Global Sport -- Tyson's bite Prompts betting

Wednesday, July 2 1997

Global Sport -- Tyson's bite Prompts betting

NAPLES: Boxer Mike Tyson's ear-biting episode in the ring has prompted a spree of numbers betting in Naples.

Neapolitians assign numbers to almost everything -- from body parts to emotions to world events -- particularly if they occur in a dream. Many then play the numbers in the twice-weekly lottery, drawn on Wednesday and Saturday.

Since Saturday's Tyson-Holyfield fight, many Neapolitans have been playing the numbers 31, 22, and 14 in both the State numbers lottery and the parallel one run by organised crime, according to Italian newspapers.

The number 22 is linked with a bite, 31 is linked with an animal and 14 is linked with the ear.

Kaiser lashes out

BONN: Bayern Munich President Franz Beckenbauer lashed out yesterday at Lothar Matthaeus, blaming Germany's most capped player for a public row between senior squad members.

Matthaeus has launched a series of attacks on fellow players and club officials after he was dropped as club captain earlier this month.

Beckenbauer said he would tell Matthaeus when they met at a special match in Hong Kong this week that ``all this rubbish is his fault, that he triggered off this whole landslide and that he should finally be quiet''.

Zagallo criticised

RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil's 3-1 win over Bolivia in the final of the Copa America was hailed in the country's press yesterday but manager Mario Zagallo still came in for criticism.

``We're going to have to tolerate Zagallo,'' read a headline in the newspaper Correio Braziliense.

Zola may leave

ROME: Chelsea's Italian forward Gianfranco Zola says he might leave England to play in his native Sardinia after next year's World Cup finals in France.

In an interview published by La Gazzetta Dello Sport newspaper yesterday, Zola said he wanted to wind down his career at Calgiari, who were relegated to Serie B last season.

Four missing

TOKYO: Four members of the Nepalese national soccer team have disappeared, apparently in hopes of staying in Japan, a Japanese soccer official said today.