Slovenia's Zahovic sent home

NEWS: AZlatan Zahovic of Slovenia was yesterday sent home from the World Cup following his row with coach Srecko Katanec.

Zahovic blew a fuse after being substituted early in the second half of his country's World Cup defeat against Spain last Sunday.

He berated Katanec in the dressing-room following the game, and the coach later announced that he would quit the team after the tournament.

But yesterday the Slovenia Football Federation removed Zahovic, a Benfica star, from the national squad.

Rudi Zavrl, the president of the federation, said: "Zahovic has continued with his attitude which was damaging for the atmosphere surrounding the team."

Zahovic, who has since apologised, said: "I'm truly sorry for what I said in the dressing-room.

"I realise they were very strong words and I apologise to everybody, to the organisers and to Katanec."

It was not the first time Zahovic had blown his cool. The 31-year-old left Greece after the 1999-2000 campaign following his criticism of his Olympiakos coach.

He later burned bridges at Valencia after just one season and left the Mestalla Stadium last summer for Benfica.

Zahovic is believed to have said in the dressing-room: "I can buy all of you, I can buy the whole association, I can buy Smarna Jore (Katanec's home town).

"I can't stay in a team like this where you (Katanec) will substitute me in a game like this in the World Cup."

After Katanec's decision to quit, Zahovic showed no regret. "Whoever digs the hole often falls into it themselves," he said.

Rivaldo is still trying to justify faking injury during his side's controversial 2-1 win over Turkey.

The Brazilian went down clutching his head when Turkish defender Hakan Ulsan kicked the ball onto his thigh as he waited to take a corner in the last minute of a hot-tempered Group F game.

Korean referee Kim Young Joo sent off Ulsan, but Rivaldo's reaction earned him universal condemnation, a £5,000 fine from FIFA and a warning about his future conduct.

"I am not sorry about anything," he declared yesterday. "I was both the victim and the person who got fined. Obviously the ball didn't hit me in the face, but I was still the victim. I did not hit anyone in the face.

"Nobody remembers what the Turk did. I'm not a player who fakes fouls."

Meanwhile, the Japanese World Cup Organizing Committee (JAWOC) is enraged by the shocking revelation that some 11,000 seats were empty at the Russia-Tunisia (7,000) and Cameroon-Saudi Arabia (4,000) games in Japan.

"We are outraged by the finding. It came as a total shock to us," said Akira Odajima, a spokesman for JAWOC. "We don't know whom to blame because we don't know the cause of this ticket mess yet.

"But we already asked FIFA and Byrom to give us information and explanations as to why this is happening," added Odajima, referring to the British-based company Byrom Plc, the worldwide ticketing agent for FIFA.

Earlier, JAWOC said FIFA would decide at a meeting next week how to sell leftover tickets for the second-round matches.