Daum agrees to drug test

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Germany

Germany

Germany's coach-designate, Cristoph Daum, said yesterday that he was taking a drug test to prove his innocence of accusations that he took illegal substances.

"I gave a sample of my hair to a doctor today. The results will be available in four weeks... I have done this only because I have an absolutely clear conscience on this," Daum said in a statement he read to journalists in Leverkusen.

Bayern Munich's commercial manager, Uli Hoeness, sparked the face-off with Daum when he said that the Bayer Leverkusen manager was unfit to be national coach because of lurid allegations of improper behaviour in Daum's private life.

Daum said that he resented having to take a drugs test as it went against the legal principle that someone was innocent until proven guilty, but he said that events of recent weeks had forced him to reconsider.

Following Germany's victory over England at the weekend, there have been calls for the caretaker coach, Rudi Völler, to be made permanent coach instead of Daum, who is due to take over in June next year when his Leverkusen contract expires.

Romania

Uefa has suspended two Romanian officials for a year after it was revealed that they offered a referee "female company" prior to an Intertoto Cup match earlier this season.

The president of FC Ceahlaul Piatra Neamt, Gheorghe Stefan, and Florin Chivulete, an official on Uefa's list who was acting as a local referee's liaison officer, were given the ban following the incident which occurred before the home leg of the third-round tie with Austria Vienna in July.