Seoul- South Korea (PANA) -- Senegal's national football team was in a determined mood Thursday as the players waited to kick off the 2002 World Cup tournament against France. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- South Africa's national football team coach Jomo Sono has said he will name the Bafana Bafana side which will play against Paraguay a day before Sunday's first Group B World Cup game. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- The reappointment of Joseph Sepp Blatter as President of FIFA has been welcomed in South Africa which hopes to host the 2010 World Cup. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenyans have welcomed the re-election of Joseph Sepp Blatter as FIFA president, saying he is the right man for the job. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- For the past several months lovers of the world's most popular sport, football, have been torn between the devil and the deep blue sea. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- US tennis star Serena Williams, number three seed at the Roland Garros tennis tournament in France, distinguished herself Wednesday during her first qualifying match for the second round by sporting a dress with Cameroon's national colours. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- A senior Zimbabwe football official Wednesday welcomed the re-election of Sepp Blatter as FIFA president, saying this was good for the development of football on the continent. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Two days ahead of the opening match of the 2002 World Cup, pitting cupholder France against newcomer Senegal, predictions are flying around in Dakar where football fans say their team will give "hell" to the Frenchmen. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The Senegalese press Wednesday focused their comments on theft allegations levelled against footballer Khalilou Fadiga, saying the development was meant to destabilise the Senegalese football squad. Full text...

Yaounde- Cameroon (PANA) -- Cameroonians were in shock Wednesday over the re-election of FIFA President Joseph Blatter, at the expense of their compatriot and CAF President Issa Hayatou, during FIFA's 53rd Congress in Seoul, South Korea. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Soccer fans and TV watchers in Zambia have won a windfall ahead of the opening game of the World Cup tournament on Friday in Seoul, South Korea. Full text...

Niigata- Japan (PANA) -- Former ace Cameroonian goalkeeper Thomas Nkono, currently the "Indomitable Lions" assistant coach, has stressed the importance of a victory during his national football team's first World Cup match against Ireland on Saturday. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigerians Wednesday hailed the re-election of FIFA President Joseph Sepp Blatter saying it would further boost the development of African football. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Several Zambian soccer administrators Wednesday welcomed the re-election of FIFA president Sepp Blatter with a landslide at the 53rd ordinary congress of the world soccer governing body in Seoul, South Korea. Full text...

Seoul- Korea (PANA) -- Joseph Sepp Blatter was Wednesday re- elected president of FIFA for another four-year term during the world football governing body's 53rd Congress in Seoul, Korea. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- Senegal's Boubacar "Locotte" Sarr, who is the assistant coach of Paris Saint Germain, has declared that Senegal has the potential to advance to the second round of the World Cup finals starting Friday in Seoul, South Korea. Full text...

Tunis- Tunisia (PANA) -- Zoubeir Beya, midfielder of the Tunisian football squad which qualified for World Cup 2002, is indisputably a driving force behind his team. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- When Cameroon's Issa Hayatou announced his interest in gunning for the FIFA presidency earlier in the year, many thought he would enjoy the support of the entire African continent. Full text...

Daegu- South Korea (PANA) -- One of Senegal's players, Khalilou Fadiga, was reportedly questioned by South Korean police over a missing necklace in a shop in Daegu, the city where the Senegalese team has been based since their arrival in the country, police sources said. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- South Africa's national football team arrived Tuesday in Busan city, South Korea in a buoyant mood ahead of their World Cup opener against Paraguay on Sunday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Owning a television set has become a risky affair in certain parts of Nairobi ahead of the 2002 FIFA World Cup finals kicking-off in Seoul, South Korea on Friday. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- Three African countries will not have the right to vote during the election for the president of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), scheduled to be held Wednesday in Seoul, South Korea. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigeria's power monopoly NEPA has assured Nigerian soccer fans of steady power supply to enable them watch matches during the 2002 FIFA World Cup finals kicking- off Friday, especially those involving the national soccer side. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Embattled Kenya Football Federation (KFF) chairman Maina Kariuki and secretary Hussein Swaleh have flown to South Korea for Wednesday's FIFA presidential election despite last week's dissolution of the federation by the government. Full text...

Wakoyama- Japan (PANA) -- The Danish national football team beat its Tunisian counterpart 2-1 Sunday in Wakoyama in a friendly encounter ahead of the World Cup finals starting Friday. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- A Catholic Church in Nigeria's commercial city of Lagos has cancelled one of its four services for Sunday 2 June, so that parishioners can watch the telecast of the Super Eagles' opening match against Argentina in the 2002 World Cup, the local press reported Monday. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has written a letter to members of the country's national soccer squad "to cheer them up" ahead of the 2002 World Cup starting on Friday. Full text...

Tunis- Tunisia (PANA) -- Tunisian striker Zied Jaziri who celebrates his 24th anniversary in July, has imposed himself as one of the key elements of the Tunisian football team currently preparing for the second consecutive participation in the FIFA World Cup finals. Full text...

Tokyo- Japan (PANA) -- Cameroon's prolific scorer Patrick Mboma, out of action since suffering an injury during the 2002 Africa Cup of Nations finals in Mali, resurfaced Sunday at a World Cup warm-up tie with England, in which the two countries drew 2-2. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- With five days to the start of the 2002 World Cup, Nigerian newspapers are devoting their entire sports pages to the global competition, being co-hosted by South Korea and Japan. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigerian forward Bartholomew Ogbeche, who will be 17 in October, will be the youngest player featuring in the 2002 World Cup when the competition kicks-off next Friday, according to a list released by International Association of Football Federations (FIFA). Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Cameroon Saturday nearly defeated England in a warm-up match in Japan before the World Cup tournament which begins on Friday in Seoul, South Korea. Full text...

Gaborone- Botswana (PANA) -- A Moswana woman has won an all expenses paid trip to South Korea to watch the 2002 FIFA World Cup finals kicking-off next Friday. Full text...

Kashihara- Japan (PANA) -- Tunisian national football players on Friday briefly interrupted their preparations the 2002 World Cup finals to vote in their country's constitutional referendum. Full text...

Nakatsue- Japan (PANA) -- Cameroon's striker Samuel Eto'o Fils scored his national soccer team's lone goal Friday as the 'Indomitable Lions' played a warm-up match at Nakatsue village in southern Japan. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- World Cup-bound Senegal and South Africa Thursday beat their counterparts from Ecuador and Turkey respectively, in warm-up matches ahead of the global soccer championship kicking off 31 May in Seoul, South Korea. Full text...

Nouakchott- Mauritania (PANA) -- Mauritania has declared its support for the candidature of Cameroon's Issa Hayatou, president of the African Football Confederation, who is gunning for the presidency of world football body FIFA, official sources affirmed in Nouakchott on Thursday. Full text...

London- UK (PANA) -- The Irish hopes for a remarkable performance at the World Cup this year have been dented by an announcement Thursday that Skipper Roy Keanne is out of the squad and is heading back for Ireland following a series of arguments with management and the coaches over training facilities. Full text...

Tunis- Tunisia (PANA) -- The Japanese first division team of Gamba Osaka Thursday whacked the Tunisian national football 0-3 in a friendly tie ahead of the World Cup finals starting next week in Japan and Korea. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The Mauritanian Football Association would be voting for the Confederation of African Football (CAF) President, Issa Hayatou at the FIFA presidential elections, CAF said in a release Thursday. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Governor Lucky Igbinedion of Nigeria's midwestern state of Edo has been named to lead a 13-member federal government delegation to the 2002 World Cup to be co-hosted by South Korea and Japan from 31 May to 30 June. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya, (PANA) -- Gripped by the expected excitement that comes with each World Cup tournament, Kenyan fans are increasingly getting engrossed in intense lobbying, and betting their way on the performances of teams and players as curtains go up in this year's football extravaganza in Japan and South Korea, come 31 May. Full text...

Yaounde- Cameroon (PANA) -- Cameroonian national soccer team players received each 30 million FCFA (about 41,000 USD) before accepting to board the plane in Paris Tuesday night for the World Cup finals in Japan, the state-owned daily 'Cameroon Tribune' reported Wednesday. Full text...

Nakatsue- Japan (PANA) -- Cameroon's 'Indomitable Lions,' the African soccer champions, will camp at a village in Oita Prefecture, southern Japan for their final preparations before the 2002 FIFA World Cup finals kicking off 31 May. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Raising the obsession with soccer in the country to a new height, a Nigerian businessman has promised the country's national team 100,000 pounds sterling, if it beats Argentina in their 2002 World Cup first match 2 June, the daily Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Ahead of the 2002 World Cup, Nigerian head coach Adegboye Onigbinde has put three players on standby to replace ailing defender Celestine Babayaro, according to Taiwo Ogunjobi, the secretary-general of the Nigeria Football Association in Lagos. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- Bafana Bafana defender Mathew Booth, has been de-camped in Hong Kong after sustaining a knee injury during the South African national football team's training session Tuesday, the press reported Wednesday. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- Visa International on Tuesday announced that it was renewing its highly successful Rugby World Cup sponsorship as an Official Worldwide Partner and official payment service. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigerian sports analysts, fans and players are divided over the country's 2002 soccer World Cup team, announced in London Sunday by head coach Adegboye Onigbinde. Full text...

Yaounde- Cameroon (PANA) -- Cameroon has named a 23-member team for the 2002 World Cup, largely the same squad that won the last African Cup of Nations title in Mali. Full text...