Opening of Football Festival of the Global Village

The World Cup finals started its earnest countdown on May 28, four days before the opening of the 2002 Korea/Japan World Cup finals, with the final rehearsal of exact replica of the opening ceremony and further the opening of the Congress of the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) that would elect the president of four year tenure.

At 7:30 P.M. in the day, rehearsals of cultural events of the opening ceremony and celebration show are scheduled to take place for one and a half hour at the Seoul World Cup Stadium in Sangam-Dong, Mapo-Gu, Seoul so that final checking on the official opening ceremony event might be done.

Additionally, the FIFA Congress to be held for two days at Seoul Grand Hilton Hotel and Seoul Hilton Hotel is getting the attention of people since the gathering will decide the future direction of the world football society.

The election of the FIFA president has a confrontation between `conservatives versus progressives` and the current president Sepp Blatter faces the president of the Confederation of African Federation Issa Hayato. The results may be interesting to see since co-chairman of the Korea World Cup Organizing Committee (KOWOC) cum vice president of the FIFA Chung Mong-Joon, along with the president of the European Football Federation (UEFA) Lennart Johansson, support the reform minded candidate Hayato.

In other hand, the Korean National Football Team that heightened the hope of getting into the position of strong 16 of the Korean people by playing equal games with France, one of the strongest, in a warm-up match, set up a preparation camp in Kyungju on May 27, putting the final finishing touch before taking the first fight against Poland in D group, which will be held at the Busan World Cup Stadium on June 4.

Top star of the French National Football Team Zinnedine Zindane (30-year-old) who has taken an injury in left thigh in a warm-up match against Korea on May 26, underwent medical diagnosis at the Samsung Seoul Hospital on May 27. Whether he might be able to participate in the games will be announced on May 28. As Costa Rica and Denmark set up preparatory camps in Seongnam and Namhae, respectively, after arriving in the country on May 27, a total of 11 teams, among the fifteen national teams that play games in Korea, have already entered the country.