JEDDAH, 19 November 2005 — Al-Hilal widened their lead at the top of the table
with a 2-1 victory over Al-Wehda yesterday in the Saudi soccer league at the King Abdul Aziz Stadium in Makkah.
A 71st minute strike by defender Tavares sealed the win for Hilal, who equalized in the 33rd minute with a goal by striker Jelison.
Wehda striker Alaa Al-Kwaikbi scored the first goal of the match when he found the net in the 13th minute.
The result left Hilal with 18 points and a seven-point lead over idle and fellow Riyadh-based team Al-Shabab with 11 points. Wehda remain on 10 points.
In Abha, Al-Hazem secured their first win against Abha in Abha after two draws and 4 losses. Al-Hazem won 2-1 to get out of the cellar and bring their tally to to five points. Abha slipped to last place with one point.
World Cup Playoffs Marred by Violence; Referee Jailed for Match Fixing
AP adds: With the field for next year’s World Cup now complete, soccer should be looking ahead to the game’s biggest party. Instead, the sport’s image is under a cloud again.
On the field, violence broke out in Istanbul, Turkey, and Manama, Bahrain, on Wednesday night in final World Cup qualifiers.
Off the pitch, a referee was sentenced to two years and five months in jail Thursday for fixing matches in Germany — which will host the championship in seven months.
On Thursday in Berlin, referee Robert Hoyzer was convicted and sentenced to jail in Germany’s worst soccer scandal in more than 30 years. Ante Sapina, a Croatian gambler, was convicted of fraud and given 35 months in prison for masterminding the match-fixing scheme.
FIFA opened an investigation into the scenes at Fenerbahce’s Sukru Saracoglu stadium, where Switzerland qualified at the expense of Turkey.
Swiss players, running off the field to escape being hit by objects thrown by local fans, fought with Turkish players in the tunnel. Swiss substitute Stephane Grichting was taken to a hospital with internal bleeding.
“In the truest sense of the word, fair play was trampled underfoot,” Blatter said at FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland. “This is unworthy of football. Football should promote understanding among peoples. This didn’t happen here.”
Although Switzerland lost the game 4-2, the team advanced on away goals after the two-leg series finished 4-4 on aggregate.
Blatter, who appeared to blame Turkey for the trouble, said FIFA might even consider banning the team from the 2010 World Cup.
“We will act tough,” he said. “The catalogue of sanctions extends from a simple warning to suspension of the federation, which could mean exclusion from the next international event.” The Turkish federation responded by saying that Blatter, who is Swiss, was biased and had ignored the behavior of the Swiss players, one of whom kicked one of the Turkey coaches as he left the field. “Blatter’s comments were extremely unfortunate,” Turkish soccer federation vice president Sekip Mosturoglu said.
