N. Korea raising money for World Cup football team: report

SEOUL, Feb. 3 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is raising money at home and abroad to
cover food, uniform and travel expenses for its national football team amid hopes
of winning a berth to the 2010 World Cup, a report said Tuesday.
Although football is a very popular sport in the communist country, North Korea
have not reached the main tournament since their surprise advance to the
quarterfinals in the 1966 World Cup in Britain.
In the Group B qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup that start next week, North
Korea are set to face Saudi Arabia, the Arab Emirates, South Korea and Iran. An
inter-Korean match is set for April 1 in South Korea.
North Korea has "expectations that the country's athletes will earn more medals
in international competitions this year," said the Choson Sinbo, a
Korean-language newspaper in Japan that usually conveys Pyongyang's position.
"The issue drawing the biggest attention is, as usual, final qualifiers in the
Asian region for the 2010 World Cup tournament in South Africa," it said.
North Korea's sports agency is now committed to a fundraising drive to cover the
team's travel expenses, as well as provide footballers with shoes, uniforms,
medicine and nutritional support, the report said.
"For this, the Korea Sports Support Fund is calling for a number of organizations
and dignitaries at home and abroad to join," it said.
The report quoted Ri Hye-gyong, 61, chief of the sports agency, as saying the
fundraising campaign is "proceeding as planned."
North Korean media have broadcast some recorded matches of famous foreign teams.
In one such program in early January, a North Korean sportscaster lauded South
Korean winger Park Ji-sung, who plays for Manchester United, as "a player who has
the ability of two." During a broadcast of the British team's match with
Ecuador's Liga de Quito, the sportscaster said Park "has good mobility and high
fighting energy" as a "key player of the South Korean team."
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)