MARSEILLE: With a local pastor as referee, bride and groom played twin strikers with six witnesses sharing midfield and defence at the first World Cup wedding here. In the Stade Velodrome changing rooms, Brazilian and Norwegian players were lacing up their boots for yesterday's World Cup match. Out on the pitch, Rose Angela de Souza from Brazil and Oivind Ekeland from Norway were getting married an hour before the game - he in morning suit and top hat, she in formal white wedding gown. Ekeland, 28, and de Souza, 29, have lived together in Stavanger, Norway, for eight years. Their five-year-old daughter Christine was in charge of the rings. "We're both mad about football. We've opened a Sports Bar to welcome the fans of our local team," said Ekeland.When Brazil and Norway were drawn in the same World Cup group last December, the couple decided it would be nice to seal their love match ahead of the soccer match. Cup organisers thought they were joking and FIFA sniffed and said `no.' But, softies thatthey are, they thought it over and eventually gave the on-pitch nuptials their blessing. In fact, they took to the idea so much that they produced a six-page publicity schedule for the press, gathered to watch Brazil.Veterans for injured gendarmeFormer French and German internationals will stage a benefit match for the French gendarme fighting for his life in a Lille hospital, after he was attacked by German hooligans in Lens where Germany played Yugoslavia. The match will take place before the World Cup final at the Colombes stadium in Paris.Old fan gets samba ticketJean Decugis, aged 85, watched from the stands the Brazil vs Italy and Italy vs Norway games in the first World Cup finals France staged in 1938. Fifty years later he was back for Brazil's Group C final match against Norway. Decugis, now handicapped, had failed in his search for a ticket for the game until supporters of Marseille Club heard of his plight. They found a special seat and threw in a bottle of champagne too!!
