Roger Clemens and World Series most valuable...

Roger Clemens and World Series most valuable player John Wetteland were offered salary arbitration Saturday night, when teams decided to cut their ties to 43 players. Nineteen players were offered arbitration in the final two hours before the midnight deadline, raising the total to 22.

Players have until Dec. 19 to accept or reject the offers, except for the 12 players who gained their free agency rights Saturday. Their deadline is now Jan. 2.

Pitchers Steve Avery and Jaime Navarro and shortstop Kevin Elster were the most prominent players not receiving offers.

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Former American League rookie of the year Bob Hamelin has undergone corrective eye surgery in an attempt to regain the form that produced 24 homers in 1994 for the Kansas City Royals.

Soccer

The 80-year-old president of soccer’s world governing body says he had enough, almost.

Joao Havelange of Brazil said he would retire as FIFA’s boss, but not until the end of the 1998 World Cup in France.

“Coming in is easy, leaving is difficult, but I must do it,” Havelange said at a FIFA executive committee meeting in Barcelona.

Havelange has been president of FIFA since 1974.

In other announcements, FIFA dropped its threat to withdraw soccer from the Olympics, but complained about the sport’s treatment in the Atlanta Games.

Also, in an expected move, FIFA confirmed that South Korea will be host for the opening game and Japan will stage the final of the 2002 World Cup.

Top-seeded North Carolina and defending champion Notre Dame earned berths in today’s NCAA Division I women’s soccer title match with semifinal victories Friday night at Santa Clara.

Tennis

Boris Becker of Germany and Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia won their semifinal matches in the $6-million Grand Slam Cup at Munich. Becker overcame Tim Henman of England, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3, 6-1. Ivanisevic, firing 42 aces to match his personal best, rallied from two sets down to beat French Open champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia, 6-7 (8-6), 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.

Winter Sports

Austria’s Renate Goetschl, so fast that even a bobble on the steep slope leading to the finish line couldn’t slow her, claimed a downhill victory in the opening race of a World Cup ski doubleheader at Vail, Colo. In a super-G held later in the day, Russia’s Svetlana Gladishiva scored her first World Cup victory. . . . Russian champion Maria Butyrskaya upset short-program leader Tonia Kwiatkowski of the United States and won the NHK Trophy women’s gold at Kadoma, Japan. In the pairs event, Americans Jenni Meno and Todd Sand won their first major international title. . . . Americans Brian Shimer and Randy Jones won the two-man bobsled World Cup race at Igls, Austria.

Boxing

Unbeaten World Boxing Council strawweight champion Ricardo Lopez of Mexico extended the longest current championship reign in boxing with a first-round knockout of South Korea’s Myung-Sup Park at Indio. The victory was Lopez’s 18th successful defense of the 105-pound title he won in October 1990.

Also on the card, World Boxing Assn. featherweight champion Wilfredo Vasquez of Puerto Rico retained his title with a fifth-round knockout of Bernardo Mendoza of Chile.

Axel Schultz of Germany won a unanimous 10-round decision over Jose Ribalta of Cuba in a nontitle heavyweight bout at Vienna.

Miscellany

Paul Claxton shot a 72 in Lompoc to cling to a one-shot lead after four rounds of the PGA Tour qualifying tournament. . . . Heavy rains forced the cancellation of the third round in the JCPenney Classic golf tournament at Tarpon Springs, Fla. . . . USC defeated South Florida, 15-8, 15-5, 15-6, in an NCAA women’s volleyball championship second-round match at Tampa, Fla. In a match at the Pyramid, Long Beach State defeated Minnesota, 15-10, 15-13, 15-6. . . . Duke linebacker Brian McCormack has been convicted of assaulting two men outside a restaurant near the university’s Durham, N.C., campus.