30571: (news) Chamberlain: Soccer Desertions (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By STEVENSON JACOBS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, June 15 (AP) -- Five Haitian soccer players of the
country's World Cup-bound national youth team who mysteriously disappeared
during a stopover in New York returned home Friday, the government said as
it announced a probe into the embarrassing incident.
   Haitian Sports Minister Fritz Belisaire did not say whether the five
teens, who were among 13 of the team's 18 players who went missing, were
being punished or if they would be dropped from the team's roster for the
FIFA Under-17 World Cup in South Korea.
   Five other players flew from Haiti to New York on Thursday to join the
rest of the team, Haitian consul general Felix Augustin told The Associated
Press. All arrived Friday in South Korea to play an exhibition tournament
ahead of the World Cup.
   The team, all under 17 years old, missed its original flight on
Wednesday when the 13 players disappeared during an overnight stopover in
New York. They all returned by Thursday and were reunited with their
teammates.
   No motive has been given for the apparent desertion but Belisaire said
Haitian authorities were investigating claims that adults helped the
youngsters flee.
   "I believe there was manipulation," Belisaire told Haitian broadcaster
Radio Metropole. "Thousands of Haitian soccer players would give anything
to compete in a World Cup so it's illogical that they would leave before it
even begins."
   But one player who went missing told Haiti's largest newspaper that the
group simply got lost, and that said some players ended up sleeping at New
York's John F. Kennedy International Airport before reuniting with team
officials.
   "We did not intend to flee," Pierre Elusma said in comments published
Friday in Le Nouvelliste newspaper. "The airport is very big, and we wanted
to look around. But we got lost and couldn't find the rest of the group."
   Belisaire did not name the five players sent home, although Haitian
newspaper Le Matin identified them as St. Cyr Widler, Peterson Desrivieres,
Utergens St. Victor, Lesly Guillaume Jr. and Samuel Alcine.
   The incident threw Haitian soccer into turmoil and provoked sharp
criticism toward the players, who reportedly receive a $1,000 per month
stipend for qualifying for the World Cup -- more than double what most
Haitians earn in a year.
   Belisaire urged the soccer-crazed country to forgive the youths, whom he
described as "traumatized" from their ordeal.
   "They are young and they made a mistake. We shouldn't point fingers," he
said.