Chinese football fans had reason to celebrate yesterday when
they set eyes for the first time on the real pure-gold World Cup
Trophy. Previous "trophies" that made their rounds in China in 1998
and 2002 were, sadly, only replicas.
"It is the real one that will be presented to the winners of the
2006 World Cup," said FIFA spokesman Emmanuel Maradas, quelling
doubts that this might have been another replica.
"The FIFA World Cup Trophy is on a tour of 28 countries on all
five continents because it belongs to everyone, and because it
brings happiness to everyone." The tour, which began in January and
ends in April, is organized by Coca-Cola and FIFA.
Hundreds of thousands of football fanatics swarmed Peking University yesterday where
the trophy is on display, demonstrating that the magic of football
isn't confined to the pitch and terraces.
The trophy leaves for Sydney, Australia, today.
The trophy tour is part of a campaign to rouse interest and
raise energy levels for the 2006 tournament in Germany, scheduled
to take place in less than three months.
"I just cannot wait to watch the matches!" said Fan Jing, a
25-year-old woman from Beijing.
Du Yuanbo, a student from Peking University, was overjoyed to
see the trophy "in the flesh".
"I was so excited when the trophy was unveiled in front of us,"
Du said. "It reminded me of 2002 when I watched Brazil pick up the
trophy on TV."
At the exhibition, fans were also treated to a specially created
short feature film about the trophy.
However, they would have to be contented for the moment with
just seeing, and not touching, the trophy. For China football - the
team failed to qualify for Germany - the dream of winning the World
Cup is still far away.
"There is a long, long way to go. I just hope the trophy's
presence in Beijing will whet the appetite of football lovers,"
said Nan Yong, vice-president of China Football Association. "And
also encourage everyone to unite and work harder to guide China's
football team into the 2010 finals."
(China Daily March 16, 2006)
