Soccer-World Cup Plaza

O··· The Korean national soccer team’s Yoo Sang-Chul (30. Kashiwa Reysol), who is currently playing in J-League of the Japanese professional soccer, is known to be on recruiting list of England Premier league’s West Ham United.

“England Premier league’s West Ham has expressed their consideration for Yoo’s recruitment, and the position would be right wing-back,” said Yoo’s agent Lee Young-Jung on the 26th. However, Lee also added, “Official reply is not made yet, because we thought Spain or Italy would be better, rather than England, considering conditions like weather.”

O··· Chinese soccer, which has made the final entry to World Cup for the first time, is suffering from hooligan’s riots. A few hundred supporters of Shaanxi Guoli of Chinese professional soccer’s First Division have set fire on stadium seats and police vehicle, and seized 3 buses at the home-ground match with Qingdao Yizhong. During the riot, a referee and player were also injured.

The China Football Association announced, “Such violent riot is the first one in history. We are considering measures to move the main stadium to another city.”

O··· Tunisian national soccer team’s coach Henri Michel resigned 2 months before the opening of 2002 World Cup.

Tunisia’s Football Federation said on the 26th that Michel has expressed his resignation and Ammar Souayah and Kemaies Labidi are to lead the team temporarily.

Tunisia put out a disappointing result of being the only team out of Africa’s World Cup participants failing to advance to the final 8 in Africa Nations Cup, which concluded in Mali last month.

O··· Left winger of the French national soccer team, Robert Pires (29. Arsenal) is to have troubles participating in World Cup finals.

“Pires has injured the cruciate ligament in his right knee in the FA Cup game against Newcastle, and the examination result says he needs a few months of rest. Therefore, he will not be able to take part in rest of the league games, as well as World Cup,” said Arsenal authorities on the 26th.

1998 France World Cup’s victory member Pires, who is to have a surgery during this week, had won last year’s best-player award of the Confederations Cup.

Sung-Won Joo swon@donga.com