Shevchenko out for 25 days

Rome: AC Milan’s Ukrainian striker Andriy Shevchenko has been sidelined for 25 days with a knee injury, the Serie A club said on Monday. Shevchenko is the key player for Ukraine in their first World Cup finals campaign which starts with their group H opener against Spain on June 14 and his injury could effect his preparation for the tournament.

The former European Player of the Year picked up the injury early in Milan’s 3-2 win over Parma in Serie A on Sunday. Milan said the forward had suffered “a sprain and stretching of the medial collateral ligament” but ruled out any need for an operation.

Shevchenko will miss Milan’s final game of the season at home to Roma.

Togo’s ‘first’ appearance

Frankfurt: Togo will be the first of the 32 World Cup teams to arrive in Germany ? more than three weeks before the tournament begins on June 9. Togo are due to touch down in Germany on May 15, World Cup organisers said on Monday. The squad will have their base camp in Wangen in the south of the country.

Hosts Germany will not convene at their base hotel in Berlin until June 4, although the squad will be together for camps in Sardinia and Geneva from May 16. Holders Brazil will also be arriving on June 4, but Ukraine do not arrive until the opening day of the tournament.

Boot on other foot

London: Call it coincidence, but a brochure for the June edition of a football magazine invites readers to win a pair of Wayne Rooney’s boots. Which is a little unfortunate since the Nike T90 Supremacy boots have been blamed in some quarters for causing Rooney’s metatarsal injury.

Still, if you know how old young Wayne will be during the 2006 World Cup, you could win a pair of signed match boots, and watch him training with Man United. Although not for a while, sadly.

Kompany called up

Brussels: Anderlecht defender Vincent Kompany, out of action with a shoulder injury since January, has been called up for Belgium’s friendly against World Cup finalists Saudi Arabia.

Kompany, who is set to leave the Belgian champions, is included in the 22-man squad for Thursday’s game in the Netherlands along with nine uncapped players.

Belgium are without first-choice goalkeeper Silvio Proto, who is sidelined until September with a knee injury.

Blatter still concerned

London: Fifa president Sepp Blatter said on Monday he was still concerned that German government demands over ticketing security could lead to chaos at the World Cup finals, which start next month.

The German interior ministry is insisting that all ticket-holders present identification at the stadium to prove they are the same people as those whose names appear on the tickets.

Talks held between Fifa and the German authorities on Friday failed to resolve the issue and Blatter could not hide his concern when he met a group of British-based reporters in London on Monday.

“We only have four weeks to resolve this problem,” he said. “I can only imagine problems with fans queuing up to go in, holding a ticket and unable to get in.”

3 referees dropped

Zurich: Referees Kyros Vassaras of Greece, Manuel Mejuto Gonzalez of Spain and Carlos Batres of Guatemala will not officiate at the World Cup finals because of fitness problems, Fifa announced on Monday.

Vassaras and Mejuto Gonzalez miss out because although they are fit, some of their assistants have not passed tests so the whole trio has been dropped. Batres has failed to recover from a cruciate knee injury in time. Under new Fifa rules, all three members of the refereeing trio, must have passed fitness tests by last week.

‘Faulty’ logic

London: The Germans are going to clamp down heavily on fans at the World Cup who goose-step, give Nazi salutes or, to borrow a Basil Fawlty line, mention the war. Anyone convicted of inciting racial hatred faces a prison term of between two weeks and three years.

So how come there were T-shirts openly on sale on the streets around Stamford Bridge last week depicting the famous Fawlty jack-booted walk, salute, and finger under the nose? Police officers just walked past. Perhaps racism isn’t a crime in London?