Football: Inter's Baggio in lucky escape

ROBERTO BAGGIO has escaped unhurt after an accident in which his car collided with a truck. The incident occurred on Monday afternoon, when the Internazionale and Italy player was driving to his home near Pavia in northern Italy. Police said that Baggio's Mercedes was hit by a truck which, apparently out of control, had crossed into his lane.

The president of the Italian Olympic committee (Coni) was questioned for three hours by a government enquiry in Rome yesterday over allegations relating to drugs tests in football.

Mario Pescante faced the commission of enquiry after revelations that only a fraction of Italian footballers' urine samples were tested for steroids and that test records were destroyed after two months.

Giorgio Santilli, who on Monday was sacked by Coni as president of the Italian Sporting Doctors' Federation, which runs the test laboratory at the centre of the scandal, will face the commission next.

He will be followed by the head of the Italian football federation, Luciano Nizzola, in the enquiry which has been ordered by Italy's deputy prime minister, Walter Veltroni.

The former Leeds striker Tony Yeboah, now 32, has rejected an appeal from Ghana to make an international comeback. A spokesman for Yeboah's present club, Hamburg, said: "Because of his age and a lot of problems with injuries, Anthony Yeboah retired from the national team a few years ago. His situation still hasn't changed."

France intends to honour its female football supporters when the national side returns to the scene of their World Cup triumph next month. The French football federation is laying on a special night of celebration at the Stade de France on 14 October when France play a Euro 2000 qualifier against Andorra.

A rose will be given to every woman who attends the match. Female fans can pay a reduced price of 50 francs (pounds 5.20) for a special 9,000-capacity women-only stand, where they will be given other gifts by the team's sponsors. In addition, all the ball-gatherers will be girls.