Football: Lazio pay pounds 8.4m for Boksic

MARSEILLE yesterday sold the first of the family silver to Lazio, who paid pounds 8.4m for the 23-year-old Croat striker Alen Boksic.

Boksic's departure was forced on Bernard Tapie, the Marseille chairman, who faces a shortfall in club revenue of at least pounds 15.4m caused by his club's ban from the European Cup after a match-rigging scandal.

Marseille paid Hajduk Split pounds 1.2m for Boksic in 1992 and he ended last season as the French league's top scorer with 23 goals. He had been due to join the Rome club at the end of this season but Marseille's financial plight brought the transfer forward.

Marseille are also negotiating with Italian clubs over the sale of their captain, Didier Deschamps, and the Ivory Coast-born Basile Boli, who scored the winner in the European Cup final against Milan last May.

Gordon Strachan, the 36-year-old Leeds United midfielder, will be out for at least six weeks after a scan on the knee injury he picked up in the Coca-Cola Cup defeat against Sunderland last week revealed medial ligament damage.

Liverpool also have a long-term casualty in Jan Molby, who is expected to be out of action for a least a month with a calf injury which has failed to respond to treatment.