Japan vows to solve World Cup problems
Japan vows to solve World Cup problems
TOKYO (AFP): Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto yesterday pledged help to tackle "various problems" that could threaten the joint hosting of the 2002 World Cup finals with South Korea.
"We are bound to tackle various problems from now and we will do our best," the premier told leaders of the Japanese World Cup bid committee at a meeting.
Former prime minister Kiichi Miyazawa, one of the bidding leaders, quoted Hashimoto as telling them: "Please do not hesitate to tell us if there is anything the government can do for its part."
Miyazawa returned yesterday with executives of the Japanese bid committee from Zurich where the International Football Federation (FIFA) decided the 2002 finals should go to Japan and South Korea to halt animosity between them over their bids.
The decision has raised a host of logistical, protocol and security questions, including sites for the final and opening and closing ceremonies. Profit sharing, different ticket prices and other conditions will also have to be sorted out.
Shun-ichiro Okano, vice-president of the Japanese Football Association, said at a news conference, that it would be "a matter of course" for Japan and South Korea get automatic berths at the World Cup as host nations.
He added that he hoped to see the 15 Japanese cities, which had agreed to invest billions of yen in building or renovating soccer stadia for the World Cup, get a share of the matches.
The cities also chipped in 235 million yen (US$2.2 million) each to the bidding committee.
At the news conference, Miyazawa said the joint-hosting compromise "could not be called the best choice from the standpoint of the soccer world."
He added though that "it was good that we managed to avoid an unfavorable turn in the bilateral relations."
Mega projects
In Seoul, the South Korean government said yesterday it was likely to spend some $2.54 billion dollars on new airports, communications and other capital projects for the 2002 World Cup finals.
The projection by the Construction and Transportation Ministry included $359 million for new hotel rooms and $1.15 billion dollars for road construction.
The ministry had forecast expenditure of $637 million to build and revamp soccer stadiums. But the earlier figure must be revised because of co-hosting, ministry officials said.
Despite the decision by the International Football Federation, FIFA, to make rivals South Korea and Japan co-host the 2002 event, businesses said there would still be a World Cup sales boom.
In a related move, a South Korean government-business team left yesterday for Japan to survey preparations there for sales promotion.
The 10-member team will look at how Japanese counterparts are preparing for the boom for sporting goods, bags, accessories and electronic products, Yonhap news agency said.
"We have sent the mission to help create measures that will help small companies cope with the newly-emerging World Cup market," a Trade, Industry and Energy official told Yonhap.
Delegates from both Japan and South Korea complained they had been victims of FIFA politics in which Swedish FIFA vice- president Lennart Johansson had triumphed over president Joao Havelange and had sacrificed the World Cup to achieve it.
Japan had been opposed to co-hosting right up until the last minute.
South Korean FIFA vice-president Chung Mong-joon hoped co- hosting would bring about closer ties between the two countries.
"Korea and Japan are immediate neighbors, but there is an unhappy history. There has been a lack of understanding between us," he said.