Peruvian stars out of 2010 World Cup

March 30, 2008

Peru’s hopes of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup Finals have been dealt a massive blow after stars strikers Claudio Pizarro and Jefferson Farfan were banned from international football for a massive eighteen months.

The Chelsea and PSV stars were among four players suspended by the Peruvian Football Federation (FPF) after breaching squad discipline in November.

The quartet had allegedly been involved inincidents at the team hotel in Lima after a FIFA World Cup™ qualifier against Brazil in November.

They will now miss a total of eight 2010 South Africa qualifying matches. As Peru have picked up just two points from their opening four games, it already seemed likely that they would miss out on the 2010 Finals, but this setback has made their task even harder.

Farfan is a key member of the Peruvian national team, although Chelsea striker Pizarro has been widely criticised of late both for his performances for Peru and Chelsea.

Peru drew 1-1 with Brazil but were hammered 5-1 by Ecuador three days later when Farfan was left out of the lineup.

Peruvian football has been plagued by in-fighting among the directors for years and the country has not qualified for a world finals since 1982.

Indiscipline has been rife from players, although they have often hit back, accusing the national media of harrassment and undue pressure from newspapers and TV.

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