FIFA impressed with South Korea as WC visits continue

FIFA’s inspection team have admitted they are very impressed with the 2022 World Cup bid of South Korea.

World Cup visits are currently taking place with a five-man delegation in Asia to visit Japan (last week), South Korea (from Thursday until Monday) and Australia (this week) to get a stronger gauge of the possible bid winners for the event in 12 years time.

Inspection team chief, Harold Mayne-Nicholls, said he was very taken with what the Sotuh Koreans were doing.

"Despite the short amount of time that we stayed, we could check all we needed - training sites, hotels, convention centres, stadiums, airports, new technology,'' said Mayne-Nicholls. "We had a chance to learn a lot about the history and future of Korea and the challenges for the future, the people who have helped and the president Lee Myung-Bak, who gave all his support for the 2022 World Cup and treated us in a very friendly way.

"But mostly we learned that your well-structured bidding campaign is based on the message we all need - peace for everyone.

"After eight years (following the joint World Cup in Japan and South Korea in 2002), I was able to see the legacy of the World Cup is not only in the stadium but seems to be in everybody in this country,'' he added. "The iconic fan-fest site in Seoul plaza is not only a tradition in Korea but also all over the world. Everywhere we went, the people are really passionate about football.

"Coming back to the stadiums, the maintenance of them gave us a good impression and the passion for the game seems to be growing every day.''