You wait years for a world cup and four come along at once. In recent weeks we’ve had world cups in women’s rugby union, men’s rugby league, T20 cricket – and now we’ve got the big one coming up – the long awaited 2022 FIFA World Cup in soccer, possibly the most controversial tournament ever and dubbed by Amnesty International as the “world cup of shame” It will be the first world cup to be held in the Middle East, …
Astonishing victory. Spent some money Snazzy new stadia.. And a good idea: To ensure a lasting impression, Qatar 2022 have proposed that post-World Cup, many modular components of the stadiums no longer needed will be dismantled and shipped to other countries in order to promote football development. ..might need to work a bit on that world ranking..although it’s one way to qualify. Congratulations. DewiWelsh Nationalist. Rugby Fan. Know a bit about History and Railways…
The average England soccer fan has a strange love hate relationship with the serial failure of their international football team to win anything much since Wembly 1966. “It will really teach us a lesson” quipped one caller on Nicky Campbell phone in on BBC Radio Five Live this morning. Er, no actually. If there was any chance of that, you’d have learned something since you started serially beating up your managers, starting with Don Revie back in 1974. Even the sainted …
I’m old fashioned enough to support England casually as the big team, when the tiddlers have been eliminated in the qualifiers. Those Irish – unionists among them, I know – who put England last rather than support England second are sad bastards as far as I’m concerned. But I have to say that Northern Ireland qualifying twice in my life time has given me more pleasure than the entire England record, bar watching the disputed England victory in 1966 in the …
France exited the World Cup with a 2-1 loss to hosts South Africa after being reduced to ten men 26 minutes into the game. The French finished bottom of their group and, unfortunately, South Africa also failed to progress. From The Guardian Sports Blog’s Amy Lawrence La fin. Let the discredits roll. Let Les Bleus depart the total shambles that they are. Their World Cup 2010 experience has been so unfathomably awful, it is hard to know where to begin with the inquest. A …
Its unusual for me to moan or promote a personal agenda on Slugger so I hope I will be forgiven this selfish entry. South Africa should hold its head in shame. They have disgraced themselves on the international stage and brought pain to countless millions. Today saw a suffering launched on the world that makes apartheid seem a minor transgression. The vuvuzela. I have already joined a Facebook group in protest and my anger will surely grow until FIFA or …
Try as hard as I might, I cannot get worked up about this World Cup. But then having foolish chosen to follow Manchester City in my late primary school days (late sixties/early seventies), the experience of watching English soccer has always been more bitter than sweet for me. But Alberto from Tweetminster (who is looking forward to it) pointed me in the direction of this post of Chris’s which quotes research outlining how nations play football almost in a stereotypical …
No local teams will be participating, but all eyes are already on South Africa in the lead-up to the World Cup next month – and the rest will be glued to the T.V. But amid all the glitz and glamour surrounding the World Cup, very little is being said about South Africa beneath the World Cup gloss. We presume that such prestigious events as the World Cup can bring countless benefits to struggling societies, particularly those coming out of transition. In …
