Between 10 June and 12 July, billions of soccer fans around the world will tune their TV sets to the 64-match World Cup, the biggest sporting event there is. Because it only comes around every four years (France is hosting the 1998 edition), this will be the first Cup held since the Web became a mass medium. The international soccer community has enthusiastically tackled the challenge of transferring the coverage of the sport, and the Cup, to the Web.
If the online success of the last quadrennial world sporting event is any indicator, the official France '98 site is in for a hammering. The Winter Olympic Games, held in Nagano, Japan, earlier this year, attracted around 650 million hits to its official site. That's more than three times the hit rate received for the '96 Summer Games in Atlanta. At one point on Nagano's 14th day, the site registered an astounding 103,429 hits a minute.
The France '98 site is overflowing with information about the Cup, from the latest news to the story behind the official mascot, Footix the rooster. Visitors can check out the venues and teams, enter a trivia contest, or find the results and stats they're after.
There was a time (briefly and in the seemingly distant past) when the site offered information on ticket sales. Unfortunately, we can't all take time out to visit France, and anyway, they sold out long ago. Your best bet is to visit a local pub's site and buy tickets to its TV showing of the grand final. San Francisco's Mad Dog in the Fog, for example, is screening every game live, and will serve breakfast to the spectators. Tifo-net's rainbow-colored offering includes Cup television guides for several countries, including the US, Canada, England, and Italy.
Broadcast.com's World Cup Radio reckons "the stadiums have ears," but they can't run live game broadcasts, because FIFA (Federation Internationales de Football Association) and the European Broadcasting Union don't allow it. Still, Broadcast.com visitors can hear general Cup news from the BBC (the British broadcaster's own site is one of the best for up-to-the-minute coverage and video clips), Radio Jamaica, Florian Kemph, and World Media Live's World Cup Cafe.
World Cup Cafe is racier-looking and easier to navigate than France '98. Try the spot-the-ball game, or take in wallpaper like this quote of the day: "'We are a little behind in our preparations,' [said] Victor Ikpeba on Nigeria's disastrous World Cup warm-up, in which they have conceded 12 goals in their last three games."
Speaking of goals, Kgoal is a service that will email you every time a goal is scored during the Cup. World Cup France 98's downloadable desktop ticker can help the Cup intrude on your life even more.
Soccernet is the most popular general soccer site and indeed the second most popular sport site worldwide (along with CBS Sportsline and its other sister sites, after the ESPN Sportzone stable), according to 100hot.com Sports. The UK-based super-site has joined forces with Sportsline and the UK Daily Mail to present its comprehensive Cup coverage, which again includes news, background, stats, and live chats. You might want to click the the arcade link and try the Donkey Kong-like game, where you have to avoid the rolling soccer balls. Soccernet's hit peak prior to the World Cup was around 800,000, though it averages around 100,000 a day outside major events.
Solitary sports fans can even have a singular celebration, with a case of bubbly purchased via the official France '98 champagne site, after which you can post your bragging at rec.sport.soccer.
