Portugal coach Scolari’s ban reduced to three games

By Xinhua

Geneva : European soccer’s governing body UEFA has reduced Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari’s four-match ban to three for the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign.


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Scolari received the original punishment for an “assault” on Serbia player Ivica Dragutinovic following Portugal’s 1-1 draw against the visitors during the qualifying rounds in September.

Following a meeting of UEFA’s appeals body Thursday, the ban was changed to three months including one month suspended, allowing Scolari to resume his coaching duties one day before his team’s final qualifying match against Group A rivals Finland Nov 21.

Dragutinovic, who was shown a red card at the end of the match, was given a two-match ban for improper conduct. Scolari will still be unable to coach Portugal during their visits to Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan in October and at home to Armenia in November in their qualifying campaign.

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