Fact-finding mission
FIFA: Asian economic crisis may affect next World Cup
Posted: Saturday July 11, 1998 01:39 AM
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Blatter: "The governments and football authorities must guarantee to FIFA the stadiums, infrastructure, technical resources and other logistics, including hotels." (Shaun Botterill/Allsport) |
PARIS (AP) -- Soccer's world body will go to Japan and South Korea
this fall to see how the Asian economic crisis is affecting preparations
for the next World Cup. In a shift from previous assurances that
all was OK, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said Friday that a fact-finding
team would survey the situation in September and report to the federation's
executive committee by the end of the year. Blatter gave no sign
FIFA was prepared to pull the 2002 Cup from the economically battered
region, and said the federation did not know of any money or logistical
drawbacks that might damage tournament preparations. "The
governments and football authorities must guarantee to FIFA the stadiums,
infrastructure, technical resources and other logistics, including hotels,"
Blatter said. "So far, none of these areas have become a problem. We will
send a group this fall to assess it." Blatter spoke at a news
conference hours after the organizing committee for the first Cup to be
staged in two countries said they had decided on venues but had work to do
in areas such as marketing, scheduling and the biggest problem of the World
Cup in France
-- ticketing. The current tournament was buffeted by repeated
ticket crises, from complaints over the initial distribution to complaints
that agencies left thousands of people who thought they had tickets stuck
without seats. "France had difficulty," said Choi Chang-shin,
secretary general of the South Korean organizing committee. "It was a
lesson to us. We must study this. We must organize a system and structure
on ticketing." Blatter and other FIFA officials have said that
an entirely new ticket system would be installed for 2002. Choi
and Japanese organzing committee spokesman Ryo Nishimura played down any
impact the region's financial woes would have on the World Cup.
"As far as we're concerned, it will take such a small part of our national
economy, it will not be affected," Choi said. "It has not caused
any damage," Nishimura said. "Of the new stadiums, two already are
completed." Choi said issues of telecommunications,
accommodations and transportation also must be decided. So far,
both sides said, the acrimony that existed between them before FIFA forged
their co-hosting has not recurred. "Both wanted to be the single
host," Nishimura said. "After the decision was made to co-host, Japan and
Korea have changed their minds. They are cooperating on building a great
World Cup. Even the minds of the general public have changed gently."
At least the matter of where the games will be played has been
settled. Between the opener in Seoul and the final in Japan,
each country will use 10 stadiums, with the eight first-round groups
divided evenly between the two nations. Japan has decided to use
the cities of Sapporo, Miyagi, Niigata, Ibaraki, Saitama, Yokohama,
Shizuoka, Osaka, Kobe, and Oita. South Korea will play games at Seoul,
Inchon, Suwon, Taejon, Taegu, Chonju, Ulsan, Kwangju, Pusan and
Sogwipo. Japan still must decide between 70,000-seat Yokohama
International Sports Stadium on the central eastern coast and 63,000-seat
Saitama Prefectural Stadium in the Tokyo suburbs for the final.
South Korea is building all 10 stadiums for the World Cup at a cost of
$990.6 million, according to Choi. Japan is building seven stadiums and
renovating three more.
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