Preliminaries for 2002 World Cup start

Three billion Asians will be struck with World Cup fever from Nov. 24.

The Asian continent, with the largest population on the globe, will kick off preliminaries for the 2002 World Cup finals to be co-hosted by Korea and Japan with the opener between Iran and Guam.

A total of 38 countries will be divided into 10 pools for the first-round preliminaries, with 2.5 tickets at stake.

The winners of each group will be divided in two pools for the second-round preliminaries to get tickets for the world soccer extravaganza, which will be held in Asia for the first time.

Organizers from Korea and Japan are most concerned over whether China will qualify as it neighbors the co-hosting nations and the popularity of soccer is literally explosive there.

China's first-ever competition in the World Cup in either Korea or Japan is expected to ensure good profits for the co-hosts.

China, whose soccer level has improved remarkably of late, is grouped with Cambodia, Indonesia and the Maldives, and is expected to cruise into the second round match with little difficulty. It is anticipated to compete with Saudi Arabia and Iran for a berth in the soccer festival.