FEATURE-Soccer-Mosquitoes and lack of cash bite in Paraguay

— -- By Brian Homewood ASUNCION, May 9 - It costs $4 to sit in the main stand at the Roberto Bettega stadium in the swampy outskirts of the Paraguayan capital and insect repellent is not included in the price. Tacuary are hosting Nacional where a paying crowd of 304 have braved the rutted track to the stadium to bring in gate receipts of 4.1 million Guaranies ($800), barely enough to pay the floodlight bill, and the mosquitoes are having a field day. Welcome to the Paraguayan first division, where the league table reads like a list of important dates in the country's history and where, not so long ago, the federation held a vote to decide the season's champions. Paraguay's distinctive red-and-white striped shirts have become a familiar sight at the World Cup and will be appearing at their third successive finals in Germany. The side reached the last 16 on their last two outings and went down fighting both times, losing 1-0 to a golden goal against hosts France in 1998 and to an 89th-minute goal against Germany four years later. The national team's performances are all the more remarkable given the situation at home. Domestic football in the landlocked South American nation of five million people survives on a shoestring and a starker contract with the domestic league of their first World Cup opponents England is hard to imagine. Many players earn $200 a month or less and matches are played in front of a few hundred people in stadiums reminiscent of European non-league grounds. JUVENTUS CONNECTION Tacuary, whose 1-0 win over Nacional took them level on points with leaders Cerro Porteno, are one of the luckier clubs. Although the stadium is small, oddly-located and looks like a farm from a distance, the pitch is in excellent condition and the arena boasts a new, albeit tiny, main stand. The club's wealthy president, Francisco Ocampo, finances the outfit himself. Ocampo bought the land and built the stadium and has helped Tacuary, who were founded in 1923, to move from amateur status to the first division for the first time. Campos has also forged links with Italian club Juventus -- hence the decision to name the stadium after their former Italy forward Roberto Bettega, who came over for the official opening. Most clubs have to struggle through the year, depending on extras to get by. Opponents Nacional, for example, receive much-needed income by renting part of their land to a supermarket. Even television, a lifeline in most countries, brings in only $10,000 per month to each of the first division clubs. There are two possibilities of economic salvation -- qualifying for the Libertadores Cup, South America's equivalent of the Champions League, or selling a player abroad. "If they can sell a player, it saves the year," said former Paraguay goalkeeper Roberto Fernandez, who works as a players' agent. IMPORTANT DATES The Paraguayan championship has 11 teams, of which eight are based in the capital Asuncion, and one each in Itagua, Ciudad del Este and Pedro Juan Caballero. Three clubs are named after dates: 3 de febrero (Feb. 3), when former dictator Alfredo Stroessner was overthrown in 1989; 9 de Mayo (May 9), the name of a regiment which fought in the War of the Chaco; and 12 de Octubre (Oct. 12), the date of the discovery of America. The championship is reasonably straightforward, being divided into two stages with the winners of each meeting in the end-of-season final. If the same team wins both stages, they take the title automatically. It is a big improvement on past years when incomprehensible formats sometimes led to chaos. In 1993, the government, unhappy at the way the championship was being run, ordered the competition to be suspended and Olimpia were declared champions by the federation following a vote behind closed doors. Only Cerro Porteno and Olimpia, the Big Two from the capital, boast crowds approaching the level found in neighbouring Argentina. However, they fill the 43,000-capacity Defenders of the Chaco stadium in Asuncion, the nation's largest, only when they meet each other. Olimpia are the most successful club, having won the Libertadores Cup three times, but even they have fallen on hard times. For nearly 30 years, the club was funded largely by tempestuous, controversial president Osvaldo Domingues Dibb, known locally as ODD. Domingues Dibb resigned in May 2004 due to health problems. Since then, the club has floundered, finishing bottom of the table in 2004 -- and escaping relegation due to the intricacies of the rules -- and doing little better last year. On the weekend that Tacuary played Nacional, Olimpia were watched by just over 1,000 people and Cerro had the best attendance -- 2,274. Football, however, is a great leveller and Paraguay will face both England and Sweden on equal terms when they meet in Germany next month.