Jeju International Airport enforced severe restrictions early Sunday morning at the request of the English national football squad which arrived on the island at 1:00am May 19. Following the request that only the squad could use the airport at night when there were no other people arriving, the airport imposed restrictions from 11:00pm Saturday. Some 200 airport police, a 33 person special forces unit, and two bomb-sniffing dogs were placed in front of the entrances making a "human barricade." This is the first time ever in Korean sports history that this kind of VIP reception has been put into operation.

England officials and the police designated the photo line for reporters 30m away from the airport exit, but were pushed back by hundreds of reporters to 5m, as reporters shoved their lenses over the shoulders of the special unit. Reporter Ebisawa Akiko of Nihon TV in Japan, said he had tried to get an interview with David Beckham for more than a month, but failed and so came to at least get a picture of him entering the country. Bernie Ross of the BBC said the English team was very strict with security, which made reporting very hard; he used the word "very" 5 times.

The English team has rented out the entire Paradise Hotel in Seoguipo for seven days and six nights until May 23 at W23 million per day. A total of 200 police have been placed surrounding the hotel including special forces, riot squads and plain-clothes police, to block extreme fans and reporters. A cook arrived three days prior to the team to fill the hotel refrigerator with food brought in from England.

(From Jeju, Kim Su-hye, goodluck@chosun.com )