Soccer: Ecuador coach quits after being shot

Ecuador manager Hernan Dario Gomez has handed in his resignation, two weeks after he was shot for dropping the president's son from the national youth team.

Gomez faxed the letter from his native Colombia, where he travelled earlier this month after surgery to remove a bullet from his right thigh.

National team coordinator Vinicio Luna said he was holding off on delivering the document to Ecuador's football federation to try to convince Gomez to change his mind. Team captain Alex Aguinaga said he would also quit if Gomez did not return.

Luis Chiriboga, president of the Ecuador Soccer Federation, said they were not planning to name a replacement for Gomez and would ask the coach on Thursday to return to the team.

Gomez was shot on May 8 in a restaurant at the Hilton Colon Hotel in the coastal city of Guayaquil.

Alejandro Barragan, the soccer federation's director, said the attack took place after Gomez was "verbally accosted" by Joselo Rodriguez, president of the second division Santa Rita soccer club.

Barragan said Rodriguez blamed Gomez for excluding his player, Dalo Bucaram, 19, from the team that will compete in the Under-20 World Championships in Argentina in July.

One of Rodriguez's four bodyguards pulled a revolver and fired three times, striking Gomez in the thigh, said Barragan, who saw the attack.

Rodriguez, who was arrested, is a member of the Roldosista political party led by former President Abdala Bucaram, who was removed from office by Congress in 1997 for "mental incapacity."

Gomez, who had initially pledged to stick with the team, said on Tuesday that he was hesitant to return to Ecuador for fear of being pulled into prolonged judicial proceedings.

Dalo Bucaram's attorney, Hector Solorzano, has claimed that Gomez might have been shot accidentally during the argument by his own assistant, Elkin Sanchez.

Federation secretary Jorge Machado, who also witnessed the shooting, said Sanchez had left the restaurant before the incident occurred.