Soccer officials from around the world expressed shock Saturday that FIFA president Joao Havelange intends to ban Pele, the sport's most famous player, from Sunday's World Cup draw.
"I am speechless," Germany coach Berti Vogts said. "There's not much more I can really say. I am shocked."During Saturday's game between the United States and Germany at Stanford Stadium, fans held a banner that read: "Pele We Stand By You."
"I think it's a very drastic decision," Cameroon star Roger Milla said at the World Cup headquarters in Las Vegas. "It makes all of us very sad to hear about this."
Havelange, according to FIFA officials, doesn't want to share the World Cup stage with Pele because of a lawsuit between the soccer star and Havelange's son-in-law, Ricardo Teixeira, president of the Confederation of Brazilian Football. Pele claimed his group bid $1 million more for television rights to games in Brazil but wasn't awarded the contract because it wouldn't pay a bribe to Teixeira, who then sued Pele.
Havelange, over the objections of FIFA general secretary Joseph Blatter and the FIFA staff, ordered Pele removed from Sunday's draw ceremony at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Pele didn't participate in Saturday's rehersal, American organizers said.
Alan Rothenberg, president of the U.S. Soccer Federation and chairman of the World Cup USA 1994 organizing committee, said of Pele: "I haven't heard he was banned," but other U.S. officials said Rothenberg was livid over the decision.
Havelange publicly rebuked Rothenberg during a news conference Friday, when the FIFA president wouldn't even utter Pele's name.
"Mr. Rothenberg would be disappointed if we withdrew the World Cup," Havelange said through a translator.