Former Brazil striker Romario was named player-coach of Vasco da Gama on Thursday, two days after announcing he had failed a dope test while playing for the team in October.
Romario, who blamed a hair loss treatment after testing positive for the banned substance finasteride, will be in charge of Vasco for the opening games of next season, club president Eurico Miranda told reporters.
The 1994 World Cup striker, still playing at the age of 41, has been provisionally suspended until Dec. 18, when Brazil's disciplinary tribunal is due to hear the case.
Miranda said Romario's role would be restricted to coaching if the tribunal extends the ban.
Vasco are due to play two friendlies in Dubai in January before taking part in the Carioca championship, one of the regional tournaments which kick off the Brazilian season in mid-January.
Romario replaces Valdir Espinosa, who quit after the season ended on Sunday.
"Romario will be player and coach until the end of the Guanabara Cup [the first half of the Carioca tournament]," Miranda said. "That is definite. Maybe he will continue a while longer. If the tribunal maintains the suspension, he will go to Dubai as coach. But I think the ban will be overturned."
"We'll speed up the tests, we'll accelerate our defense to try to help the tribunal to schedule [the trial]. That's what Romario wants," Paulo Reis, Vasco's vice president for legal affairs, told the Globo media Web site G1.
Finasteride is on the World Anti-Doping Agency's banned list because it can mask use of anabolic steroids. But Vasco asked the Brazilian soccer confederation to test the urine sample with a reagent available in Europe that would reveal whether Romario used steroids.
"The urine is still in the laboratory," Vasco physician Pedro Valente said on Thursday in an interview with the Rio de Janeiro newspaper O Globo. "Test it to find out if the finasteride masked anabolic steroids."
The Greek basketball league finals between Panathinaikos and Olympiakos were suspended by the government on Monday following on-court scuffles involving rival security teams. The best-of-five series is at 1-1. The third game, scheduled for today, has been postponed. The owners of both clubs were summoned to meet with the country’s sports minister. They “will be asked to provide explicit guarantees that this situation will be brought to an end. If not, this year’s championship will be definitively canceled,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said. “There can be no tolerance for such pathological phenomena of violence and delinquency.” In online posts, the owners of Panathinaikos and
‘DREAM’: The 5-0 victory was PSG’s first Champions League title, and the biggest final win by any team in the 70-year history of the top-flight European competition Paris Saint-Germain won the Champions League for the first time as Luis Enrique’s brilliant young side outclassed Inter on Saturday in the most one-sided final ever with teenager Desire Doue scoring twice in an astonishing 5-0 victory. Doue supplied the pass for Achraf Hakimi to give PSG an early lead and the 19-year-old went from provider to finisher as his deflected shot doubled the advantage in the 20th minute. Doue scored again just after the hour mark, ending any doubt about the outcome before Khvicha Kvaratskhelia ran away to get the fourth and substitute Senny Mayulu, another teenager, made it five. Inter were
Ryan Yarbrough picked up a dazzling World Series ring from his time with the Los Angeles Dodgers last season. Then he went out and beat them. The New York Yankees starter on Sunday pitched one-run ball over six innings, struck out a season-high five and blanked the Dodgers’ top four hitters in a 7-3 win. “I feel like I’m in a really good place right now and really trying to continue that,” Yarbrough said. “I’m having a lot of fun.” The 33-year-old left-hander made 44 relief appearances between the Dodgers and Blue Jays last season. The Dodgers designated him for assignment on July
The Crusaders yesterday produced a clinical performance in difficult conditions to beat the Queensland Reds 32-12 and claim home advantage in next week’s Super Rugby semi-finals. Lock Scott Barrett and prop Tamaiti Williams scored first-half tries to reward an outstanding performance from the Crusaders’ forwards in wet, slippery conditions and bitterly cold temperatures. Scrumhalf Noah Hotham defied the conditions in the second half to score a superb solo try and, after kicking a conversion and penalty to make the score 22-0 at the hour mark, flyhalf Rivez Reihana scored a try which took the game beyond the Reds. “Typical Christchurch weather, cold, wet
RSS