Golden Jubilee celebrations in Cyprus 03 XXVIII UEFA Congress 06 ...

AFP/ZBOROWSKIREPUBLICOF IRELANDThe Republic ofIreland (John O’Shea)continued theirgood run with adraw against Poland.FRFROMANIADinamoBucarest arein therunning forthe domesticchampionshiptitle.on various committees go back more thantwo decades, and this reflects well on theuntiring efforts of this 54-year-old lawyerto face the future challenges of the gameof football, both in Malta and worldwide.Alex VellaNETHERLANDSFirst woman coachfor national teamVera Pauw was appointedhead coach of the nationalwomen’s team in April. Pauw (41) succeedsFrans de Kat, who will end his termwith the national side in June. She isthe first woman to take the position ashead coach of the national women’s teamin the Netherlands. Pauw has a longhistory in football. She won 87 caps forthe Dutch national team over a periodstretching from 1983 until 1998. Sheplayed as central defender and evencaptained the side. In the 1988/89 season,she played professional footballfor Modena in Italy, but she returnedto the Netherlands after just one seasonto pursue her international career.Vera Pauw studied physicaleducation and was awarded the highestcoaching certificate in 1987. She workedfor the Dutch FA from 1986 until 1998on the football development staff.For the last six years she has workedfor the Scottish FA as technical directorof women’s football and national teammanager. The Scots were promoted toNETHERLANDSVera Pauw, newcoach of the Dutchwomen’s team.KNVBdivision one under her guidance. VeraPauw will not start to work in the Netherlandsuntil the Scots have finishedtheir qualifying campaign for the 2005European championship. Meanwhilean interim coach will be in charge ofthe Dutch women.Pauw is a member of the FIFATechnical Study Group and attended thelast two FIFA Women’s World Cups inthat capacity. Last year she was the firstwoman ever to join Michel Platini’s FIFATechnical Committee.Her determination and dedicationto the cause of women’s footballhave yet to pay off in the Netherlands.The Dutch team are still awaiting theirfirst appearance in a major internationaltournament. However, there is talentlooming on the horizon. The Under-19side were the first ever Dutch women’sside to qualify for the final round of theEuropean Championship in 2003. Unfortunatelythey were knocked out of the2004 campaign by European championsFrance in April. Still, with boys and girlsplaying in the same leagues up to theage of 18 and the female membershipof KNVB still growing, Vera Pauw couldbe the first coach to lead the Dutchwomen’s side to the final round of aEuropean Championship or even the FIFAWorld Cup.Rob de LeedePORTUGALPraise from UEFAPortugal’s efforts to organisethe coming EURO 2004tournament have beenpraised once again, during the recentXXVIII Ordinary UEFA Congress in Limassol,Cyprus. In his closing speech, theUEFA president underlined the workperformed by the Portuguese FootballFederation and the Portuguese Government,in order to stage the best EuropeanChampionship ever.FPF President Gilberto Madaíl,who intended to stand as a candidatein the elections for the UEFA and FIFAExecutive Committees, decided towithdraw both candidatures, bearing inmind “the higher interests of Portuguesefootball and the sports-political relationshipbetween the FPF and FIFA andUEFA.” Noting the Portuguese official’sdecision, the UEFA president issued asupportive statement saying that thedecision "was driven by the need to concentrateon and give priority to the mattersthat have occurred recently in Portugal”.The statement further recognisedMadaíl’s “outstanding” role and acknowledgedthat “he has been active onmany fronts over the past few years”,for which reason he “will be offered avery prominent position within UEFAin order to utilise his talents and vastexperience for the benefit of Europeanfootball in future years."A similar position was adoptedby the FIFA president, during the Congress.Joseph Blatter saw the withdrawalof Gilberto Madaíl as an attitude ofgreatdignity.With EURO 2004 looming evercloser (12 June to 4 July), these wordsare a great incentive for football and forPortugal.João Paulo DinizREPUBLICOF IRELANDOnly one defeatin 14 matchesFootball supporters inthe Republic of Ireland had high hopesthat Roy Keane would make a spectacularreturn to the international team for thefriendly game against Poland in Bydgoszczat the end of April.The Manchester United midfielderhad indicated that he planned toput his dramatic withdrawal from the2002 World Cup finals in Japan behindhim and make a return to the internationalscene.Keane reported to the team hotelin Dublin to prepare for the game againstthe Poles but was forced to withdrawbecause of a hamstring injury sustainedduring a training session with the squadon the morning of their intended departurefor Poland.The player had complained of ahamstring problem following ManchesterUnited's English Premiership gameagainst Liverpool the previous weekendand the injury was confirmed followingthe run-out in Dublin under Irish teammanager Brian Kerr.There is now a chance thatKeane may be ready to make his reappearancein the Irish team in some of thefriendly games that have been arrangedfor the weeks ahead.Ireland have games coming upagainst Romania, Nigeria, Jamaica and theNetherlands before the summer break.For the game against the Polesmanager Kerr had a difficult time with anumber of players withdrawing from hissquad for various reasons.From an original list of 24players he named for the game, no fewerthan 11 withdrew. So, in the circumstances,with his depleted squad,manager Kerr was happy with the factthat the Irish managed a scoreless drawagainst the Poles.There was a further sense ofsatisfaction for him in that the resultof the game (0-0) brought Kerr's recordsince he took over as manager of theinternational team almost 18 monthsago to just one defeat in 14 matches.20 uefadirect 6.04