Image via WikipediaSeoul. Taking the World Cup back to South Korea in 2022, 20 years after it was jointly staged there with Japan, would again present football governing body FIFA with dilemmas over the fractured and difficult relationship between the North and South.As if to remind football’s power-brokers that they are still technically at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a ceasefire, not a peace treaty, tension escalated again this week.
North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells at a South Korean island off the North’s coast, killing at least two civilians and two soldiers. The action prompted return fire from the South and the dispatch of a US aircraft carrier group to Korean waters.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter had previously praised the South Korean tender for potentially having the power to reunite the divided peninsula and help to ease political tensions in the region.
“I will be very, very happy to use the power of the World Cup and the power of football to help solve this [problem],” Blatter said on a recent visit to South Korea.
Inter-Korean relations also suffered this year when a South Korean warship was torpedoed off the west coast, near the disputed border.
Whether FIFA, or football or even the World Cup, can do anything to bring the two nations closer together is an unanswerable question.
However, there is no doubt that the country’s astonishing run to the 2002 World Cup semifinals as co-hosts, and the frenzied support of their Red Devil fans, added a fairy-tale twist to that tournament and proved the World Cup could unite people.
The United States, Australia, Japan and Qatar all have shorter odds as potential hosts, but FIFA could be rewarded with a spectacular return if it takes the plunge and opts for South Korea.
Dynamic, fun and a world leader in technology, South Korea presents football’s leaders with a spicy alternative to its 2022 rivals when they vote in Zurich on Dec. 2.
It boasts excellent infrastructure and easy accessibility for its high-tech stadiums.
Both Koreas qualified for this year’s World Cup, with the South reaching the last 16 while the North was overpowered in the first round on its first appearance since 1966.
The chairman of South Korea’s bidding committee, Han Sung-joo, said the country planned to stage a handful of games in North Korea if it won the hosting rights.
Having become the first Asian side to reach the World Cup semifinals, South Korea has a superior pedigree to any of its rival bidders.
With its state-of-the-art 2002 stadium still in pristine condition and some of the most fervent supporters in the world, a South Korean World Cup would have all the ingredients for success.
On the downside, the proximity to the 2002 finals is likely to be a telling factor, while the uneasy relationship with the northern half of the peninsula is far from helpful.
Source: Reuters
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