Senegal player held over gold necklace
Yonhap national news agency said Khalilou Fadiga allegedly took the necklace while the owner of the store in the southern city of Daegu was talking with other customers.
Police detained the player after the owner carried out an inventory check and alerted the authorities.
According to Yonhap, the player admitted the offence and will face proceedings but was released without being formally arrested.
The team and Daegu police were not immediately available for comment. Senegal play reigning champions France on Friday.
* KIM YOUNG-JOO will fulfil his lifetime ambition when he becomes the first South Korean to referee a Word Cup match.
The 45-year-old who has had to wait until his 15th and last year as a referee to earn the honour, will take charge of the game between Brazil and Turkey on June 3 in Ulsan, South Korea.
"It's glorious to attend the World Cup games as I close a chapter of my career as a referee" Kim said in an interview. (The appointment) is evidence that the standing of Korea's football in the world has upgraded one step further"
But Kim knows the May 31-June 30 tournament, which South Korea is co-hosting with Japan, will be difficult to officiate. "It's a tough job," Kim said. "If a referee makes any mistake, he soon becomes the enemy of everyone."
* THE soccer-loving Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Church of England, has given his blessing to clergy who want to move church times on Sunday to avoid a clash with England's first World Cup match.
"Worship comes first of course, but this comes round only every four years so we can afford to be flexible," the Archbishop, George Carey, said.
Some clergy have written hymns for the occasion while at least one has hired a big screen for the vicarage lawn so parishioners do not have to choose between God and country. Sunday' match against Sweden kicks off at 10.30am.
The Archbishop, a keen supporter of Arsenal, will still have to miss the match because he must attend the one service in the country that cannot be moved - a celebration at Windsor of Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee.
* A SOUTH KOREAN farmer is donating his first rice crop of the season to the national soccer team to help them in their quest to reach the last 16 of the World Cup finals.
"A bowl of rice invigorates, a proverb says ... After they eat this new rice and get strong, I hope they can make it into the quarter-finals," Choi Young-tack told reporters.
The South Korean team have never made it past the first round, but after a string of encouraging performances in friendly matches there is a growing belief that the team will make it through this time.
* MORE than a third of England's male supporters will refrain from having sex the night before their side play in the World Cup, a survey reported.
In a poll answered by 3,000 male fans, 365 said they would abstain ahead of a big match.
The same poll, carried out for Umbro.com found 45% wore a lucky shirt for matches.
However, just 4% said they would not wash their shirt after a good result but one man said he intended to wear the same pair of underpants for the entire, month-long, tournament.
Consultant psychologist Sidney Crown said: "It is not unusual for people to have superstitions and most of them are very harmless."
* CIVIL servants in football-crazed Brazil won't have to start work until midday during the World Cup, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso announced yesterday.
With games scheduled for 0300, 0600, and 0800 local time, Cardoso has changed the normal working day of 1000-1700 to midday until 1900 to allow 486,000 workers in federal administration sectors to see their heroes in action.
Brazil - the four time champions - kick off their campaign with a match against Turkey on June 3, and President Cardoso has sent a good luck telegram to the team.
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