LIKE the previous qualifying matches of the football World Cup, Pakistan was ousted in the very first round after being pitched against Lebanon, Thailand and Sri Lanka. Thailand surged for the second round of the qualifiers.
Football in the country faces a continuous degeneration to the extent that even the recent heavy funding by International Football Federation could not fill the cracks in the game’s infrastructure. Despite the poor show by their countrymen, millions of Pakistani viewers are expected to be glued to their television sets for the 17th football World Cup which kicks off in Japan and Korea from May 31.
South Korea plans to dazzle billions of viewers around the globe with its soccer World Cup opening ceremony and an all day extravaganza the day before the May 31 kick-off. A total of 32 teams have qualified for the final round. Federation Francaise de Football has earned an automatic entry by virtue of winning the 1998 FIFA World Cup. Korea and Japan have entered the final round as host teams. The rest of the 29 teams have fought bitterly to reach the final round.
As far as awards were concerned, 45 medals will be presented to each of the three top teams in the final competition, i.e. gold medals to the winner, silver medals to the team ranked second and bronze to the team ranked third. No further medals will be awarded. The team ranked fourth will receive an award.
The FIFA Fair Play Trophy, a fair play medal for each player and official, a diploma and a voucher for USD 50,000 worth of football equipment (to be used for youth development) will go the team finishing first in the fair play contest. These prizes will be presented after the final match. The Golden Shoe will be awarded to the player scoring the highest number of goals while number of assists will be decisive. Each goal is worth three points and each assist, one point. There will be a silver shoe for the second best goal scorer and a bronze shoe for the third best.
A golden ball will be awarded to the best player on the basis of a vote taken among the media accredited to the 2002 FIFA World Cup. There will also be a silver ball and a bronze for the players placed second and third respectively. A trophy will be awarded to the best goalkeeper of the tournament, as selected by the FIFA Technical Study Group. Any other special award can be announced by the Organizing Committee of the tournament.
News pouring in from the selected venues reveal that FIFA’s six dozen World Cup referees and assistant referees have completed a comprehensive seminar in Seoul in preparation for the 64-match tournament. The 36 referees and 36 assistants, from all six continental confederations, not only underwent the customary fitness tests but also participated in a series of talks and discussions designed to tune them up for the pressures of the World Cup.
A main theme of the seminar was that of cheating, with the referees and assistants again called upon to be extra vigilant with regard to players seeking to gain an unfair advantage by pretending to be fouled. The officials were assured by FIFA Referees’ Committee members led by chairman Senes Erzik (Turkey) that they would have FIFA’s full support in dealing with this type of offence.
Recalling the first World Cup in 1930, the atmosphere in the colossal Centenario stadium (100,000 capacity, at Montevideo, Uruguay) was electric as spectators were awaiting the South American final between Uruguay and Argentina. At half-time, Uruguay were down 2-1, but fought back bravely and put three second-half goals, passed the stunned Argentineans, ending the game with a 4-2 victory.
The FIFA President Jules Rimet presented the Victoire aux Ailes d’Or trophy, a statuette 30cm high, made of gold and weighing 4kg, to the Uruguay captain Jose Nazassi. Celebrations in Montevideo went on for several days and the day after the famous victory, the 31 July, was proclaimed a national holiday. The ball had begun to roll for football’s most prestigious prize and the universal nature of the game had been officially proclaimed. The first FIFA World Cup, the first football legends.
Although football was officially born in 1904 with the founding of FIFA, it was not until 1924 and the Olympic tournament in Paris that the international game really came into its own. There for the first time, teams from other continents arrived to take on the Europeans. The tournament was an unmitigated success: 50,000 spectators watched Uruguay beat Switzerland in the final. In 1928, however, when many nations abstained from the Olympic tournament in Amsterdam, the time was obviously ripe for a new independent football tournament to be established especially in view of the growth of professional football.
On 26 May, 1928 in Amsterdam, the FIFA congress voted that a new tournament was to be organized in 1930 which was to be open to all member nations. On 18 May, 1929, the Barcelona congress voted that Uruguay should be the first nation to host a FIFA World Cup.
LIKE the previous qualifying matches of the football World Cup, Pakistan was ousted in the very first round after being pitched against Lebanon, Thailand and Sri Lanka. Thailand surged for the second round of the qualifiers.
