GENEVA, June 11: The United Nations has flown in three big screens to Afghanistan to allow football fans in Kabul to follow the 2002 World Cup, a UN spokesman said on Tuesday.
“The material was bought and flown in from Dubai with FIFA’s financial help, and should be operational from June 12,” spokesman Michael Kleiner said.
The screens should stay on after the event for other international sports.
“It’s aimed at giving people, who have effectively been cut off from the world by 23 years of war, access to international sports events and to give sporting encouragment to Afghans to set up national championships and federations.”
“Then they’ll be able to send athletes to major world events and help Afghanistan emerge from isolation,” Kleiner said.
The idea first came from an aid worker and was taken up by Adolf Ogi, the UN envoy for sports in peace and development, who lobbied for support from world football’s governing body at the FIFA congress in Seoul last month.
TOKYO: Several cities in Japan, fearing a rampage by boisterous Japanese fans, have scrapped plans to show Friday’s clash between the co-hosts and Tunisia on giant screens. Officials in cities including Hiroshima and Saitama said they had decided to turn off the giant screens at local stadiums for the match, following rowdy celebrations among fans watching screenings of Japan’s victory over Russia on Sunday.
“We had to make that decision because we thought it very difficult to ensure the safety of all soccer fans gathered at the stadium,” a Saitama city official said on Tuesday.
The official said about 200 fans forced their way onto the pitch in Saitama and went on the rampage with some setting off firecrackers while the Japan-Russia match was being shown.
Similar incidents were reported in Hiroshima and several other places in Japan, who need a draw to make sure of qualifying for the second round.
Japan play Tunisia in their final group game in Osaka on Friday and need only a draw to progress to the second round.
The city authorities said they would keep the giant screens turned off even if Japan move on to the second round.—AFP/Reuters