Colombian players in fear of their lives

Scotland's World Cup squad leave for New York today for a weekend game against Colombian players who are in fear of their lives.

Faustino Asprilla, who left Newcastle last season to return to Parma, is so concerned by death-threat phone calls to his team-mate Victor Hugo Aristizabal and the national coach Hernan Dario Gomez that he has said he will not play if Aristizabal is forced out of the team.

Such threats are taken very seriously following the murder of the defender Andres Escobar after he had scored an own goal in the 2-1 defeat by the United States that put Colombia out of the 1994 World Cup in the first phase.

"I'm tired of the threats," said Asprilla in Bogota. "What kind of country do we live in? We try to make people happy. But this is the only country in the world where footballers are constantly getting death threats."

Gomez, however, is sticking to his schedule and taking the squad to New York tomorrow where they face the Scots in New Jersey's Giants Stadium on Saturday night local time.

Nor has Aristizabal been intimidated. The striker confirmed he had received the death calls on Monday and now has 24-hour police protection. "I never thought for a moment about resigning from the team," he said. "I am proud to be Colombian."

Against Colombia the Scots will be a sounding-board for England's World Cup prospects as well as their own. Glenn Hoddle's side are due to meet the South Americans in their final group match, in Lens, on June 26th.

Craig Brown, the Scotland manager, had only one minor fitness problem when his

squad met in Glasgow yesterday. Andy Goram, the Rangers goalkeeper, aggravated a hamstring injury in last Saturday's Scottish Cup final defeat by Hearts and was unable to train.

Injury to Nigeria's first-choice goalkeeper Ike Shorunmu of FC Zurich has led to the call up of Crewe Alexandra's Ademola Bankole for a pre-World Cup training session in Switzerland.

But the prospects of Arsenal's French trio of Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit and Nicolas Anelka, and Chelsea's Frank Leboeuf getting a late call into their country's squad do not look good. The France coach Aime Jacquet said: "I've had my final 22 in my head for some time and there's no way a sudden flash will change it."

Meanwhile West Ham have denied reports that their France goalkeeper Bernard Lama has already re-signed for Paris StGermain, who had claimed that the man banned for smoking marijuana as a PSG player was back in a revamped squad for next season.

But the London club admitted that they are anxious to talk to Lama, who expects to be named soon in France's final World Cup squad, before his current contract expires on June 30th.