Soccer: Ticket issues and injuries hit World Cup build-up

Tickets, injuries and poor form topped the World Cup agenda yesterday as South Korean organisers were forced to delay delivery of tickets, Sweden and Ireland lost players to injury, and Germany and Japan mulled defeats.

With more than 250,000 tickets unsold just 15 days before the finals start, the South Korean organising committee said the start of distribution had been put back until Monday.

This was at the request of the company responsible for producing the tickets, Byrom Inc, which had experienced data production failures and printing delays.

The German Football Association said it had still not received any of its 3000 tickets ordered through Byrom.

All tickets allocated to Japan were sold early in April after more than 500,000 telephone applications were made in the third and final round of sales for the tournament.

On the injury front, Sweden midfielder Hakan Mild will miss the cup because of a tendon injury sustained during training.

Mild, a veteran in the Sweden team with 74 caps, has been replaced by Pontus Farnerud, 21, who plays for French first division team AS Monaco.

Ireland midfielder Mark Kennedy, who turns out for Wolverhampton Wanderers in the English first division, has withdrawn after suffering a recurrence of a groin injury.

Millwall's Steven Reid takes his place in the 23-man squad.

Germany's 1-0 loss to Wales on Wednesday has left coach Rudi Voeller with more questions than answers before the finals.

The below-par performance at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium also brought some savage attacks from the media yesterday, with words such as "garbage" and "humiliation" dominating headlines.

Voeller was forced to experiment because several key players were injured or unavailable.

But, against a side ranked 97th in the world, he was hoping some of the replacements would have staked their claim for a starting place for the finals.

Germany were not the only country licking their wounds after a painful defeat as co-hosts Japan got a wake-up call after losing 3-0 to Norway in Oslo.

Japan coach Philippe Troussier, who names his final squad tomorrow, will be alarmed by the manner in which his side collapsed after Blackburn Rovers defender Henning Berg opened the scoring in the 73rd minute.

In Rome, the Italian national coach has ordered his players to abstain from sex during the first stage of the cup.

Giovanni Trapattoni decided that players will be allowed to see their wives and girlfriends, but only after the first round, which starts on May 31.

Italy's last game of the round is on June 13.

While some coaches think sex will sap players' strength and ruin their concentration, science disagrees.

In 1999, New Scientist magazine ran a study by a researcher at an Italian university saying that sex the night before a competition is likely to enhance, not hinder, an athlete's performance because the levels of the male hormone testosterone rise with sexual activity.

Higher testosterone levels are associated with feelings of aggression.

- AGENCIES

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