Flag-sharing renews North Korea's World Cup dream

Around the World

Korea

Korea

A FIFA official announced yesterday that some 2002 World Cup games could be staged in North Korea, after the two Koreas agreed to march under the same flag at the Olympic Games. "What happened last week was a very significant development," Michel ZenRuffinen, the general secretary of football's world governing body, said.

Although Fifa has already published a schedule for the 2002 finals which will be jointly staged by South Korea and Japan, Zen-Ruffinen said it was not too late to include North Korea. "Of course there is a lot of work still to be done before such a decision could ever be taken," he added.

"But, following the recent summit between the two Korean presidents, and the very optimistic development here last week between the International Olympic Committee and the two countries, there is still a possibility that a match or even two could be staged in North Korea.

"Any match would be transferred from a venue in South Korea rather than from Japan, of course," Zen-Ruffinen continued. "The issue is open."

Romania

The concept of a referee in England donating any of his match fee to an overpaid footballer is, frankly, ludicrous. But that is what has happened in Romania.

Petronel Enache said yesterday that he would donate his match earnings to hard-up players. "From now on, I will give all my earnings as referee to different players who need it," he said.

The referee said he earned about £20 over the weekend refereeing a Second Division fixture between Extensiv Craiova and Inter Sibiu. "I donated the fee to a player whose lack of money I knew of a long time before," he said.

Enache also went on a two-day hunger strike last month, when colleagues with poorer selection test scores were promoted ahead of him to referee First Division matches.

Russia

The struggling First Division club Metallurg Lipetsk had their prayers answered last week. Club officials decided to baptise their players before a home game against fellow relegation candidates Lokomotiv St Petersburg. All the players had to dive into ice-cold spring water at a lake before being blessed by a local priest. The result? A 6-1 win.