Why shouldn’t North Korea be allowed to name just two goalkeepers for the World Cup? Or one? Or even none?
Why shouldn’t they be allowed to name 23 strikers if they so desire?
Governing body FIFA’s rule on mandatory goalkeeper numbers smacks of heavy-handedness and over-regulation.
Strike power is a big issue for the North Koreans (and we’re talking football here, not nukes).
So coach Kim-Jong Hun named only two keepers in his squad, with striker Kim Myong-Won listed as the third.
FIFA then delivered a body blow to the North Koreans by insisting Kim can only play as a keeper.
The three listed goalies must play between the sticks, according to FIFA rules.
They cannot play in outfield positions.
It is now too late to change the squad.
The North Koreans are making only their second appearance at the finals.
They raised eyebrows on debut in 1966 in England, a tournament they reached by defeating Australia.
They drew with Chile 1-1 and stunned Italy 1-0 to reach the quarter-finals, where they led Portugal 3-0 before the great Eusebio rescued his country with four goals in a 5-3 triumph.
FIFA’s tough edict is unlikely to affect the outcome of Group G at the 2010 World Cup, as the North Koreans are rank outsiders up against five-time champions Brazil, Ivory Coast and Portugal.
Nonetheless, it seems odd that FIFA should want to meddle in team selections.
Imagine FIFA trying to tell the Socceroos that Harry Kewell couldn’t play as a defender if he was listed as a forward.
That’s exactly what he did once last year for his Turkish club Galatasaray.
Dave
Guest
From what I understand, in the past teams at the World Cup had 22 players, two of whom were goalkeepers. But it was decided that it would be preferable for teams to have a third keeper, as this is the one position on the pitch where specialists are needed and injuries can cause the most damage. So FIFA decided to allow teams one extra keeper. In this case FIFA aren't being draconian. They're simply asking North Korea, like all teams, to comply with the rule that you have a squad of 20 outfield players and 3 keepers. Allowing them to use the extra place intended for a third goalkeeper for an additional outfield player would be breaking the spirit of the rule and giving them an unfair advantage.
msd2
Guest
Huh? Every team in the WC gets 20 outfield players and 3 goalkeepers. That's the rule and everyone knows it (yes, including Nth Korea's FA). It's not "meddling", it's not a "tough edict" it's just a very simple rule that the officials sneakily tried to get around. Outfield players can play anywhere so if they wanted to take twenty strikers to the WC then they were completely free to do so. All they had to do was select them - like everyone else! And if they want to take that striker then they still can, all they have to do is say someone else is sick. (Considering how often the entire team comes down with govt-sanctioned "food poisoning" that shouldn't be too hard). Also, squads used to consist of 20 players and 2 goalkeepers but the third goalkeeper - yes, specifically a goalkeeper - was added in case some dire catastrophe befell the first two, bringing the total players allowed to 23. I get that you're trying not to play" let's laugh at Nth Korea" like everyone else but you picked the wrong officials to stick up for. Feel sympathy for the downtrodden citizens or the individual players if you like but don't treat the whole country as a cute, fuzzy underdog. It's not a poor struggling democracy that everyone should root for. It's a big, nasty military dictatorship with one of the worst human rights records in the world. Any WC success by the team is going to be used as a propaganda tool to prop up an unhinged despot. Although, there's absolutely no freedom of press in Nth Korea so officials will probably tell everyone they won the whole thing anyway....
Aka
Guest
As far as I know - If they want they can bring 23 strikers just that 3 of them can only play if they are designated as the goalkeeper. So obviously only one of the three could be on the pitch at one time. And there is nothing stopping the goalkeeper playing outfield if you don't want anyone between the sticks that's able to use their hands. It's a long bow to suggest that FIFA have meddled in North Korea's team selection. They've merely enforced a rule.
Chris
Guest
It's not outrageous at all. It's very simple, the squad is 23 players of which 3 must be keepers, not really that hard a thing to comply with. Every other team complies with that, why shouldn't North Korea? Considering it's pretty much guaranteed that every single squad picked for the World Cup will have players that won't play at all in their 3 group games other than keepers, including North Korea, so if they needed this guy in the squad so badly, then it should have been at the expense of one of the other fringe players. I'm sure if they were allowed to only bring 2 keepers, many countries would have only picked 2 keepers and picked an extra outfield player in the 23, but the rules said 3 keepers so every other country abided by those rules.