Football News - Referees and Robots
Empty Seats
Unsold tickets and empty seats continue to plague the knockout stages
of the World Cup. There have been hundreds, sometimes thousands of empty
seats at most second round matches, including such eagerly awaited clashes
as Japan v Turkey and Brazil v England. Frustrated Japanese fans are attempting
to log on to the Fifa website from Internet cafes near the match venues
within an hour of kick-off when many unsold seats become available for
sale.
Fans have been leaving ‘how-to' messages on the Fifa site's
message board detailing tips of how to log on to the crowded servers and
detailing key commands that can extend a user's session time when
purchasing tickets.
Youth Rallies
Despite
Japan's 1-0 defeat to Turkey in the round of 16 thousands of young
fans gathered in downtown Tokyo and Osaka and other cities in Japan to
pray tribute to their team and celebrate late in to the night. In the
Dotombori area of Osaka police sealed access roads as a large crowd gathered
on Ebisubashi and some fans jumped into the river below. The mood was
somewhat confrontational between the fans and police but no major incidents
were reported.
RoboCup
Hiroaki Kitano, a Sony researcher and the organizer of the annual RoboCup competition, which pits robots against each other in a football match, predicts that by 2050 a team of robots will be able to take on and defeat the reigning world champions.
Reuters' Team of the First Round
Journalists from the Reuters news agency have mselected their ‘team
of the first round'.
Brad Friedle (USA), Cafu (Brazil), Fabio Cannavaro (Italy), Rio Ferdinand
(England), Kim Tae Young (S. Korea), Junichi Inamoto (Japan). Salif Diao
(Senegal), Gerardo Terrado (Mexico), Hasan Sas (Turkey), Ronaldo (Brazil),
Raul (Spain)
English & Irish Fans Praised
Ireland
fans have been the best fans at the World Cup, according to Junji Ogura,
Japan's tournament director, "They gave amazing support to the
Irish team and they were loved by the Japanese people. They taught Japan
the joy of watching football", he said.
UEFA supremo, Lennart Johansson, also had words of praise for England's
fans who were on their best behaviour at the tournament. "They showed
that real football fans know how to enjoy the game, support their team,
celebrate when they win and take defeat when they lose." There are
fears that English hooliganism will appear at Euro 2004 in Portugal when
many more fans will be able to travel the short distance to the tournament
on lower budgets.
Referees Criticized
The standard of officiating at the World Cup has come under increasing
scrutiny following the number of good ‘goals' that have been
disallowed by the match officials and the storm of protests from Italy
and Spain following their contentious defeats to South Korea.
Fifa President Sepp Blatter has criticized assistant referees, "They
haven't even realized that it is better to award an offside goal
than disallow a good goal." Brazilian legend Pele commented, "I
think the level of the referees is very, very low. I think FIFA should
pay attention to that." Argentina's Diego Maradona was rather
more blunt, "Under the shadow of referees, this World Cup is already
a failure," he said.
Fifa is planning chances for 2006, which will see more officials appointed
on merit and experience rather than nationality.
Hiddink Honored
South Korea's Dutch coach Guus Hiddink has become one of the most popular men in the country following his success in guiding the national team to the semi-finals. Plans are afoot to erect a statue of Hiddink on Jeju Island and grant him honorary Korean citizenship. If Hiddink stood for President in the elections later in the year he'd undoubtedly walk it.
Ahn Jung Hwan Sacked by Perugia
The Italian Serie A club Perugia have sacked South Korean striker Ahn Jung Hwan after he scored the deciding goal to sensationally knock Italy out of the World Cup in the round of 16. Club President Luciano Gaucci said, "Ahn will never play for Perugia again. What did you expect me to do? That I would keep a player who ruined Italian football. He should have shown his talent while he was with us. He'll just have to go back to Korea and earn 100,000 lire (US$50) a month." Gaucci's actions were criticized by South Korea's coach, Guus Hiddink as ‘childish' and Peter Velappan, the Asia Football Association chief, has warned Asian clubs not to send their players to Perugia, the club which first gave Japan's Hidetoshi Nakata his first chance in top-flight football. The EU is also investigating whether Ahn's dismissal breaches European labor laws.
Goals Down
Fewer goals have been scored in the first two rounds of the 2002 World Cup than in France four years ago. Goals were up for the group matches but only 17 goals were scored in the round of 16 matches, compared with 23 four years ago. 147 goals were scored altogether up to the round of 16 matches.
Beckham Mania
England
captain David Beckham's Mohican hairstyle has become a huge trend
among Japanese youth who just can't get enough of England No.7 shirts,
US$125 ClimaCool Adidas sneakers and anything ‘Bekkamu' –
posters, Beckham mobile phone pendants and badges. The Japanese edition
of Beckham's autobiography ‘David Beckham: My World' has
sold over 150,000 copies in June so far.
Over 2,500 people, mostly young women, gathered outside the England team's
hotel on the eve of the Brazil game to catch a glimpse of their new hero.
Official stores have also been doing brisk business as the popularity
of the World Cup has caught on in the host countries, especially big sellers
have been ‘Be the Reds' T-shirts in South Korea and the official
Adidas Japanese kit in Japan.
Autographs Returned
A goodwill gesture by the England team, on their island base of Awaji, turned into a tearful tug-of-war between local schoolkids and their teachers last week. Autographs and signed soccer balls given to school children by David Beckham and six other England players were at first taken from the kids by members of the Tsunacho Education board to redistribute to other primary schools in the area.
The children were so upset when handing over their treasured gifts that many burst in to tears and complained to their parents. Eventually the local education authorities decided to let the original receipts keep their mementos.
Few Arrests at World Cup in Japan.
Despite the brouhaha created by the Japanese media over the past year concerning hooligans, in the period 28 May to 14 June Japanese police made 68 arrests. Out of this total, 40 were Japanese, 12 English and 3 Irish.
Economic Benefits to Winning Countries
Economists have been noting the effects of football on national economies when teams win. There is a political knock-on effect, too: incumbent politicians do well when their national team does well. This leads to confidence in the markets.
One economic consequence of the World Cup includes the recent surge in sales of large-screen TVs in the UK - a direct result of the England team doing well in the competition.