Weighty G-20 Agenda Is No Match for World Cup

By Alistair Macdonald and Elizabeth Williamson

TORONTO—For some world leaders here to hash out fiscal policy and banking regulation, one topic seemed to dominate the agenda: where to watch the World Cup and how to squeeze it in without offending fellow leaders.

Ten of the 26 nations represented at the Group of Eight and Group of 20 meetings were still contenders in the Cup hosted by South Africa as talks kicked off. But the meetings were in Canada—a country whose men's team had qualified only once, nearly a quarter of a century ago, and then lost every match and failed to score a single goal.

Whenever they could, officials and leaders—from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.K. leader David Cameron to President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak—tried to catch matches, scrambling to figure out where to watch the games.

Soccer small talk began before serious discussions did.

On Friday, ahead of the G-8 summit in a resort north of Toronto, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and German Chancellor Merkel congratulated each other on their teams' performances.

Mr. Kan's team, ranked 45th going into the tournament, had just knocked out the higher-ranked Denmark. He said he hoped now Japan and Germany (ranked sixth) would meet in the final, according to an official at their meeting.

A more restrained Ms. Merkel noted that the German team had some tough opponents lined up.

Mr. Cameron commiserated with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi over their teams' disappointing showings. With Italy out, Mr. Berlusconi told Mr. Cameron he would switch his allegiance to England, whose manager is Italian Fabio Capello.

Mr. Cameron, at his first major international conference, claimed an early diplomatic success: "I have notched up one supporter," he said.

The Toronto Tourist Board had been taking calls for days from delegations and their press packs, all with the same question: Where is the best place to catch the games?

"Everyone wanted to find where they could hang out," said Michelle Revuelta, a spokeswoman for Tourism Toronto, who had herself taken "several dozen" calls from delegations.

In what is quite likely a presidential first—not that anyone was tracking—the White House on Saturday interrupted G-20 preparations to issue a statement saying that Mr. Obama and Ghana President John Atta Mills were "eagerly anticipating" the match between the two teams later that day.

As the game began, Mr. Obama was in a meeting with Mr. Cameron. Midway through their session, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner entered the room to tell the president that the U.S. was one goal down, a British official said.

"That is not what I wanted to hear," Mr. Obama said, according to the official.

Shortly after the president ended his next bilateral meeting, with Mr. Lee, the White House press corps was sent to a room across the hall, where Mr. Obama was watching the U.S.–Ghana match on a flat-screen TV. The score was 2-1 in the 10th minute of extended time. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel entered and asked Mr. Obama: "How much time is left?"

"Five minutes," the leader of the free world answered. "It's nerve-racking."

Reporters were escorted out before they could record the presidential reaction to the outcome—a 2-1 loss for the U.S.

Meanwhile, leaving a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 on Saturday, Pravin Gordhan, the finance minister of World Cup host South Africa, found a television almost outside the door. He stayed to watch the final 10 minutes of the Ghana–U.S. match before hurrying to a delegation dinner.

Saturday hadn't gone well for South Korea's Mr. Lee, whose country, a G-20 member, had crashed out to nonmember Uruguay. At the conference media center, a group of South Korean reporters had gathered excitedly around TV sets, only to return despondently to their desks after Uruguay's win-clinching second goal.

On Sunday morning, attention turned to the England-Germany game. In four World Cup meetings, England had lost to Germany three times. Sunday,The chatter of keyboards from the deadline-pressed British press corps was interrupted by a large groan as the German team took the lead.

Across town, Mr. Cameron stood up to speak at the leaders' working meeting, knowing England was now down 1-0, a British official said. By the time he sat down, Ms. Merkel told him his team was behind by two goals.

The German leader conceded that a second England goal that had hit the crossbar and appeared to land behind goal line should have counted.

Mr. Cameron and Ms. Merkel left their fellow leaders and joined staffers watching the second half of the match, where Germany scored another two goals against England, winning the game 4-1.

"I'm still shaking," Ms. Merkel told reporters soon after. "More of the same!"

The final match during the G-20 was between members Argentina and Mexico. But how do you excuse yourself from the concluding summit meeting? Instead, Mexican President Felipe Calderón took updates on his BlackBerry, a Mexican official said. It wasn't good news—his side was losing.

 
Weighty G-20 Agenda Is No Match for World Cup
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G-20 Summit participants also can't get enough of the World Cup. I hope reason that they're there will not be affected.