Luxemburgo goes in search of gold lifeline

The Olympic football tournament has always been seen as very much the poor relation of the World Cup. But the seriousness of Brazil's approach suggests this will be the highest-profile football competition in the history of the games.

The Brazilian football federation has invested £1.2m in trying to take the only major title the country has never won. And the squad got down to full training this week determined to put a selection controversy, involving the national hero Romario, behind them and help ease the pressure on the coach Wanderley Luxemburgo.

Brazil attracted crowds of several thousand to training sessions at the 1998 World Cup, but the Olympic squad's first work-out at Carrara was watched by a handful of fans and about 50 Brazilian journalists.

Nevertheless, it must have seemed a haven for Luxemburgo, coach of both the senior and Olympic teams, who has been under pressure at home from football-crazy supporters - and the law.

Police, suspicious that he had falsified his age in his passport, questioned him at Rio's international airport on Sunday as he was leaving for the Sydney games.

The interrogation was prompted by accusations in a magazine that the coach listed his age as 45 on his passport and various identity documents, whereas he was really 48. He is likely to be questioned again on his return.

Gold in the Olympics might save the scandal-ridden Luxemburgo his job. Even though Brazil beat Bolivia 5-0 on Sunday in a World Cup qualifier, so poor was their start to the campaign that it is widely thought he may be sacked after the games.

He had already spent much of the past month denying allegations to police by a former business associate, Renata Moura Alves, that Luxemburgo evaded taxes and ran an illegal scheme selling players and using the undeclared profits to buy apartments and cars.

Against Bolivia, Luxemburgo saw the recalled 34-year-old Romario score a hat-trick but refused to change his mind about not picking him for the games.

Romario had pleaded with him to change his policy of picking only under-23 players and take him to Sydney. Luxemburgo countered: "The young players who won Brazil the right to play at the Olympics should be the ones who play in Sydney. This is a way forward for the [2002] World Cup."

He is pinning his hopes on the £20m-rated Ronaldinho, the marvellously talented 21-year-old Gremio striker described by Romario himself as "the one who will take Brazil through to the next World Cup".

Brazil's first match is against Slovakia next Thursday, then South Africa and Japan, all to be played in Brisbane.