2002 FIFA World Cup

The 2002 FIFA World Cup (Korean: 2002 FIFA 월드컵 한국/일본, Japanese: 2002 FIFAワールドカップ 韓国/日本) also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea and Japan, with its final match hosted by Japan at International Stadium in Yokohama.

A field of 32 teams qualified for this World Cup, which was the first to be held in Asia, the first to be held outside of the Americas or Europe, as well as the first to be jointly hosted by more than one nation. Four teams (China, Ecuador, Senegal, and Slovenia) made their World Cup debuts, with Senegal being the only debutant to advance from the Group Stages and make it to the quarter-finals.

The tournament had several upsets and surprise results, which included the defending champions France being eliminated in the group stage after earning a single point without scoring a goal, and second favourites Argentina also being eliminated in the group stage. South Korea managed to reach the semi-finals, beating Poland, Portugal, Italy and Spain en route. They became the first team from outside of the UEFA, CONMEBOL, and CONCACAF regions to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup. Along with South Korea, Turkey made its first appearance in the semi-finals as well. However, the most potent team at the tournament, Brazil, prevailed, winning the final against Germany 2–0, making them the first and only country to have won the World Cup five times. In the match for third place against South Korea, Turkey won 3–2, taking third place in only their second ever FIFA World Cup, and scored the fastest goal in the FIFA World Cup history (10.8 seconds after kick-off).

The 2002 World Cup was the last one to use the golden goal rule and the last one to use the same ball for all matches. Starting in 2006 and continuing to the present, a ball with the same technical specifications but different colors has been used in the final. It was also the last World Cup that gave an automatic berth to the defending champions.

Host selection

South Korea and Japan were selected as hosts by FIFA on 31 May 1996.

Initially, South Korea, Japan and Mexico presented three rival bids. South Korea's entry into the race was seen by some as a response to the bid of political and sporting rival Japan. FIFA leaders were split on whom to favor as host as politics within the world governing body held sway. With Mexico regarded as a long shot, the battle to host the tournament came down to South Korea and Japan. The two Asian rivals went on a massive and expensive PR blitz around the world, prompting Sultan Ahmad Shah, the head of the Asian Football Confederation, to step in. FIFA boss João Havelange had long backed the Japanese bid, but his rival in FIFA, UEFA chief Lennart Johansson, sought to undermine Havelange's plans. UEFA and the AFC viewed co-hosting between the two Asian rivals as the best option. South Korea and Japan were finally faced with a choice of having no World Cup or a shared World Cup and they reluctantly chose to go along with co-hosting. South Korea and Japan were chosen unanimously as co-hosts in preference to Mexico.

This was the first World Cup to be hosted by more than one country, the second being the 2026 World Cup hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada. This is also the first ever World Cup to be hosted in Asia, the other being the 2022 World Cup hosted by Qatar twenty years later and the first World Cup to be held outside of Europe and the Americas. The general secretary of South Korea's bidding committee, Song Young-shik, stated that FIFA was interested in staging some matches in North Korea in order to aid Korean reunification, but it was ruled out. Though co-hosting the World Cup allowed Japan and South Korea to collaborate, the event did not significantly alter relations between the two countries, which have historically been strained. Even so, the World Cup promoted a global vision of cooperation between Japan and South Korea.

After being prevented from hosting along with South Korea, North Korea decided to host their own sports event, the Arirang Mass Games, at the same time as the World Cup. This is not unlike their course of action during the 1988 Seoul Olympics, where they decided to host the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students simultaneously.

At the time the decision was made, Japan had never qualified for a World Cup final (although the Japanese did subsequently qualify for the 1998 competition). The only other countries to have been awarded a World Cup without previously having competed in a final tournament are Italy in 1934 and Qatar in 2022 (Uruguay hosted the first World Cup in 1930 so there was no prior tournament; they were defending Olympic champions from 1928).

Qualification

199 teams attempted to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. The qualification process began with the preliminary draw held in Tokyo on 7 December 1999. Defending champions France and co-hosts South Korea and Japan qualified automatically and did not have to play any qualification matches. This was the final World Cup in which the defending champions qualified automatically and played the opening game.

14 places were contested by UEFA teams (Europe), five by CAF teams (Africa), four by CONMEBOL teams (South America), four by AFC teams (Asia) and three by CONCACAF teams (North and Central America and the Caribbean). The remaining two places were decided by playoffs between AFC and UEFA and between CONMEBOL and OFC (Oceania). Four nations qualified for the finals for the first time: China, Ecuador, Senegal and Slovenia.

Turkey qualified for the first time since 1954, Poland and Portugal both qualified for the first time since 1986 and Costa Rica and Uruguay qualified for the first time since 1990. Sweden, Russia and the Republic of Ireland also returned after missing the 1998 World Cup. South Korea became the first nation from outside Europe or the Americas to appear in five successive finals tournaments.

All seven previous World Cup-winning nations (Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy, and Uruguay) qualified, which broke the record of most previous champions at a tournament before the record was broken again in 2014 with the addition of Spain (who won the 2010 tournament).

The highest-ranked team that did not qualify was the reigning Copa América champion Colombia (ranked 4th), while the lowest-ranked team that did qualify was China (ranked 50th).

List of qualified teams

The following 32 teams, shown with final pre-tournament rankings, qualified for the final tournament:

Venues

South Korea and Japan each provided 10 venues, the vast majority of them newly built for the tournament. Groups A–D played all their matches in South Korea and Groups E–H played all their matches in Japan. The stadiums in Daegu, Suwon, Yokohama and Saitama all hosted 4 matches each, while the other 16 stadiums hosted 3 matches each. Notably, no matches were played in Tokyo, making it the second capital of a host country not to have a World Cup venue after Bonn of West Germany in 1974; however, the cities of Saitama and Yokohama which are part of the Greater Tokyo Area did host matches.

• A dagger (†) denotes an indoor stadium.

Match officials

There was much controversy over the refereeing in the tournament. Questionable decisions in the match between Italy and South Korea resulted in 400,000 complaints, and featured in ESPN's 10 most fabled World Cup controversies. The match between Spain and South Korea featured two controversially disallowed Spanish goals, which Iván Helguera referred to as "a robbery" and led to Spanish press brandishing the officials "thieves of dreams", though FIFA dismissed the incident as human error.

Squads

This was the first World Cup that featured squads of 23 players, an increase from 22 previously. Of the 23 players, three must be goalkeepers.

Draw

The FIFA Organising Committee announced the eight seeded teams on 28 November 2001. The historic tradition to seed the hosts (South Korea and Japan) and holders (France) was upheld while the remaining five seeds were granted to the other five of the top six teams—ranked by their results in the last three FIFA World Cups (ratio 3:2:1) and their FIFA World Ranking position in the last month of the past three years (equal ratio).

For the draw, the 32 teams were allocated into four pots; the eight top-seeded teams, were allocated in pot 1 and would be drawn/selected into the first position of the eight groups playing in the group stage. The remaining 24 unseeded teams, were allocated into three pots based on geographical sections, with the: 11 European teams in pot 2; two Asian teams and three South American teams in pot 3; three North American teams and five African teams in pot 4.

The general principle was to draw one team from each pot into the eight groups, although with special combined procedures for pot 2 and pot 3, due to comprising more/less than eight teams - but sixteen teams in total. At the same time, the draw also needed to respect the geographical limitation, that each group cannot feature more than one team from each confederation, except for the European teams where the limitation was maximum two per group. Finally, special limitations were also stipulated to evenly distribute the presence of teams from each confederation between the groups playing respectively in Korea (group A-D) and Japan (group E-H); however, for political considerations, China could only be drawn for one of the groups playing in Korea.

• The draw took place at the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center in South Korea and was televised live on 1 December 2001.

The FIFA Organising Committee decided ahead of the draw to place the defending champions (France) in Group A while the co-hosts South Korea and Japan were placed in Group D and Group H respectively. The procedure for the draw comprised the following six steps:

1. Pot 1 was used to draw, in alphabetical group order, the remaining five top-seeded teams for the first position of groups B, C, E, F and G; while respecting the restriction that one of the two South American seeds (Brazil and Argentina) had to play in a group played in South Korea (B/C) and the other had to play in a group played in Japan (E/F/G).
2. Pot 2 was used to draw one European team to each of the eight groups (drawing unrestricted in alphabetical order from A to H).
3. As per the FIFA rule of only allowing a maximum of two European teams in each group, the remaining three European teams from Pot 2 were subject to a second draw, to be put in either of the four groups containing a top-seeded South American team or Asian team. This was done by first drawing the European team from Pot 2, and then drawing which seeded opponent the European team should be paired with, from a special bowl with four blue balls containing the names of Brazil, Argentina, Japan and South Korea.
4. Pot 3 was used to draw one team to each of the five groups with an empty third slot (drawing in alphabetical order from A to H); while respecting the geographical restrictions, that: None of the unseeded South American teams (Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay) from pot 3 could be drawn into a group with a seeded South American team (Brazil and Argentina). None of the unseeded Asian teams (Saudi Arabia and China) from pot 3 could be drawn into a group with a seeded Asian team (South Korea and Japan in Group D and H); along with the overall rule that China had to play in South Korea (meaning either group A, B or C) and that Saudi Arabia had to play in Japan (meaning either group E, F or G).
5. Pot 4 was used to draw one team to each of the eight groups (drawing in alphabetical order from A to H); while respecting the restrictions that: A minimum of one North American team and minimum of two African teams should be drawn to a group located in South Korea (Group A/B/C/D) A minimum of one North American team and minimum of two African teams should be drawn to a group located in Japan (Group E/F/G/H)
6. To decide the match schedules, the exact group position number for the un-seeded teams in each group (2, 3 or 4), were also drawn immediately from eight special group bowls, after each respective team had been drawn from pot 2, 3 and 4.

Besides drawing the teams, the event also featured American vocalist Anastacia giving a debut public performance of the official song of the World Cup, "Boom". The draw was conducted by FIFA general secretary Michel Zen-Ruffinen, and many celebrities helped with the draw such as former players Pelé, Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini, Enrique Borja and Roger Milla, players of the time like Hong Myung-bo and Masami Ihara, women's football player Sun Wen, women's football referee Im Eun-ju, mountain climber Park Young-seok, actress Song Hye-kyo and chess player Cho Hoon-hyun.

Draw results and group fixtures

The draw resulted in the following eight groups:

In each group, the teams played three matches, one against each of the other teams. Victories were granted 3 points, while a draw was equal to 1 point. After completion of the group stage, the best two teams of each group advanced to the Round of 16 in the knockout stage, in a way so all group winners started out meeting a runner-up from one of the other groups. This format was identical with the tournament structure being used in 1998. A total of 64 games were played, including the final and a match for third place between the two semi-final losers.

Group F was considered the group of death as it brought together Argentina, England, Nigeria and Sweden.

The fixtures for the group stage were decided based on the draw results, as follows:

Group stage

All times are Korea Standard Time and Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

Groups A, B, C and D based in South Korea. Groups E, F, G and H based in Japan.

In the following tables:

• Pld = total games played
• W = total games won
• D = total games drawn (tied)
• L = total games lost
• GF = total goals scored (goals for)
• GA = total goals conceded (goals against)
• GD = goal difference (GF−GA)
• Pts = total points accumulated

The teams in the group play were ranked upon

• Points
• Greatest total goal difference in the three group matches
• Greatest number of goals scored in the three group matches
• Most points earned in matches against other teams in the tie
• Greatest goal difference in matches against other teams in the tie
• Greatest number of goals scored in matches against other teams in the tie
• Drawing of lots

In the original version of the rules for the final tournament, the ranking criteria were in a different order, with head-to-head results taking precedence over total goal difference. The rules were changed to the above in advance of the tournament, but older versions were still available on the FIFA and UEFA websites, causing some confusion among those trying to identify the correct criteria.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Knockout stage

For the second round, quarter-finals, and semi-finals, the qualifiers from Groups A, C, F, and H played their games in Japan while the qualifiers from Groups B, D, E, and G played their games in South Korea. Daegu, South Korea, hosted the match for third place while Yokohama, Japan, hosted the final.

Bracket

Round of 16

In the round of 16, Germany beat Paraguay 1–0 with a late goal by Oliver Neuville in Seogwipo. England defeated Denmark in Niigata 3–0, with all goals occurring in the first half of the game. Sweden and Senegal faced off in Ōita and finished 1–1 in regular time and it took a golden goal from Henri Camara in extra time to settle the game for Senegal 2–1, which led to Senegal becoming only the second African team to reach the last eight (after Cameroon in 1990). Spain and the Republic of Ireland played in Suwon, where Spain led most of the match 1–0 until a late penalty kick scored by Robbie Keane made the match go to extra time, where Spain emerged victorious in a penalty shoot-out. The United States beat CONCACAF rivals Mexico 2–0 in Jeonju with Brian McBride and Landon Donovan scoring the goals. Brazil defeated Belgium 2–0 in Kobe, with an amazing volley by Rivaldo and a splendid counter-attack goal by Ronaldo. Turkey ended co-hosts Japan's run with a 1–0 win in Miyagi, thanks to an Ümit Davala goal in the 12th minute. The other co-hosts, South Korea, defeated Italy 2–1 in extra time in Daejeon with a goal by Ahn Jung-hwan in the 117th minute. South Korea's win ensured that, for the very first time in the Cup's history, teams from five continents – Europe, North America, South America, Africa and Asia – reached the quarter-finals of the same tournament.

Quarter-finals

In the quarter-finals, England and Brazil squared off in Shizuoka, where Ronaldinho scored a free-kick goal over England's David Seaman early in the second half as Brazil won 2–1. The United States lost to Germany 1–0 in Ulsan by a Michael Ballack goal in the 39th minute, but controversy surrounded the game when United States demanded the referee give a penalty for a goal-line handball by Torsten Frings in the 49th minute, but the referee did not award the penalty. South Korea got another success in Gwangju in a controversial manner, overcoming Spain 5–3 on penalties after a 0–0 draw in which the Spaniards twice thought they had scored while onside; however, the efforts were disallowed by the referee with controversial decisions. The hosts became the first team in the Asian Football Confederation to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup, eclipsing the record of their North Korean counterparts who reached the quarter-finals in 1966. They also became the first World Cup semi-final team not from UEFA or CONMEBOL since the United States did it in the first World Cup in 1930. Turkey defeated Senegal 1–0 in Osaka, with a golden goal scored by İlhan Mansız in the 94th minute.

Semi-finals

The semi-finals saw two 1–0 games; the first semi-final, played in Seoul, saw Michael Ballack's goal suffice for Germany to eliminate South Korea. However, Ballack had already received a yellow card during the match before, which forced him to miss the final based on accumulated yellow cards. The next day in Saitama saw Ronaldo score a goal early in the second half, his sixth of the competition for Brazil, to defeat Turkey in a replay of their Group C encounter.

Match for third place

In the match for third place in Daegu, Turkey beat the South Koreans 3–2, their first goal coming from Hakan Şükür straight from the opening kick-off (even though South Korea kicked off) in 10.8 seconds, the fastest ever goal in World Cup history.

Final

In the final match held in Yokohama, Japan, two goals from Ronaldo secured the World Cup for Brazil as they claimed victory over Germany. Ronaldo scored twice in the second half and, after the game, won the Golden Shoe award for the tournament's leading scorer with eight goals. This was the fifth time Brazil had won the World Cup, cementing their status as the most successful national team in the history of the competition. Brazil became the only team since Argentina in 1986 to win the trophy without needing to win a penalty shoot-out at some stage during the knockout phase and the total number of penalty shoot-outs (2) was the lowest since the four-round knockout format was introduced in 1986. Brazil also became the first team to win every match at a World Cup since 1970 and set a new record for highest aggregate goal difference (+14) for a World Cup winner. Brazil's captain Cafu, who became the first player to appear in three successive World Cup finals, accepted the trophy on behalf of the team.

Statistics

Goalscorers

Ronaldo won the Golden Shoe after scoring eight goals. In total, 161 goals were scored by 109 players, with three of them credited as own goals. Two of those own goals were in the same match, marking the first time in FIFA World Cup history that own goals had been scored by both teams in the same match.

There were 161 goals scored in 64 matches, for an average of 2.52 goals per match.

8 goals

• Brazil national football team Ronaldo

5 goals

• Brazil national football team Rivaldo
• Germany national football team Miroslav Klose

4 goals

• Denmark national football team Jon Dahl Tomasson
• Italy national football team Christian Vieri

3 goals

• Belgium national football team Marc Wilmots
• Germany national football team Michael Ballack
• Republic of Ireland national football team Robbie Keane
• Portugal national football team Pauleta
• Spain national football team Fernando Morientes
• Spain national football team Raúl
• Senegal national football team Papa Bouba Diop
• Sweden men's national football team Henrik Larsson
• Turkey national football team İlhan Mansız

2 goals

• Brazil national football team Ronaldinho
• Costa Rica national football team Rónald Gómez
• England national football team Michael Owen
• Japan national football team Junichi Inamoto
• Mexico national football team Jared Borgetti
• Paraguay national football team Nelson Cuevas
• Senegal national football team Henri Camara
• South Korea national football team Ahn Jung-hwan
• Spain national football team Fernando Hierro
• Turkey national football team Ümit Davala
• Turkey national football team Hasan Şaş
• United States men's national soccer team Landon Donovan
• United States men's national soccer team Brian McBride

1 goal

• Argentina national football team Gabriel Batistuta
• Argentina national football team Hernán Crespo
• Belgium national football team Wesley Sonck
• Belgium national football team Peter Van Der Heyden
• Belgium national football team Johan Walem
• Brazil national football team Edmílson
• Brazil national football team Júnior
• Brazil national football team Roberto Carlos
• Cameroon national football team Samuel Eto'o
• Cameroon national football team Patrick M'Boma
• Costa Rica national football team Winston Parks
• Costa Rica national football team Paulo Wanchope
• Costa Rica national football team Mauricio Wright
• Croatia national football team Ivica Olić
• Croatia national football team Milan Rapaić
• Denmark national football team Dennis Rommedahl
• Ecuador national football team Agustín Delgado
• Ecuador national football team Édison Méndez
• England national football team David Beckham
• England national football team Sol Campbell
• England national football team Rio Ferdinand
• England national football team Emile Heskey
• Germany national football team Oliver Bierhoff
• Germany national football team Marco Bode
• Germany national football team Carsten Jancker
• Germany national football team Thomas Linke
• Germany national football team Oliver Neuville
• Germany national football team Bernd Schneider
• Italy national football team Alessandro Del Piero
• Japan national football team Hiroaki Morishima
• Japan national football team Hidetoshi Nakata
• Japan national football team Takayuki Suzuki
• Mexico national football team Cuauhtémoc Blanco
• Mexico national football team Gerardo Torrado
• Nigeria national football team Julius Aghahowa
• Paraguay national football team Francisco Arce
• Paraguay national football team Jorge Campos
• Paraguay national football team Roque Santa Cruz
• Poland national football team Paweł Kryszałowicz
• Poland national football team Emmanuel Olisadebe
• Poland national football team Marcin Żewłakow
• Portugal national football team Beto
• Portugal national football team Rui Costa
• Republic of Ireland national football team Gary Breen
• Republic of Ireland national football team Damien Duff
• Republic of Ireland national football team Matt Holland
• Russia national football team Vladimir Beschastnykh
• Russia national football team Valeri Karpin
• Russia national football team Dmitri Sychev
• Russia national football team Yegor Titov
• Senegal national football team Salif Diao
• Senegal national football team Khalilou Fadiga
• Slovenia national football team Milenko Ačimovič
• Slovenia national football team Sebastjan Cimirotič
• South Africa national soccer team Quinton Fortune
• South Africa national soccer team Benni McCarthy
• South Africa national soccer team Teboho Mokoena
• South Africa national soccer team Siyabonga Nomvethe
• South Africa national soccer team Lucas Radebe
• South Korea national football team Hwang Sun-hong
• South Korea national football team Lee Eul-yong
• South Korea national football team Park Ji-sung
• South Korea national football team Seol Ki-hyeon
• South Korea national football team Song Chong-gug
• South Korea national football team Yoo Sang-chul
• Spain national football team Gaizka Mendieta
• Spain national football team Juan Carlos Valerón
• Sweden men's national football team Niclas Alexandersson
• Sweden men's national football team Anders Svensson
• Tunisia national football team Raouf Bouzaiene
• Turkey national football team Emre Belözoğlu
• Turkey national football team Bülent Korkmaz
• Turkey national football team Hakan Şükür
• United States men's national soccer team Clint Mathis
• United States men's national soccer team John O'Brien
• Uruguay national football team Diego Forlán
• Uruguay national football team Richard Morales
• Uruguay national football team Álvaro Recoba
• Uruguay national football team Darío Rodríguez

1 own goal

• Portugal national football team Jorge Costa (against the United States)
• Spain national football team Carles Puyol (against Paraguay)
• United States men's national soccer team Jeff Agoos (against Portugal)

Source: FIFA

Disciplinary statistics

• Total number of yellow cards: 272
• Average yellow cards per match: 4.25
• Total number of red cards: 17
• Average red cards per match: 0.27
• First yellow card of the tournament: Emmanuel Petit for France against Senegal
• First red card of the tournament: Boris Živković for Croatia against Mexico
• Fastest yellow card from kick off: 2 minutes Henri Camara for Senegal against Uruguay, Jesús Arellano for Mexico against Italy
• Fastest yellow card after coming on as a substitute: 3 minutes Alberto García Aspe for Mexico against United States (introduced in the 78th minute)
• Latest yellow card in a match without extra time: 90+4 minutes Pape Thiaw for Senegal against Sweden
• Latest yellow card in a match with extra time: 115 minutes Choi Jin-cheul for South Korea against Italy
• Fastest dismissal from kick off: 22nd minute Carlos Paredes for Paraguay against Slovenia
• Fastest dismissal of a substitute: 12 minutes Shao Jiayi for China against Turkey (introduced in the 46th minute)
• Latest dismissal in a match without extra time: 90+4 minutes Hakan Ünsal for Turkey against Brazil
• Latest dismissal in a match with extra time: 103 minutes Francesco Totti for Italy against South Korea
• Shortest time difference between two yellow cards given to the same player: 3 minutes Carsten Ramelow for Germany against Cameroon (booked in the 37th minute and again in the 40th minute)
• Most yellow cards (team): 19 Turkey
• Most red cards (team): 2 Paraguay, Portugal, Turkey
• Fewest yellow cards (team): 2 Nigeria
• Most yellow cards (player): 3 Michael Ballack, Emre Belözoğlu, Beto, Tugay Kerimoğlu, Francesco Totti
• Most red cards (player): 1 Roberto Acuña, Beto, Claudio Caniggia, Nastja Čeh, Salif Diao, Thierry Henry, Rafael Márquez, Alpay Özalan, Carlos Paredes, João Pinto, Carsten Ramelow, Ronaldinho, Shao Jiayi, Patrick Suffo, Francesco Totti, Hakan Ünsal, Boris Živković
• Most yellow cards (match): 16 Cameroon vs Germany
• Most red cards (match): 2 Brazil vs Turkey, Cameroon vs Germany, Slovenia vs Paraguay, Portugal vs South Korea
• Fewest yellow cards (match): 0 Croatia vs Mexico, Germany vs Republic of Ireland, Nigeria vs England
• Most cards in one match: 16 yellow cards and 2 red cards Cameroon vs Germany

Awards

1Oliver Kahn is the only goalkeeper to have won the Golden Ball in FIFA World Cup history.

All-star team

Final standings

Per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.

Source: FIFA

(H) Hosts

Marketing

Sponsorship

The sponsors of the 2002 FIFA World Cup are divided into three categories: FIFA World Cup Sponsors and South Korea and Japan Suppliers.

Ticket sales problem

The original domestic ticket allocation had fully sold out and the organising committee completed sales of tickets returned from the international allocation by the end of April. However, there were a significant number of empty seats at the opening matches. It was gradually revealed that the World Cup Ticketing Bureau (WCTB) still had unsold tickets in its possession. After FIFA agreed to sell this inventory, JAWOC undertook sales over telephone and WCTB handled the internet sales. For the second round Japan vs. Turkey match in Miyagi in particular, although it was reported by both parties that all tickets had been sold, some 700 seats remained empty.

Symbols

Mascot

The official mascots of the 2002 World Cup were Ato, Kaz and Nik (the Spheriks), orange, purple and blue (respectively) futuristic CGI creatures. Playing their own version of soccer called Atmoball, Ato is the coach while Kaz and Nik are players. The three individual names were selected from shortlists by users on the Internet and at McDonald's outlets in the host countries.

Match ball

The official match ball was the Fevernova, manufactured by Adidas.

Music

The official song was "Boom". The official local song of this World Cup was "Let's Get Together Now". The official anthem was "Anthem".

Cultural event

The official FIFA cultural event of the 2002 World Cup was a flag festival called Poetry of the Winds. Held in Nanjicheon Park, an area of the World Cup Park close to Seoul World Cup Stadium, Poetry of the Winds was exhibited from 29 May to 25 June in order to wish success upon the World Cup and promote a festive atmosphere. During the flag art festival, hand-painted flags from global artists were displayed as a greeting to international guests in a manner that was designed to promote harmony.

Concerns

The World Cup was originally going to be hosted either in Japan or in South Korea, but in the end both rivals had decided to share the hosting duties thus making this World Cup the first to have multiple host nations. However, there were concerns regarding the selection of hosts due to logistical issues caused by fans traveling across two separate sovereign nations as well as whether some of the 20 stadiums to be constructed for the World Cup would be ready in time for it or not. While political and infrastructural problems were eventually overcome, there still remained the issue of East Asia's wet season which could disrupt the play. The timing of the tournament thus had been altered to mitigate as much as possible against such issues, with the tournament kicking off on May 31 and due to run until June 30, the earliest date for a World Cup final since 1986.

For European viewers, the time difference meant that matches were taking place in the local time morning, something viewers in Europe were not used to. Some schools and businesses chose to open late on match days or set up communal watching events before the start of work.

Economic impact

The tournament had a major economic impact on both South Korea and Japan, generating an estimated US$1.3billion in revenue. Spending from World Cup tourists in South Korea created US$307million in direct income and US$713million in valued added. Japan spent an estimated US$5.6billion on preparations for the event, which had a US$24.8billion impact on the Japanese economy and accounted for 0.6% of their GDP in 2002.

See also

• 2002 FIFA World Cup broadcasting rights
• Adidas Fevernova – match ball
• The Official Album of the 2002 FIFA World Cup

Notes

Reports

External links

• , FIFA.com
• (archived)
• and