World Cup Ticket Applications Accepted, With a Delay Online

Sales of domestic tickets for the Korea/Japan World Cup began Thursday with the distribution of a first round of application forms nationwide.

But online applications for domestic tickets on the official FIFA Web site (www.FIFAworldcup.com), which were scheduled to begin at midnight Wednesday, were delayed for an estimated two to three days because of technological problems.

"FIFA announced it would postpone taking in applications for domestic tickets because of a technological problem that arose while constructing Web sites in Korean and Japanese," an official at the Korean organizing committee said. Overseas tickets will be sold as scheduled.

The Korean Organizing Committee for the 2002 World Cup held an opening ceremony Thursday in Mugyodong, Seoul, for the first day of booking.

Among those present were Lee Yun-taek and Chung Mong-joon, co-chairmen of the Korean Organizing Committee, and Peter Dato Velappan from FIFA, the organization that governs the sport internationally. Following the ceremony, soccer fans turned in their applications for tickets.

Mr. Chung said, "It now feels as though the World Cup has really started. Because there are more applicants than the number of tickets available, we will act to assure fairness in their distribution."

by Shin June-bong