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Sao Paulo to fine Adriano, mulling voiding his contract

Sao Paulo's Adriano, right, fights for the ball with Atletico Nacional's Elkin Murillo, left, during their Libertadores Cup match at the Atanasio Girardot stadium in Medellin, Colombia, on Wednesday. PHOTO: EPA

Sao Paulo will fine striker Adriano for indiscipline and could levy heavier penalties following a traffic accident and other incidents involving the Inter Milan striker.

Adriano, on loan from Inter until June, will be fined 40 percent of his salary for arriving late for practice and abandoning physical therapy without authorization, the club said on its Web site on Friday.

Sao Paulo president Juvenal Juvencio will meet with Adriano "to discuss the athlete's future," the club said.

Adriano, who joined Sao Paulo last December, has been under fire for his lack of scoring and failure to obey club rules.

On Friday, a Porsche registered to him was involved in an accident before dawn in downtown Sao Paulo, the Globo TV network reported. Adriano was not in the car, but two women passengers were injured and treated at a local hospital, Globo said on its Web site.

In December, Adriano was driving in Rio de Janeiro and lost control of his Audi, bouncing off the curb and hitting three cars. No one was reported injured.

Sao Paulo vice president Carlos Augusto de Barros e Silva said the club could discuss voiding Adriano's contract.

"The possibility exists," he said in an interview on the UOL Esporte Web site. "We haven't decided yet and no hypothesis is discarded ... We don't like what happened."

He was in more trouble on Friday, when he arrived late for training, left early and threatened a cameraman.

"We're going to analyse the facts, to decide whether or not there will be a fine," Sao Paulo general manager Marco Aurelio Cunha told reporters. "The important thing here is that there is a healthy atmosphere. People have to be happy here and if they are not happy, they don't need to stay."

Brazilian media reported that Adriano arrived nearly half an hour late for a fitness training session.

They said he left early and threatened a cameraman who tried to photograph him walking out of the ground.

"This is absolutely wrong and I cannot justify this at all," Cunha said.
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