National 11 (Spotlight Weekly)

Fever Catches Up

With the 2002 FIFA World Cup less than a week away, momentum is building among Nepalese fans

By SANJAYA DHAKAL

Have you watched NTV at around news hour these days? If you have, then you must have noticed how much hype the advertisements are creating about the forthcoming FIFA World Cup due to be held in Korea-Japan.

From soft drinks to noodles and from tea to toffees, each have borrowed the same theme of introducing schemes based on the tournament and the popularity of the game. They are all trying to cash in the game's popularity among Nepalese consumers.

Football is arguably the most favorite sports in the country. Cutting across the political and social divide, people are boisterously discussing the football and the likely outcomes.

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Which team will win this time? Will the Brazilians win for the fifth time? Or is it Argentina whose fortune is better? What about France's chance of retaining the title? And the Azzuris of Italy, do they stand any chance?

These are the recurring themes of tea-shop gossips at every alley, every street these days. Taking time out from the gory violence and bitter politics in the country, the Nepalese football fans are discussing their favorite sports. It is not a coincident that of late the crowd of players in Tundikhel and other playgrounds available have began to swell.

This time the World Cup is being hosted closer home. For the first time in history, the game is being played in Asian soil being jointly hosted by Korea and Japan. Unlike previous years, the time of live telecast this time falls on afternoon and evening. "It is both good and bad. While the office-goers will have trouble viewing them, unemployed youths like us are going to have a wonderful time the whole of next one month," said Krishna Gurung, an avid football fan.

Nepal Television (NTV) will be showing all of the games starting from May 31 until June 30. The opening game will be held between France and Senegal in Seoul, South Korea. In total, 32 countries will participate in the game, including four from Asia. China is making its first appearance in the tournament this year. Apart from co-hosts Japan and Korea, another Asian team participating is the Saudi Arabia. As usual, observers believe that this year too the tournament will be won by one of the old favorites from among Brazil, Argentina, England, Germany, France and Italy.

This year, for the first time in the country a private sector has bought television rights to the world cup. Ad Avenues agency has bagged the rights from German media giant KirchMedia for Rs. 25 million. The agency bagged the right after the state-owned NTV backed out citing high costs.

Until previous years, FIFA used to provide the right to regional broadcasting unions which, in turn, used to provide right to national television charging proportional costs. However, this time, the federation sold the rights to the private sector. Given the poor economic condition and declining financial activities in the country, the agency is finding hard to recover its costs. "It is my intention to just reach break even this year," said Bhaskar Rajkarnicar, chief of the agency, adding that he has already received pledges to recover 80 percent of the cost. His agency also holds the television rights for the 2006 FIFA World Cup for the Kingdom of Nepal.

Although World Cup seems quite far away for Nepalese footballers, they can at least have a close look on the techniques and strategies the best teams in the world apply and learn from it.