The Hindu : South Korea secures list of hooligans

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 30, 2002

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Sport - Football

South Korea secures list of hooligans

SEOUL MARCH 29. South Korea's police preparing for the World Cup finals this year said they will ban 890 British and French hooligans from entering the country during the soccer tournament.

The police said today one or three specialists in dealing with hooligans would be dispatched from each participating country to help spot hooligans and deport them.

We will soon get the list of hooligans from Germany, Italy and Turkey as well,'' police spokesman Kim Young-Hee said after Seoul received hooligan lists from Britain and France.

More than 1,200 South Korean special police troops have been under intensive training for several months to deal with possible terrorist attacks and hooliganism during the World Cup finals, to be co-hosted with Japan.

Kim said the police planned to put more officers on patrol at places targeted by hooligans, such as shopping places and parks near stadiums.

Safety concerns have intensified in South Korea following the September 11 suicide plane attacks on New York and Washington and the Subsequent US-led air strikes on Afghanistan.

Squads of highly-trained and heavily-armed police, as well as specialist security teams, will be deployed in 10 World Cup stadiums, on 32 practice fields and in 33 accommodation venues in South Korea during the month-long World Cup.

Police have already promised to provide armed escorts for 13 FIFA dignitaries and 800 players during the tournament. The World Cup opening ceremony and first match will be on May 31 in Seoul. The final match will be in the Japanese city of Yokohama on June 30.

South Korea will work closely together with experts from 13 countries to prevent fan violence, the National Police Department (NPA) has said.

The NPA said yesterday that the authorities from Germany, Britain, Turkey, Italy, France, Denmark, Ireland, Slovenia, Spain, Brazil, Poland, Portugal and Croatia will provide undercover agents to join domestic police forces.

The foreign agents, who will be based at the 10 host cities at the May 31-June 30 tournament, are to help the Koreans identifying known troublemakers and expelling them from the country.

South Korea has so far issued a list of 890 persons from England and France who will be denied entry.

England and Germany, who have some of the most notorious fans, will play their preliminary round games in Japan but would move to Korea if they advance in the tournament.

South Korean World Cup and health officials were caught by surprise when the country's State-run cigarette monopoly announced plans to promote new theme packs' at this year's soccer finals.

Organisers of the World Cup are promoting a smoking-free tournament. We did not know what the tobacco company was planning,'' Yoo Ho-Kyun, a South Korea health ministry spokesman, told reuters yesterday.

We think we need to investigate this matter.'' Lin Byung-Taik, spokesman for the South Korean Organising Committee (KOWOC), said by telephone the organisers would discuss the matter with FIFA, soccer's world governing body. He did not elaborate. There was no immediate comment from FIFA.

Korea tobacco and Ginseng Corp said in a statement it would introduce 20 new packets for its cigarettes from April featuring images related to the World Cup.

Production of what it described as World Cup cigarettes' would be limited to 10 million packs with sales only until the end of the month-long tournament on June 30.

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