Choosing a squad for next week's friendly match against Uruguay involved some tough choices.
Venables decided Monday to let disgraced team captain David Platt lead the team against the Uruguayans on March 29 but left court-bound Dennis Wise and Paul Ince off the team. He admitted the Wise and Ince decisions were not easy.
"It's not like having bookings and sendings-off where punishments are laid down," he said. "There are no guidelines to follow."
Wise has been released on bail pending an appeal against a three-month jail sentence for assaulting a taxi driver. Ince, the Manchester United midfielder, goes to court Thursday accused of assaulting a fan during a game at Crystal Palace Jan. 25 -- the same incident which led to Eric Cantona's suspension.
Venables, who stressed that in neither case was he pre-judging the court cases, told Wise after his jail sentence was announced a week ago that he would not be considered until his appeal had been heard. Now, after discussions with Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, he has decided to leave Ince off the team, too.
In action on the pitch, Norwich sent its eastern English neighbor Ipswich closer to relegation Monday by scoring a 3-0 victory after the visitor's veteran defender, John Wark,was sent off just before the half.
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In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian police said Tuesday they had found no conclusive evidence that Malaysian bookmakers attempted to fix the results of English League and World Cup soccer matches.
Malaysian federal police gaming chief Khiew Ching Hoi said that Malaysian bookmakers had accepted bets for the matches but there was no proof they had rigged the results.
"I don't believe that Malaysian syndicates are involved in trying to fix either the English League or World Cup results," Khiew said.
Khiew was commenting on a report in The Observer newspaper which quoted sources close to the police investigating match-fixing in Malaysia as saying that Asian betting syndicates tried to rig two 1994 World Cup matches.
A Malaysian businessman was arrested by British police last week in connection with an investigation into match-rigging in the English league.
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In Valenciennes, France, the state prosecutor Tuesday demanded an 18-month prison sentence for Bernard Tapie, the leftist politician charged with corruption in a bribery scandal involving the award-winning soccer team Olympique Marseille. Prosecutor Eric de Montgolfier asked the court to ensure that Tapie, former team owner, spend six of the 18 months behind bars.
De Montgolfier demanded suspended sentences and fines of up to 20,000 francs ($4,000) for the others involved in the case, including the team's former manager Jean-Pierre Bernes, three players, and a player's wife.
All are charged with corruption. Tapie is also charged with witness tampering.
A Valenciennes player revealed the alleged match-fixing plot in May 1993. Three Valenciennes players received around 250,000 francs each to throw a match against Marseille.
The scandal stripped Marseilles of its French league title and relegated it to second division this season.
(AP, Reuters)
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