Soccer: Ticket problems loom on eve of Cup

Co-hosts South Korea predicted Asia's first soccer World Cup would be safe and secure, but problems with tickets threatened to cast a cloud over proceedings on the eve of tomorrow night's (NZ time) kick-off.

Champions France launch the world's top sporting event and the defence of their title in the opening match against first-timers Senegal after a bruising and divisive election campaign for world soccer's top job.

But with world governing body FIFA joining hands, in public at least, for the good of the game after the re-election of Sepp Blatter as its president on Wednesday, fans and officials have turned their attention to the tournament itself.

The main cloud on the horizon - both in Korea and Japan - is the perennial World Cup problem of tickets. Where are they? Who has them? When will they arrive?

In South Korea, nearly 5000 opening ceremony tickets were somewhere in the mail. Many people might have to pick them up at the gate at the central Seoul stadium where the elaborate ceremony will be staged.

In Japan, a growing number of foreign fans arrived complaining they had not received tickets they had paid for. Stories of misprinted or duplicated tickets began to emerge.

Japan organising committee official Shinichiro Misono said he was chasing British-based ticket agent Byrom, the official FIFA operating agent, for clarifications. "So far we have heard nothing," Misono told a heated news conference.

Japanese organisers have long complained the arrangements for printing the tickets in Britain were fraught with risks which could have been avoided by handling the tickets domestically.

Manchester-based Byrom has blamed delays on the late arrival of ticketing data from around the world.

Things are brighter if you have a ticket and get inside the 20 state-of-the-art stadiums that will stage the first co-hosted World Cup and the first outside Europe and the Americas.

England golden boy David Beckham, the player every Japanese and Korean fan wants to see, is back on the pitch after a swifter-than-expected recovery from his foot injury.

French hero Zinedine Zidane will miss Friday's opening match against Senegal in Seoul with an injured thigh. French fans are waiting nervously for news of when he will be back in action.

France remain the 7-2 favourites to retain the cup, followed by Argentina on 4-1.

Because of September 11, the United States team is receiving security usually reserved for visiting heads of state.

Black-uniformed special forces, armed with sub-machineguns and travelling in an armour-plated Chevrolet, accompany the 23 players to and from training away from their hotel in Seoul.

The players live in a downtown hotel on two floors, which are accessible only by a single, private elevator.

Calm, though an uneasy one, returned to the FIFA corridors of power after Blatter overcame accusations of financial mismanagement and corruption to win re-election on Wednesday.

"Let's forget what has happened, let us restore our unity and our credibility," Blatter said in his acceptance speech.

But he made clear later that his critics within FIFA could still be called to account.

On the South Korean domestic front, the country's perpetually bickering political parties honoured a truce they declared for the cup finals to show the country in the best possible light and ensure the tournament runs smoothly.

South Korea's feisty labour unions also played their part.

Some 10,000 taxi drivers and 40,000 metal, chemical and hospital workers are back at work after a walkout that was deeply unpopular with their countrymen.

There was also pork aplenty in South Korea.

Authorities marked more than a week without a new outbreak of suspected foot-and-mouth disease, raising hopes of an end to a scare this month that forced Seoul to kill 110,000 animals.

On the diplomatic front, there have been no anti-capitalist propaganda blasts at the World Cup from fiercely communist North Korea, adding to the air of pre-match calm.

Apart from the tickets, there was only one other worry for the Japanese and South Korean organisers.

Where are the jubilant fans that are the trademark of any World Cup?

There have so far been few signs of gatherings of singing and dancing fans, leading some to speculate the organisers may yet pay the price for spreading the tournament across two nations and 20 stadiums - at least twice as many as at any other World Cup.

- REUTERS

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