World Cup Draw Guarantees There’ll Be Fireworks in Europe

The global nature of soccer’s World Cup was underlined in dramatic fashion in Tokyo Tuesday when a record 198 countries took part in the draw for the 2002 tournament.

For defending champion France and co-hosts Japan and South Korea, the 90-minute ceremony at the city’s International Forum was a chance to preen on the world stage.

The three are automatic qualifiers for the 32-nation finals, to be played June 1-30, 2002.

But for the 195 other countries, the internationally televised draw was a nerve-racking affair as they waited to learn which obstacles would be put in their path on the road to Asia’s first World Cup.

And it was the last name drawn that provoked the biggest reaction from the audience of 4,500 as three-time world champion Germany was drawn into the same European qualifying group as 1966 champion England.

Adding spice to that always volatile encounter, both countries are bidding for the 2006 World Cup.

The England-Germany series will be the most closely watched of what could be as many as 812 qualifying games to be played between March 1, 2000 and Nov. 11, 2001.

For the United States and Mexico, Tuesday’s draw held nothing. They, along with Costa Rica and Jamaica, are exempt from the preliminary rounds in the North and Central American and Caribbean region. Only after those early rounds are complete will those four countries learn who their opponents will be.

The U.S. will start its qualifying campaign in October.

Meanwhile, FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, made several other significant announcements in Tokyo:

* The possibility remains that some World Cup 2002 matches might be played in North Korea. South Korea has offered two of its 32 games to North Korea, even though the countries are technically still at war. Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s president, will visit North Korea in April.

* Japan and South Korea will jointly stage an international tournament next June as a dress rehearsal for the World Cup.

The tournament could be the eight-nation FIFA Confederations Cup, which this year was held in and won by Mexico. The U.S. will compete if it wins the Gold Cup, scheduled for Miami, San Diego and Los Angeles in February.

* The next Women’s World Cup was moved from 2003 to 2002 and probably will be played in Australia. The change is intended to allow women to have a qualifying tournament in 2003 for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

* The host country for the 2006 World Cup will be selected July 5-6 in Zurich, Switzerland, by a secret ballot of FIFA’s 24-member Executive Committee in a round-by-round elimination process. The candidates are Brazil, England, Germany, Morocco and South Africa.

* Brazil will not be banned from the World Cup even if allegations that it fielded three overage players while winning last month’s FIFA under-17 World Championship in New Zealand are proved true.

“I can tell you definitely that Brazil will not be suspended from the World Cup whatever the outcome of the investigation,” Blatter said at a pre-draw news conference.

FIFA rules, he said, have been modified so that sanctions affect only the competition in which any offense takes place. Brazil could, therefore, be banned from the next U-17 world championship.

Immediately after Tuesday’s draw, oddsmakers in England installed Brazil as the 4-1 favorite to win World Cup 2002, followed by Argentina, Italy and Spain at 9-1; France and the Netherlands at 10-1, Germany at 11-1 and England at 14-1.

The U.S. is a 200-1 outsider.

Reaction to the England-Germany match-up was immediate. The countries have met four times in the World Cup, with host England winning the 1966 final over West Germany in overtime.

West Germany defeated England in the quarterfinals of the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, the teams tied in the second round of the 1982 World Cup in Spain, and Germany beat England on penalty kicks in the semifinals of the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

Germany also ousted England on penalty kicks in the semifinals of the 1996 European Championship in England.

The teams’ coaches, Erich Ribbeck of Germany and Kevin Keegan of England, were pleased with the draw.

Said Ribbeck, “Last night I had a beer with Kevin Keegan . . . and we joked that we would get drawn against each other today.”

Said Keegan, who played for three years in Germany, “We’ve got an advantage, I suppose, because I speak the language and had three great years in Hamburg and am the best of friends with some of them. But for these two games, we’ll have to be the best of enemies.”