How France ’98 Is Playing in Publications Around the Globe
FRANCE
From France-Soir:
“After the violence of the hooligans comes the ticket scandal. More than 30,000 foreign fans were fleeced by tour operators and intermediaries of FIFA.”
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From Aujourd’hui en France:
“The district attorney’s office in Paris opened an investigation into ‘forgery and the usage of forgeries’ in the affair of 30,000 nonexistent tickets for the World Cup. The director general of ISL France, an organization allied with the World Cup, is under suspicion of being involved in a vast swindle regarding World Cup ticketing.
“If the hooligans tarnished the festive public image of the World Cup, football fans were directly hit by the new scandal surrounding the World Cup ticketing. . . .
“The demand for tickets was at least 10 times more than the 2.65 million places available in the French stadiums. And the World Cup attracts many spectators willing to pay anything to have a ticket that the crooks pretend to be able to sell them.”
GERMANY
From nationwide daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung:
“How do we have to judge the German Soccer Assn. which advertises with Berti Vogts holding a case of beer and proclaims ‘No power to drugs’ at the same time? Let’s answer this way: We think that they are as consequent as the FIFA officials who invited the brewery Anheuser Busch into the circle of 12 main sponsors. Some experts think [Budweiser] is just a diuretic liquid, but the French judge it more correctly: As an alcoholic beverage, and advertisement for alcoholic beverages is prohibited in French stadiums since 1993. This ban led to diplomatic complications of largest extent: With the help of a lawyer, the brewery was finally allowed to deliver info material to the press. And ‘Bud’ is served in the press rooms: Nice that they think that journalists are capable of handling alcohol in a sensible way.”
SOUTH AFRICA
From the Cape Times, Cape Town:
“A despondent nation is desperate for a first triumph at the world’s most prestigious sporting event. One can only hope that common sense and harmony can be restored among the boys and that only one plan will be applied and followed.
“Against Denmark, we have to be careful that, in our need to score goals, we don’t allow ourselves to neglect our defensive duties.
“The most positive feeling people seem to share is that it won’t be possible to play as badly as we did against France, who are a stronger side than Denmark.
“Be brave, Bafana, Bafana.”
ITALY
From “La Repubblica” in Rome:
“They may introduce a ‘match break’ in the Fiat factory in Pomigliano d’Arco, near Naples.
“Director Luigi Viola of the Italian Metal Worker’s Union complains of a rival union: ‘They are carrying out strikes in parallel with Italy’s matches. The reasons given are a pretext and they are inconclusive, but the effects on the production of the Alfa 156 are fatal. The workers can’t afford this, but due to the fact that they again went on strike for two hours during the Italy-Cameroon match, we decided to find a solution with the company, so that the workers of Pomigliano will be able to follow Italy’s next games. Nobody said no.’ ”
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Correspondents Helene Elliott in Toulouse, Christian Retzlaff in Berlin, Dean E. Murphy in Johannesburg, Maria De Cristofaro in Rome contributed to this report.
