Opening ceremony of Junior World Cup
Egypt, Sports, 9/6/1997

A feature of the Junior World Cup is that each group of teams will have their opening ceremony in the respective cities where they are scheduled to play. Brazil, Oman the United States of America and Austria (group C) will take part in the opening ceremony in Alexandria. Thailand, Egypt, Chile and Germany (group A) will go through the rituals in Cairo. Mali, New-Zealand, Mexico and Spain (group B) will have their ceremony in Ismailys and group D contenders Argentina, Ghana, Bahrain and Costa Rica will parade at port Said.


Some problems in Port Said: the inaugural ceremony here has run into some problems. While the ceremony had been fixed for 1 p.m., the opening match between Argentina and Ghana is scheduled for a 1.45 p.m. kick off. But the inaugural, scheduled for Friday, clashes with the Guma prayers. The organizers, consequently, have requested FIFA to delay the opening for an hour.

The Argentinian head coach is of the view that one of his forwards, Santos Jeliormo is in the same class as superstar Diego Maradona. Though some say his style of play is similar, Santos says he is not trying to ape Maradona.

"Each player has got his own style, and I cannot help it if some of my traits happen to be identical to those of Maradona. Of course, I have the highest regard for him, coming as he does from my country," Santos said.

Bahrain's head coach Ameen Aziz is keen on keeping his training sessions under wraps. He is especially scared of the media. He is of the opinion that media presence during his team's workouts will distract the players.

Keeping this in mind, Ameen said he has requested that organizers arrange his team's training sessions for 7 a.m.

The introduction of a third umpire is one of the salient features of the junior world cup. Any dispute about goals will be referred to the third umpire, subject to the referee's approval. But most of the teams' managers have refused to comment on the introduction of the third umpire, a concept popularized by cricket.

Argentina, who had complained to FIFA that they haven't had much practice, were finally made happy when they were given a warm-up game against a local team, Marikh. Argentina looked woefully out of synch as they barely managed to win 1-0.

The Egyptian TV will run a daily contest on match days where the viewers will be asked to predict the outcomes of the matches. The contests will be held in the morning and afternoon, and the names of winners will be announced at end of the day. The winners will be awarded prizes.

The medical committee, headed by Dr. Salah Eid Egypt, held deliberations relating to player safety, referees, coaches and administrators and the media. Efforts are underway to station more ambulances at the venues. A doctor will accompany each team in addition to team's special doctor, even during training sessions.

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