Internet gremlins upset World Cup ticket kick-off

Kazunori Takada and Jason Neely

Ticket sales for the 2002 World Cup had an inauspicious kick-off on Thursday as Internet applications in host nations Japan and South Korea were delayed and fans grumbled about their slim chance of seeing a live game.

"I think it's pretty much impossible that I'll get a ticket," said Koichi Yoshida, a 25-year-old man queuing outside FIFA's official World Cup shop in Tokyo's Shibuya district.

"The number available is very limited."

Applications for around three million of the tickets, among the most coveted in world sport, opened internationally at 0001 GMT -- 9:01 a.m. in Japan -- with world soccer body FIFA aiming to sell many of them over the Internet for the first time.

But shortly before the planned start, FIFA said Web site glitches meant that fans in Korea and Japan would be left to rely on good old-fashioned paper application forms -- available at post offices and local government offices -- for at least two or three days.

"FIFA took the decision to delay the start of the sale in Korea and Japan on the Internet on the grounds that the system must be foolproof and the interests of the consumer must always be taken into account," FIFA said in a statement.

Japanese fans queueing for application forms on a chilly Tokyo morning were pessimistic about their chances of getting a seat for the first-ever World Cup jointly hosted by two nations.

For the moment, fans can only apply for tickets in the hope of emerging as a lucky winner in a random draw later in the year. In Japan, World Cup organisers expect to receive around five million applications for the 630,000 tickets available.

Of those, however, only around 220,000 will be available for general applications by residents of Japan.

"I don't think there are enough tickets available for Japanese supporters considering it's being held in Japan," said Chiho Inoue, 33, a company employee also in the line.

In South Korea, where a recent poll found as many as nine million fans wanted tickets, businessman Moon Yong-ho, 36, was first in line for an application at a launching ceremony held as a blizzard blanketed Seoul with deep snow.

"I'm very happy to be the first guy to apply," Moon said. "It's expensive yes, but it's worth it. This is the first World Cup of the century and as a citizen of one of the host nations, I'm willing to spend."

Fans lining up for application forms in Tokyo were nearly outnumbered by journalists, but they have until mid-March to apply. Winners will be notified around June and will receive their tickets, costing upwards of $60, around April next year.

Organisers in Korea were confident of having enough application forms to meet demand, but availability in Tokyo appeared patchy with some post offices running out of forms within minutes.

WEB SALES

FIFA said the Internet application process for international fans, accounting for around half the ticket total, was going ahead as planned, but Japan's organisers were forced to apologise.

"We are disappointed and we must apologise to the people," Yasuhiko Endo, secretary-general of Japan's World Cup organising body, told a news conference, blaming problems with two computer servers in Amsterdam and Los Angeles.

He said the servers would be tested again on Saturday and he hoped the problems would be ironed out by then.

But the glitch, which affects the 1.3 million or so tickets being sold in Japan and Korea, is an early blow to FIFA's hopes of shifting ticket sales for its showcase event to the Internet -- a process that promises to be hugely complicated.

Thursday's teething problems were not the first to hit preparations for the 2002 World Cup.

Japan recently angered Korean organisers with plans to print "Japan" before "Korea" on official documents, including ticket applications for the finals, although it now appears to have backed down. Korea was written before Japan on the cover of application forms available in Japan on Thursday.

Korean organisers said FIFA had agreed to allow Japan to host the final game, but named the event the Korea/Japan World Cup as compensation for South Korea.

The World Cup finals, to be played from May 31 to June 30, 2002, will span 20 cities in the two countries, posing a logistics challenge that has already mobilised team officials hunting for an edge in training grounds, hotels and transport.

(With reporting by Stuart Grudgings)