Smoke on the bench not music to FIFA's ears
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-06-15 14:00 Football is tense enough
especially if your job depends on it, but Mexico's chain-smoking coach Ricardo
Lavolpe has been firmly told that cigarettes are not the answer.
While FIFA have stepped in and declared that the 54-year-old Argentinian
cannot be seen to be smoking on the touchline, his only option (other than to
quit) is to be summarily dismissed to the stands where the spectators are
allowed to puff away.
"We looked at the tape and in fact we realized he did smoke," FIFA's head of
communications Markus Siegler said after reviewing the match between Mexico and
Iran.
"An official letter will be sent to the Mexican federation underlining that
neither the coaches nor anyone else on the sidelines is allowed to smoke," added
Siegler.
The present FIFA officials would have been aghast had they been around at the
1990 World Cup and witnessed Italy's Gianluca Vialli, having been substituted,
lying below the bench puffing away on a cigarette soon afterwards.
It is hard for a man like Lavolpe, who learned from the master of the habit
Cesar Luis Menotti as he sat with him in the dugout during Argentina's march to
the 1978 World Cup title at home - Menotti was captured endlessly on film
lighting one cigarette after another.
Twenty-eight years on, he has fallen prey to the permanent battle to stub out
the habit that kills millions every year.
"It is a bad habit yes, but it is one that I indulge in and enjoy for my
sins," said Lavolpe, who guided his side to an opening 3-1 victory over Iran in
their Group D clash.
"It may be bad for you but, hell, it is not as if I am drinking on the job,
which would make you incapable of performing your tasks. That would be a case
for dismissal, but smoking? I don't believe the last time I looked somebody had
either been dismissed or arrested for being smoked out and disorderly," said
Lavolpe.
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