football association, said on Friday the English FA had said 2,800 fans would officially travel to the match.

“The English FA and authorities have said a maximum of 200 other supporters will try to come to the game.” he said 3,600 seats in Helsinki’s 35,000-seat Olympic Stadium had been set aside for English fans.

“We have been working on this for six months,” he said. “There have never been so many stewards and police working together at a match in Finland.”Karjalainen travelled to Belgium in June for the England-Germany Euro 2000 match in Charleroi to observe fan behaviour. Germany are also in Finland’s group.

Charleroi was the scene of some of the worst rioting at Euro 2000, with Belgian police arresting more than 800, most of them English supporters. Hundreds of fans were deported by aircraft and ferry after rampaging through Brussels and Charleroi.

England last played in Helsinki in 1985 when 100 supporters were arrested for fighting.

Ronaldo goes for tests
PARIS: Ronaldo, Inter Milan’s Brazilian striker, will undergo tests on his injured knee here and may be back in action by January, his friend and manager Roberto Paiva said.

The former World Footballer of the Year arrived at a Paris clinic for a meeting with his surgeon Dr Gerard Saillant, who has performed two operations on the stricken knee, to establish a re-habilitation programme.The 23-year-old, is due to return to Portland, Oregan where he hopes to continue his recovery.