Israeli Sports, Science and Culture Minister Matan Vilnai will meet Israel Football Association (IFA) Chairman Gavri Levy on Thursday to discuss the reported sex-scandal allegations against the national team players.

The national team returned home Thursday morning after Wednesday night's 0-3 defeat in Copenhagen, which made the aggregate scores 0-8 in the two-leg Euro 2000 playoffs. Israel had a five-goal humiliation by Denmark in Tel Aviv last Saturday.

As if its tale of woe wasn't enough, a stunning sex scandal allegation against the team hit Israeli headlines Wednesday.

The influential Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv devoted most of its front page to a story which claimed that, on the eve of their 0-5 defeat on Saturday, some of Israeli players had invited call girls to their hotel rooms. The story also said these players did so again immediately prior to setting off for Denmark on Sunday morning.

Levy said Wednesday that he could not believe that this story is true, But he will look at ways to force Ma'ariv to reveal its sources so that the IFA could investigate further.

Coach Shlomo Scharf, who looks certain to end his eight-year, 81-game reign, said he checked the team as he always do at 11:30 that night, but he could not be these players' nanny.

Israeli Knesset (Parliament) member Avi Yehezkel called on Ministry of Science, Culture and Sports to appoint a committee of inquiry and suggested the players take lie detector tests. (Xinhua)