Peruvian players Ecuador

by International Herald Tribune

As many as four Peruvian national team players, including Chelsea striker Claudio Pizarro, were drinking in a hotel room with women last month, four days before the side was beaten by Ecuador 5-1 in a World Cup qualifying match, the Peruvian Football Federation said Wednesday.

"It's confirmed that there was a lack of discipline. The players were enjoying a night of pleasure, with women and alcohol" at their Lima hotel after Peru drew 1-1 with Brazil, said Lander Aleman, a member of the federation's World Cup commission.

The players were supposed to abstain from such parties during the qualifying rounds, which Peru officials call "a period of concentration." Peru is currently ninth place in the 10-team South America table with two points, trailed only by Bolivia with one point.

Aleman told reporters that hotel staff confirmed "there was a lack of discipline" among the players, and said that they had "deceived" national team manager Jose del Solar.

The scandal erupted after Jaime Bayly, a well-known Peruvian journalist, reported on his weekly television program "The Sharpshooter" that Pizarro, striker Paolo Guerrero of Hamburg SV, Andres Mendoza of the Ukraine's Metallurg and Miguel Mostto of local club Cienciano were "drinking with women" after the Nov. 18 match against Brazil in Lima.

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Guerrero sat out the match against Ecuador and said he had been suffering from gastritis.