S. Korea plays N. Korea card in World Cup bid
S. Korea plays N. Korea card in World Cup bid
SEOUL (AFP): South Korea is playing the North Korea card and
waving the Third World flag in its battle with Japan to stage
Asia's first World Cup finals in 2002.
By offering to co-host the games with North Korea, South Korea
is trying to seduce world soccer's bosses with the idea of
becoming peacemakers to the divided but totally football-mad
peninsula.
Chung Mong-joon, president of the Korea Football Association
and passionate ambassador of the campaign for the 2002 World Cup
finals, said co-hosting would push the two Koreas to step up
efforts to reunite.
"Korea is now the last divided country in the world and the
World Cup can definitely help the peace-making process and the
eventual reunification of Korea," Chung said in an interview.
Joao Havelange, president of the International Football
Federation (FIFA), has voiced support for a joint Korean bid. But
Japan has the edge for the votes of the 21-member FIFA executive
which will pick the venue in June 1996, insiders say.
Chung, a FIFA vice president, said that if Japan gets the
World Cup, Tokyo would "demonstrate its power to the world."
"But if Korea hosts the tournament, it can distribute a
message of hope for developing countries," he asserted, calling
South Korea an "honor student" of the Third World.
Japan also has the advantage in infrastructure, funding and
sponsorships, insiders say. Critics also maintain that outside
Seoul -- which successfully hosted the 1988 Olympics -- South
Korean facilities simply cannot cope.
Grown
The World Cup finals have grown so big, especially after USA
'94, that Asian football boss Peter Velappan believes South Korea
and Japan should co-host.
But Chung, 43, scoffs at this idea and dismisses charges that
his country is not up to the task, which requires a far wider
network of stadiums, hotels and other facilities than the Seoul
Olympics.
Chung claimed Japan had sent overtures about co-hosting.
But Tadao Murata, a senior member of the Japanese bidding
committee, said in Tokyo that "we haven't thought about it at
all." He also said it would be a "very tough task" for South
Korea to bring its facilities up to standard.
Chung said South Korea's bidding campaign budget was US$35
million.
Murata said Japan had set aside about $50 million and "if
necessary, say, due to rising costs and others reasons, we may
have to raise the amount. "
But South Korea has resources of its own, and Chung happens to
be a son of the country's wealthiest man, Hyundai conglomerate
founder Chung Ju-yung.
The younger Chung said South Korea was prepared to spend $800
million on stadiums. It is also building what is touted as Asia's
largest airport and a high-speed train system.
The football chief, who holds a doctorate in international
studies from Johns Hopkins University in the United States and is
a member of South Korea's national assembly, believes his country
is destined to be a global player.
Korean War
Born in 1951 at the height of the Korean War, Chung, like many
of his countrymen, is bitter about Japan's 1910-35 colonial rule.
He said the fact that Japanese soldiers stayed on the
peninsula after losing in World War II gave Soviet and US forces
an excuse to occupy Korea, resulting in a communist North and
capitalist South.
Chung said Japan had "an unfinished role" and must help Korea
become one again -- by giving up its rival World Cup bid.
He is also contemptuous of Japan's sporting credentials,
noting that South Korea had entered the World Cup finals four
times -- 1954, 1986, 1990 and 1994 -- and even North Korea got in
once.
"This is a remarkable record because other countries in Asia
and Africa played only once or twice," he said. "Japan? Zero."