Wales football team news

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Wales football news - May 2003.


Still on course. Despite losing their first game since September 2001, Mark Hughes believes his side are still on course and will remain confident going into the Serbia & Montenegro game in August. Hughes also believes there were positives to come out of the USA friendly these including Jason Koumas and debutant David Vaughan. "Jason showed a lot of quality on the ball and his defensive work was very disciplined." said Hughes, and as for Vaughan Sparky commented "I made a point of congratulating him on his performance. He has natural ability, he looked comfortable on the ball and stuck to his task." Wednesday, May 28th 2003.

Azeri ban lifted. UEFA acting in agreement with FIFA has today lifted the suspension on Azerbaijan in relation to playing in the Euro 2004 qualifying competition. The decision means the Azeri home match against Serbia and Montenegro will go ahead as scheduled on June 11th. The news is also subject to FIFA formally lifting its ban on the Azeri Association. FIFA imposed the ban in April in response to a conflict between the clubs and the football association. The world governing body will meet this week to consider the situation again. "This is a great relief. It's been a very worrying month for us, mainly because we couldn't find out what was going on." - Mark Hughes "To start expunging results with the group more than halfway completed was considered by us to be wrong. We would have suffered most." - FAW international secretary Mark Evans Thursday, May 22nd 2003.

Hughes blast. Manager Mark Hughes has expressed his annoyance at FIFA and UEFA leaving Wales uncertain over the Azerbaijan international football ban. The Azeri were banned from international football last month, which could effectively cost Wales all the 6 points and 6 goals they had earned against them in Group 9. The latest news is that Azerbaijan's domestic league will start again on May 17th and this will remove one of the stumbling blocks for them to be allowed back into international football. "The news from FIFA and UEFA has been very sparse, they have told us absolutely nothing at all other than they are monitoring the situation and we have been in the dark to be perfectly honest." - Mark Hughes. Wednesday, May 7th 2003.