All fans given chance for World Cup tickets online

Football history will be made on Thursday when tickets to the 2002 FIFA World Cup will be made available to anybody in the world -- as long as they have access to an Internet connection.

Co-hosts Japan and South Korea on Thursday hold separate ceremonies to kick off sales for the 32-team World Cup finals, considered by many to be the premier event of the sporting world.

And FIFA on Thursday will activate the tickets link on its web site (www.FIFAworldcup.com) to allow anybody from anywhere in the soccer world to apply for a ticket.

"For the first time in history, every football fan in the world has an equal opportunity for the FIFA World Cup," said a notice on the tickets' link of the FIFA website.

With ticket applications expected to far exceed supply, a March 28 lottery will determine who gets to see the games.

FIFA Korea is planning to begin airing television commercials and electronic sign ads for the ticketing campaign from Thursday until March 14, said the FIFA Korea spokesman Lee Sang-moo.

"We haven't got any complaints about ticket sales or ticketing procedures so far, but we are ready to answer to any of those if any comes up later on," Lee said.

CUP OF SEVERAL FIRSTS

The online ticket sale is one of several firsts about this Cup. It is also the first to be held in Asia and the first to be co-hosted -- by ancient rivals Japan and Korea who waged a bitter, expensive, and contentious campaign against each other before FIFA in the end decided to let them both stage the games.

South Korea will sell 230,000 tickets over the next month at prices ranging from 60,000 won to 500,000 won ($48-$400).

In total, 740,000 tickets will be sold in South Korea, with a second round of sales from September 1 to October 31 and the remainder to be offered in the first half of 2002.

About 70 percent of tickets will be sold to ordinary fans and the remainder to groups and sponsors, FIFA Korea said.

About 675,000 tickets will be sold from Thursday in Japan, with some 170,000 reserved for sponsors. A second round of sales will take place in Japan next year.

FIFA, Korea and Japan combined expect to sell 3.18 million tickets.

CHANCE OF A LIFETIME

"This is the one chance in my lifetime to see the World Cup because it is being played in Korea," said Kim Byong-soo, a 32-year-old computer engineer in Seoul. "I'm going to try to get tickets through the Internet,"

"The website? Yes, it's here somewhere," he said flipping furiously through a Korean language newspaper before locating FIFA's website on the sports page.

But Lee Shin-woong, a 35-year-old accountant in Seoul said he will be content to watch the games on television. "TV will be good enough for me. I can't afford to buy a ticket," he said.

Seoul will host the opening Cup match on May 31, 2002, when reigning champions France will take on an opponent to be selected in a draw this December in South Korea.

Yokohama in Japan will host the final match.

South Korea is building 10 stadiums to host the event, including a 64,000-seat facility in Seoul that will be Asia's largest football-only stadium.

CO-HOST TENSION

South Korea and Japan not only fought an intense bidding war for the right to be sole host, they have recently clashed over Japan's intention to write the name "Japan" before "Korea" on ticket applications written in Japanese.

The official title of the event is "2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan".

South Korea has been to the World Cup finals five times while Japan made its finals debut in France in 1998.

The latest FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking of national teams places Japan 40th and South Korea 41st.

The two will show off World Cup venues in May when they warm up for the World Cup by co-hosting the FIFA Confederations Cup.

The May 30-June 10 event includes the hosts plus Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, France and Mexico.

(US$1 = 1,250 won)