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Capello unhappy with England's goalkeeping options

MILAN: England coach Fabio Capello has bemoaned a lack of goalkeeping talent at his disposal, saying on Monday it forced him to bring back goalkeeper David James.

The Portsmouth keeper, who lost his England place under Sven Goran Eriksson, returned to the lineup for Capello's first game in charge this month when England beat Switzerland 2-1 in a friendly at Wembley.

Former No 1 Paul Robinson is not playing for Tottenham Hotspur after a loss of form while Aston Villa's Scott Carson produced a howler when England lost 3-2 at home to Croatia in November and failed to qualify for Euro 2008.

Manchester United's Ben Foster has been talked up in the media but is injured. Capello hinted the future may lie with Manchester City's Joe Hart, the England U-21 goalkeeper.

"Only 38 percent of the players are English. The pool is reduced. I have had to reinstate a 37-year-old goalkeeper but I have spotted one in the Under-21's who is very interesting," Capello told Italy's Radio Anch'io.

Troubled Adriano escapes with two-match ban

RIO DE JANEIRO: Sao Paulo's on-loan striker Adriano escaped with a two-match ban on Monday after a tribunal accepted that he had used his head to push rather than butt an opponent during a state championship match.

A Brazilian disciplinary tribunal found that the Inter Milan player had confronted Santos center-half Domingos aggressively during his club's 3-2 victory, but ruled that the degree of contact had fallen short of a dangerous head butt.

Adriano had initially been charged with the more serious offense of physical aggression and had faced a ban of between 120 and 540 days.

His lawyers showed television footage of the famous 2006 World Cup final incident involving France's Zinedine Zidane and Italy's Marco Materazzi to support their argument.

Adriano has already served one game of his suspension by sitting out Sunday's 3-2 defeat at Marilia.

Chambers misses deadline to appeal Beijing Games ban

LONDON: British sprinter Dwain Chambers has missed the deadline to lodge an appeal against his ban from the Beijing Olympics for serving a two-year doping suspension, the British Olympic Association (BOA) said on Monday.

A BOA spokeswoman said athletes had been given until February 15 to appeal against any ban to ensure it was processed in time for the Games opening on August 8.

"The deadline was February 15 if he (Chambers) wanted to compete in Beijing," she said. "We haven't received any communication from him as far as I am aware."

The spokeswoman said Chambers could still appeal any time against the lifetime ban imposed by the BOA on any athlete testing positive for drugs.

Chambers, 29, was banned for two years after testing positive for the designer steroid THG in 2003.

Ralf Schumacher to race for Mercedes in DTM

LONDON: Ralf Schumacher will race for Mercedes in this season's German Touring Car (DTM) championship after leaving Formula One last year, the carmaker said on Monday.

The 32-year-old, younger brother of seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher, will make his debut in the series at Hockenheim on April 13.

"I like the series, I like the environment, I like the enthusiastic and positive spectators," said Schumacher, whose six Grand Prix wins make him Germany's second most successful Formula One driver after Michael.

"And I like Mercedes - with them I got my first chance to test a Formula One car in 1996 and who knows how my Formula One career had turned out if I had accepted the McLaren Mercedes offer to become their test driver for 1997.

"But then I wanted to drive races and that's still what I want today, more than 10 years later," Schumacher, who made his F1 debut with Jordan in 1997, added in a statement.

(China Daily 02/20/2008 page22)