With about 500 days to go before the kick off the 2002 World Cup, the naming of the three mascots was handed to soccer fans worldwide.

The various choices were :

The yellow one, a coach character, had three candidate names -- Amo, Poz and Ato. The choices for the youthful blue character are Char, Nik and Rem and its purple companion will be named either Kaz, Rom or Dap.

The naming contest kicked off worldwide for a month from Feb. 1, 2001.The results of the contest was  announced officially on April 26, 2001 at the 400-day mark before the beginning of the soccer festival. The fans gave the verdict and
The 2002 FIFA World Cup has three computer-generated mascots - "Ato" was chosen as the name of the glowing orange coach character with a cyber goatee, while
the two blue and purple strikers will be known as "Nik" and "Kaz." 

It is hoped that this will make the 2002 FIFA World Cup the greatest-ever tournament by creating an exciting atmosphere among the players and spectators and in the process convey the lesson that harmony is the key to every success.

Click here to find out more about all the Mascots of the past World Cup's

World Cup Posters

The official 2002 World Cup poster was unveiled in August and goes on sale in September 2001.
Based on the traditional Asian art of calligraphy (brush & ink drawing), the poster is a specially commissioned, collaborative effort by two artists from the host nations - Byun Choo Suk from Korea and Hirano Sogen from Japan – who spent two days together in the studio creating the new design. The poster features an image of a football pitch drawn in thick brushstrokes and the official emblem. The colors used are red, yellow, green, brown and blue on a white background.