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| FIFA President Gianni Infantino, left, shakes hands with Kim Jang-san, secretary general of North Korean Football Association, upon his arrival at Pyongyang international airport in Pyongyang on October 15, 2019. AFP-Yonhap |
FIFA President Gianni Infantino traveled to Pyongyang this week hoping to see a packed house for a monumental inter-Korean match in the World Cup qualifying campaign.
He came away, in his own words, "disappointed" that there were no spectators.
South Korea and North Korea played a scoreless draw before empty seats at Kim Il-sung Stadium in Pyongyang on Tuesday, as part of the second round of the Asian qualifying for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. It was the first competitive match in Pyongyang between the Koreas and their first meeting in the North Korean capital since a friendly in 1990.
Though the match was expected to draw up to 40,000 fans, North Korea, for reasons yet unknown, kept the doors shut to the public. There was also no live broadcast of the match in South Korea, and North Korea didn't authorize trips by South Korean journalists. Only Infantino and a few other football officials and foreign diplomats were on hand, and non-Korean foreign journalists were also denied access.
"I was looking forward to seeing a full stadium for such a historic match but was disappointed to see there were no fans in the stands," Infantino told FIFA.com. "We were surprised by this and by several issues related to its live broadcast and problems with visas and access for foreign journalists. For us, freedom of the press and freedom of speech are obviously paramount, but on the other hand it would be naive to think we can change the world from one minute to the next."
Infantino added: "We raised these questions with the local association and we will certainly keep pushing so that football can have a positive influence in Korea DPR (North Korea) and other countries around the world." (Yonhap)
