By Park Song-wu
Staff Reporter
The inaugural Peace Cup Korea is falling apart even before it begins as Bayer Leverkusen and AS Roma officially withdrew from the intercontinental club football competition, which is set to be held here July 15-22.
The cup¡¯s organizing committee said yesterday the two clubs decided not to attend the event due to ``internal troubles¡¯¡¯ and concerns over the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
``We contacted them to confirm the news after hearing it from a FIFA agent a week ago. The biggest problem was the fear of SARS which has affected the players unions,¡¯¡¯ said Shin Young-dae, a public relations official for the organizing committee.
However there is speculation that the teams withdrew after players balked over the sponsor of the tournament, the Sunmoon Peace Football Foundation, which is connected to the Unification Church headed by Moon Sun-myung.
``A big religious organization is hosting the event. There should be many players who dislike playing under the flag of a religion which has a different doctrine than theirs,¡¯¡¯ said a sports commentator, who declined to be named.
Leverkusen was scheduled to meet the K-League¡¯s Songnam Chunma, which is also affiliated with the Unification Church, on July 15 at Seoul World Cup Stadium to open the tournament.
There were unconfirmed reports last month that the Bundesliga club called off a training camp planned to be held in Seoul starting from July 12 because of the SARS outbreak.
The organizing committee said Benfica of Portugal and 1860 Munich of Germany are two of seven new candidates to fill the vacancies for the eight-club tournament.
``The committee sent officials to Europe to negotiate detailed conditions for their attendance. There will be no changes in the Peace Cup schedule. The renewed list of participating clubs will be announced within this week,¡¯¡¯ Shin said.
The name of the biennial tournament was recently changed from the World Peace King Cup upon the recommendation of the Asia Football Confederation (AFC), which said that `World¡¯ should be used only for a world championship and `King¡¯ is more connected to politics than sports.
The organizer earmarked 19.2 billion won ($16 million) for the eight-day event which will be held in six World Cup stadiums across the country. 作者: elva 时间: 2003-6-9 06:30
哪里还有心情去呢
要好好调整自己了吧
只是不知道有多少钱拿呀？
唉或许能够买些人回来
汗……