The Hindu : Bankruptcy hits Japanese sports gear firm

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 28, 2002

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Sport - Football

Bankruptcy hits Japanese sports gear firm

Tokyo May 27. As World Cup fever mounts in Japan, a small sports gear maker has gone bankrupt, weighed down by huge licence fees for World Cup goods, a former employee said on Monday.

Crix Yasuda, a Tokyo-based firm, sought court protection on May 8 after it collapsed following a slump in its sales of 20 items featuring a World Cup mascot logo, including bags and whistles.

``We went bankrupt with a pile of inventories of World Cup mascot goods, and we could not pay the licence fees of 50 million Yen ($400,000) to FIFA,'' said the former employee, who declined to be named.

``We asked a Chinese firm to produce the goods in China and started selling them in Japan in May last year,'' the employee said. ``Now, the World Cup boom is spreading, but we went bust before the boom.''

Established in 1932, Crix Yasuda had marketed football gear, including boots and kit. It had 12 employees. A figure for the company's liabilities was not immediately available.

FIFA's official 2002 World Cup mascots, the Spheriks named Nik, Kaz and Ato, have failed to win the hearts of the public in Japan, which is to host the prestigious sports event together with South Korea, starting on Friday.

The names of the ``players'' Nik and Kaz, and the ``coach character'' Ato, were chosen in a vote by football fans from all over the world, according to FIFA's official website, but the association with football is not immediately apparent.

The Spheriks were unveiled to much fanfare by FIFA and the organising committees from co-hosts South Korea and Japan in December 1999 and were created using computer-generated, 3D animation. They represented a departure from previous mascot practice.

Ever since World Cup Willie the Lion, wearing the Union Jack, was adopted as the icon of the 1966 World Cup in England, FIFA has delivered a one-cartoon mascot, until now. — AFP

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