-- Officials of soccer's world governing body FIFA in charge of the 2002 World Cup agreed Thursday to reject "Japan-Korea" as the proper name order in Japanese for next year's event to be cohosted by Japan and South Korea.
Japan's World Cup organizing committee (JAWOC) announced in Tokyo that it had received approval from FIFA to refer to the event, being cohosted for the first time, simply as the "2002 FIFA World Cup" in Japanese.
Japan and South Korea agreed in 1996, when they were both awarded the right to host the first World Cup finals in Asia, to refer to the tournament as "2002 FIFA World Cup Korea-Japan."
A disagreement over the order of names for soccer's premier event came to light this winter after Japan had decided to use "Japan-Korea" on its ticket application forms to be distributed in February.
Millions after tickets
The Japanese World Cup Organizing Committee said on Thursday it has received approximately 1.74 million mail-in applications for the first release of the 2002 World Cup tickets from residents in Japan.
During the application period from Feb. 15 to March 14, JAWOC has received 1,545,640 applications both from the general public and wheelchair users and 195,360 from residents in the 10 cities hosting World Cup matches.
The Japanese committee is expecting more mail-in applications to be delivered on Friday.
The second phase of the ticket sales is expected to be held next January.
The South Korean Organizing Committee, meanwhile, has received 1.03 million applications for the first release of 230,000 tickets. Some 192,000 fans applied for tickets for the opening match, AFP reported on Thursday.