South Korea struggles to finish World Cup venues

JAKARTA (JP): South Korea, which will jointly host the 2002 soccer World Cup with neighboring Japan, is struggling to finish the construction of local stadia this year.

Yonhap news agency reported that the average progress of stadium construction has reached 78 percent, an impressive figure compared to last year when the public had doubts on the readiness of those venues to welcome the world's best soccer players and their supporters.

Ulsan, a coastal city to the southeast of the capital Seoul, and Suwon and Taegu will all finish construction before May and will put their new stadia into use afterwards.

Pusan, which will also host next year's Asian Games after the World Cup, is scheduled to finish stadium construction in July followed by Kwangju, Taejon and Chonju in September while Inchon and Sogwipo on Cheju island will finish construction in December.

Munsan Stadium in Ulsan will have a roof over the seats and the pitch will be planted with grass as soon as the lighting and sound system have been installed.

A friendly match between joint hosts South Korea and Japan will mark the inauguration of the stadium in April 2001.

Roof construction and grass planting will soon be finished at Taegu and by the end of May the entire work will have been completed.

The stadium in Taegu will be the biggest venue in Korea with a total seated capacity of 68,000.

In the near future, the stadium will host the Intercontinental Cup before the 2002 World Cup begins and it will also host the 2003 Universiade.

Antara reports that cities in Korea are considering staging many other events if the country successfully hosts the World Cup round-robin matches.

Workers are still constructing the Sangam Stadium roof to the northwest of Seoul. This stadium will host soccer fans from all over the world at the opening of the quadrennial World Cup. (yan)