MEDIA RELEASE

Monday 14 June 1999

Embargoed until 8.25pm

FIFA Matches Will Boost Kiwi Football Profile, Says PM

New Zealand will host a world-class sporting event when the finals of the FIFA Under-17 Championship are played here this year, Prime Minister Jenny Shipley said today.

Mrs Shipley was the guest at the announcement of the draw of matches for the championship in Auckland this evening.

"They say soccer is the beautiful game and this will be a beautiful opportunity for New Zealand.

"The country will be exposed to the vast international football-viewing television audience. That can only be good, not only for the development of the game here but for the country itself. This is a yet another world-wide stage for New Zealand."

Four New Zealand cities will host the matches: North Shore (Auckland), Napier, Christchurch and Dunedin.

"I urge any New Zealanders who can, to go along to these games and see young players from around the world striving for excellence," said Mrs Shipley.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>