Rivaldo to miss cup final
Brazilian star Rivaldo will miss the Greek Cup final against AEK on May 6, league champion Olympiakos’s remaining challenge this season, the latest round of medical tests conducted on the player indicated yesterday. Club doctors also said it was highly unlikely that Rivaldo would manage to recover in time for the league’s remaining two rounds of play. Olympiakos assured itself of the title three rounds before the season’s finale. Rivaldo, a key contributor to the Piraeus club’s ninth league title in 10 seasons, has been sidelined for several weeks due to a mysterious virus. Club officials have not disclosed details. The 33-year-old Brazilian, who is hoping to be a part of his national team’s squad at the imminent World Cup finals in Germany, had appeared optimistic in recent days about recovering for the Greek Cup final. The latest negative news about his fitness is likely to affect the aging player’s chances of being included in Brazil’s World Cup squad, mostly as a morale-boosting initiative for the defending champion’s younger players. It would also serve as a fitting end to the celebrated player’s international career. Yesterday’s medical tests indicated that there was a slight improvement in Rivaldo’s condition, reports said. The Brazilian says he feels totally fit and ready to play, but doctors are not prepared to drop the precautions being taken. Coach Trond Sollied will have to make plans without Rivaldo in mind for the cup final against AEK. In the AEK camp, yesterday’s most striking team news emerged from a court hearing, where an organized fan was handed a nine-month prison sentence and three years’ suspension for attacking, striking and verbally abusing the club’s boss Demis Nikolaidis. Following the verdict, the defendant, Thanassis Tsiogas, immediately exercised his right to appeal. Nikolaidis was allegedly attacked at Athens Airport several weeks ago amid an ongoing conflict with organized fans. The rift began earlier this season after Nikolaidis, a former star player at the historic club who spearheaded a group of investors to save it from looming bankruptcy, began advocating trouble-free soccer shortly after his administrative arrival as part of a longer-term plan to promote soccer as a family-oriented sport. The team’s organized fans, usually the culprits behind the disturbances, have reacted against his intentions. More recently, AEK’s organized fans joined forces with the club’s amateur division, a minority shareholder, in objecting to Nikolaidis’s plans for relocation to a new site, where a new club stadium would be constructed. The club’s amateur division is rallying for AEK to remain at its traditional site in Nea Philadelphia in northern Athens. The club’s stadium there was demolished a couple of years ago, even though no details had been finalized on the new stadium which would be its successor. Nikolaidis has contended that the club’s traditional grounds would stifle the administration’s plans for a bigger and better complex. Reacting to his willingness to relocate, his adversaries have labeled Nikolaidis a traitor.
