Strafner shown belated red card

Strafner, who at the time was playing as an emergency defender in Sturm’s surprise 2-1 win over the Dutch side, will now miss the second leg in Rotterdam in two weeks.

The error occurred four minutes into injury time and just seconds before Feyenoord’s Argentine international Julio Ricardo Cruz was sent off.

Hauge realised his mistake after the match and immediately informed Sturm Graz manager Heinz Schilcher as well as the Uefa.

Strafner said: “I was aware that it was my second yellow card but when the referee didn’t send me off I thought that perhaps the first yellow had been just a warning.

“It was not important for the game because the whistle came one minute later.”

Theatre-mad Ronaldo backs two plays
RIO dE JANEIRO: Inter Milan’s injury-plagued Brazilian striker Ronaldo is backing two theatre productions this year, the local press reported on Wednesday.

The first work chosen by the 23-year-old former World footballer of the year are the `Controversy of Valladolid’ by French playwright Francois Jean-Claude Carriere, translated into Protuguese by Ronaldo’s friend and former Sports journalist Pedro Bial.

The second is a play called `The woman without wins’ by the Brazilian dramatist Nelson Rodrigues.

Ronaldo’s press agent Rodrigo Paiva, interviewed in the Folha de Sao Paolo newspaper, stressed that his famous client was only donating funds to the producers, and would not be looking for any financial return on his investment.

Nor would he be turning his hand to directing, Paiva added.

Ronaldo’s aim, he said, was “to attract everyone to culture”.

Ronaldo, in Rio to work on getting back to full fitness after a second operation on his problematic right knee, is a frequent theatre-goer with his wife Milene.

Brazil remains atop
ZURICH: Brazil’s World Cup qualifying victory over regional rival Argentina in July enabled it to hang on for the 74th consecutive month atop the Fifa World rankings announced on Wednesday.

The 3-1 victory in Sao Paulo on July 26 held off the challenge from France, which closed last month on second, thanks to its European Championship title run.

Brazil lost its other match in July, a 2-1 setback to Paraguay in Asuncion in another World Cup qualifier, leaving France poised to end the longtime dominance of the South American power. But Brazil stayed atop with 819 points.

Despite the loss to Brazil, Argentina climbed one spot to third, the highest it has ever been since the rankings were introduced in 1993. The Czech Republic and Spain each dropped one spot to fourth and fifth with Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands following in order and unchanged from July.

Norway and Yugoslavia each rose one spot to ninth and 10th, displacing Germany which dropped two spots to 11th.

The rest of the second 10 had Romania followed by England Mexico, Croatia, Paraguay (which jumped three places into 16th), Colombia, Denmark, Sweden and South Africa.

Trinidad and Tobago rode the strength of World Cup qualifying victories over Gold Cup champion Canada and Mexico to move up eight places into 29th, while four consecutive victories by Jamaica helped push it up 14 places to 46th, returning to the top 50 after three-month demotion.

The biggest drop among the top tier was Saudi Arabia, which fell nine places to 57th. The largest change for any club was Rwanda, which jumped 15 places to 140th.