March 31 - South Korea has revealed more details of its proposal to host matches in North Korea if its bid to host the 2022 World Cup is successful - a plan first revealed on insideworldfootball last December.
Han Sung-joo, the chairman of South Korea’s bid, had first announced details that they hoped to stage matches across the divided peninsula in the hope that it would boost the peace process in the region.
Han told Reuters today: ”It [hosting the World Cup] will contribute greatly to not only the football game itself but to the international situation in and around the Korean peninsula.
“We have plans to arrange a couple of games, maybe two or three games to be played in the northern part of Korea.
“We don’t know exactly what the situation will be by the year 2022, we might be a unified country or we might still be a divided country, either way it will be a good opportunity to bring North Korea into the mainstream of the world and it will contribute good relations between north and south.”
The hosting of World Cup matches would help the impoverished North, who will play in their first World Cup finals for 44 years in June.
North Korea has come under mounting pressure to end a more than one-year boycott of international talks to end its efforts to build a nuclear arsenal.
The tensions have spread to the football sides after the South beat the North 1-0 in a World Cup qualifier last year.
North Korea complained to world governing body FIFA that their players had suffered vomiting, diarrhoea and headaches as a result of poisoning by their hosts, a claim rejected by South Korea.
Han admitted that the proposal was very much still on the drawing board.
He said: ”We have not discussed this matter in any official way and I don’t expect the North Korean football people to be able to say anything authoritative about this but we will have plenty of time between this year and 2022 regarding the collaboration.”
Earlier this month South Korea revealed that 14 stadiums in 12 cities would form the basis of their bid.
The North Eastern city of Cheonan and Goyang, located on the borders of Seoul, join the 10 cities - Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Incheon, Gwangju, Daejeon, Ulsan, Suwon, Jeonju and Jeju - that hosted World Cup matches in 2002, when South Korea co-hosted the tournament with Japan.
There were applications from 15 cities to host mathces but Pohang, Cheongju and Muan were not chosen.
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