Germany legend Franz Beckenbauer has accused the country's first-choice goalkeeper Rene Adler of making "one error after the other" following an unconvincing performance against Hamburg at the weekend.

GettyImagesRene Adler is an important player for Joachim Low's side• World Cup Legend: Beckenbauer

Adler, 25, currently has ownership of the No. 1 shirt ahead of the World Cup finals in South Africa but generated cause for concern when racing off his line against Hamburg and colliding with defender Sami Hyypia, allowing Ze Roberto to score in a 4-2 win for Bayer Leverkusen.

Adler said he had "looked a bit stupid" following the mistake and Beckenbauer, who captained West Germany to World Cup glory in 1974 and then repeated the feat as coach in 1990, was forthright in his criticism of the international 'keeper.

"If somebody makes an error like that in a school team, then you would tell him to find a different sport," Beckenbauer said on Sky. "Adler is a great goalkeeper, but since he has known that he is the No. 1, he is making one error after the other."

However, Leverkusen director of sport Rudi Voller, who played under Beckenbauer when West Germany won the 1990 World Cup in Italy, has supported Adler's claims to keep goal for his country in South Africa.

"He is just the goalkeeper that Germany needs," Voller said. "Rene at least takes risks and that is why he is rightly Germany's No. 1. I hate nothing more than goalkeepers who just stand on their line and play for the galleries."

Adler is hoping to quickly eradicate mistakes from his game, saying: "We have such a great team who can iron out individual errors and I hope the days soon return when I can give something back to the team."

David Beckham's World Cup dreams are almost certainly over after tearing his Achilles tendon during AC Milan's Serie A game with Chievo on Sunday night.

Beckham sustained the injury without coming into contact with anyone else, limping to the sidelines for treatment in a match Milan went on to win 1-0.

Milan coach Leonardo said after the game: "Beckham's injury makes us feel terrible.

"He is an extraordinary guy and today's game proves it yet again.

"I cannot enjoy this evening considering this serious injury.

"David understood immediately that he had torn his Achilles tendon."

Forever young: Nigerian football's age-old problem
Nwankwo Kanu is 42 and Taribo West, whose career ended two years ago, is in his late fifties, say bloggers in Nigeria




Jay-Jay Okocha in action for Nigeria during qualifying for the 2006 World Cup. Photograph: Ben Radford/Getty Images



Nwankwo Kanu's official age is 33 but his real age is 42. Obafemi Martins is not 25 but 32. Jay-Jay Okocha was 10 years older than his "official" age throughout his career. And Taribo West, whose playing career ended only two years ago, is in his late fifties. Who says so? A stream of bloggers on some of Nigeria's most popular websites, in response to comments made after the country's timid effort in last month's Africa Cup of Nations.

Failure to win that trophy is nearly always considered a scandal in the continent's most populous nation but Nigeria's latest misadventure in the tournament triggered a particularly explosive condemnation back home.

It started when a former manager of a leading Nigerian club told the Lagos Guardian: "What happened in Angola is a confirmation of what has been happening in the past where most of our players falsified their age during competition. Most of the players are beyond the age they professed and this made it impossible for them to withstand the pace of teams like Zambia and Benin."

It also led to an entertaining discussion that shows no sign of abating as the Nigerians, who have three months to prepare for the World Cup, reacted to the criticism by sacking the coach. "Our boys are old, we are paying the price for age cheating," said Ken Anugweje, a former national team doctor and board member of the Nigerian Football Federation.

Suspicions about true ages of some Nigerian footballers date back 20 years. Fifa banned Nigeria from all international fixtures for two years after finding that the birth dates of three of their players in the 1988 Olympics were different from ones used by the same players in previous tournaments.

A year later Pelé famously declared "an African team will definitely win the World Cup by the turn of the century" after watching seemingly promising Nigerian youngsters lift the Under-17 World Cup and reach the final of the Under-20 competition. How was Pelé to know that the so-called Under-20s of 1989 were so old that, in the words of George Onmonya on nigeriavillagesquare.com, "most of our players have now retired and become grandpas"?

Nigeria have a rich tradition of seemingly promising youngsters who mysteriously fail to fulfil their potential. Phillip Osondu was the best player at the 1987 Under-17 World Cup, after which he was snapped up by Anderlecht, only to drift out of the game and into janitorial work after questions were raised about his real age.

The star of Nigeria's finalists at the 2001 Under-17 competition went on to become officially the third-youngest player to appear in the senior World Cup when he started the 0-0 draw with England in 2002. But that was as good as it got for Femi Opabunmi, who by 2005 was playing part-time football in the French lower leagues.

A trawl through the blogosphere makes for intriguing reading. "A friend of mine who once played in the Nigerian league told me his real age was 34 but his football age was 21," wrote Onmonya. "You can walk into any immigration office in Nigeria today, forge documents at the nearby business centre, change your name, place of birth, date of birth, pay 7,000-10,000 naira instead of the official price of about 5,500 for an international passport and within hours you have completed the whole process." A new passport, a new person – and if you are a footballer, a younger one.

A former employee of the British embassy in Nigeria told Observer Sport that when visa applicants complained to him about having their applications rejected, he would reply: "Well don't talk to me about it, I'm dead." He would respond to their looks of puzzlement by pointing to the wall behind him, on which hung his death certificate, purchased for a small fee from a Lagos supplier. Fifa reckon they have finally come up with a foolproof way of determining real age. Ahead of last year's Under-17 World Cup in, as it happened, Nigeria, the governing body announced that players would be subjected to wrist scans using magnetic resonance imaging, and this would determine their true age.

That led some countries to undertake precautionary scans beforehand. The results were never announced, but Nigeria suddenly discarded 15 squad members, while Gambia omitted 11 of the 18 who had helped them to victory in the African Under-17 championship a few months earlier. Reports claim that retrospective analyses of the previous three Under-17 World Cups showed more than a third of all players were too old.

Holland coach Bert van Marwijk will have to make do without the services of experienced Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar during this summer's World Cup.

The former Juventus and Ajax shot-stopper retired from international football after Euro 2008, but recent speculation suggested that van der Sar could decide to come out of his retirement for the 2010 World Cup.

"I will not go the World Cup with Oranje. I made this decision after the World Cup qualifier against Norway and I will not change my mind," said van der Sar to Algemeen Dagblad.

"That's all I want to say about this subject. It's now up to goalkeepers such as Maarten Stekelenburg to prove that they're worthy of their spot as Holland goalie."

Van Marwijk will probably opt to take Stekelenburg to South Africa as first choice keeper, while Utrecht shot stopper Michel Vorm is likely to be named as his deputy.

AMSTERDAM (AP) -Guus Hiddink says his contract as coach of Russia's national team will not be extended past June 30, putting him in the running for a series of major jobs.

Hiddink guided Russia to the semifinals of the 2008 European Championships but the team fell short of qualifying for this year's World Cup.

The 63-year-old Dutchman made his announcement in a newspaper column. He did not mention future plans but has been linked with major clubs in Europe and even with taking up a job at short notice coaching one of the teams at the World Cup.

He has previously coached clubs such as Real Madrid and PSV Eindhoven, and national teams including the Netherlands, South Korea and Australia.

Togo, who pulled out of the Africa Cup of Nations after a terrorist attack on their team bus, have been banned for the next two editions of the tournament, the African Football Confederation (CAF) said Saturday.

CAF president Issa Hayatou told AFP the decision was based on "governmental interference", which led to the team's decision to pull out of this year's edition.

Togo decided to pull out of the tournament after two members of their delegation were shot and killed during an attack on the team bus as it passed through the restive Angolan enclave of Cabinda.

The armed wing of the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), embroiled in a decades-long separatist struggle, claimed responsibility for the attack.

GENEVA (AFP) - World football chief Sepp Blatter said in a newspaper interview on Sunday that he might consider video assistance for referees in the future.

The president of world football's governing body FIFA has staunchly opposed the use of video replays as a refereeing aid because they would interrupt the flow of the game.

But he told the Swiss newspaper Sonntagsblick that he might consider them after other technology has been approved.

"I'm not completely against it. But only when goal line technology is ready to be introduced, only then," he said.

The guardian of football's rules, the International Football Association Board, is due to discuss electronic goal line technology, including computer chips in balls and goalmouth cameras, at its meeting in March.

Blatter again ruled out the introduction of such aids in South Africa this summer.

"We won't carry out any experiments there, not even with two extra referees," he added.

Two additional assistant referees are being lined up in Europa League matches this season in a trial aimed at improving surveillance of incidents in penalty box.

In December, FIFA's executive committee also ruled out the introduction of video technology to assist referees similar to the system used in rugby, cricket and tennis.

Pressure for refereeing aids surged again with the furore that followed Thierry Henry's blatant handball in a World Cup playoff against Ireland in November that saw France qualify for the finals.

(GSM) - Sevilla striker Frederic Kanoute has decided to call it a day on his international career. Following Mali's exit from the African Nations Cup, Kanoute announced his international retirement.

Kanoute scored 23 goals in 38 appearances since his Mali debut in 2004. He confirmed his decision was final after Mali beat Malawi 3-1. However, Mali's victory was meaningless as the Eagles crashed out of the competition.

"That's life," he told the Angolan Angop news agency. "I'm sorry I couldn't succeed in helping my team go further at the Nations Cup, which now marks my retirement."

Kanoute continued, "I can't find the words to describe how upset I am, it really hurts me. After we were knocked out in 2008 we really wanted to do well here.

"For my last appearance in this competition I wanted to go as far as possible. We will now take stock of our team," the 2007 African Footballer of the Year added.

FOOTBALL fans planning on going to the World Cup in South Africa are being offered stab vests in their team's colours.
The vests are being sold online by London-registered firm Protektorvest.com and can display any flag of a fan's choosing.

The British Football Supporters Federation (BSSF) said the company is cashing in on fears of the country's crime rate, Sky News reports.

The BSSF said wearing a stab vest at what should be a carnival of soccer was in bad taste and "smacked of panic" over South Africa's notoriously high crime rate.

BSSF spokesman Malcolm Clarke said Thursday the federation worked closely with the authorities and the British Football Association to give fans security advice.

"Part of that advice will not include buying a stab vest. This will just panic people and introduce a degree of tension," he said.

Protektorvest. Owner Sascha Cutura said he was disappointed people thought they were trying to induce fear in fans going to South Africa.

"We are both football fans ourselves. We certainly don't want to offend South Africa but the risk is there," he added.

The company claims the $122 vests will protect fans from stabs, cuts, slashes and blows from sharp-edged or spiked weapons.

Source: The Austrailian