Category: sport

A Seedy Business

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The seedings for the 2010 World Cup Draw are announced today. They are based on the FIFA world ranking of the teams in question, together with the performance of the nations in the last three World Cup Tournaments. However, the actual formula used is a top secret blend of 13 herbs and spices which means that FIFA can tweak it quietly behind the scenes to allow their favoured countries a smoother ride through the competition, just like they did with the European play-offs.
With South Africa almost certainly guaranteed a seeded position, there are seven other places up for grabs in the first pool. Timeslive.co.za has them down as follows:

First pool: South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina, France

France won the 1998 World Cup, but crashed out with scoring a goal 4 years later, recovering to be beaten finalists last time around. This could mean that they sneak into the first pool, despite only sneaking into the competition via Thierry “Cheating Bastard” Henry’s much-documented handball in their playoff against Ireland.
This would not be a good thing for England’s World Cup hopes unless (possibly) they were drawn against South Africa. The remainder of the pools might look like this:

Second pool: England, Portugal, Slovakia, Switzerland, Greece, Denmark, Serbia, Slovenia
Third pool: Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay
Fourth pool: Honduras, Mexico, United States, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand

Or they might not. So much of speculation.

So, having reviewed my successful ticket application (for 6 games in Cape Town), I can safely say that it looks like I will see just about anyone playing just about anyone else.

Except the Irish, obviously.

UPDATE: England seeded, France & Portugal not.

Pots for Friday’s draw: eight groups of four countries to be drawn, each group containing one country from each pot.

Pot 1 (seeds): South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England

Pot 2 (Asia, Oceania and North/Central America): Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, United States, Mexico, Honduras

Pot 3 (Africa and South America): Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay

Pot 4 (Europe): France, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Greece, Serbia, Denmark, Slovakia

Lucky

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AIDS-ribbon

I don’t want to come over all gushy and emotional here, but I have just been into town (more specifically the Waterfront and Green Point) and there is an unbelievable vibe in the Mother City right now. I feel so lucky to be here and be a part of it.

The combination of the start of summer, World AIDS Day and the FIFA World Cup draw has really got people into the party spirit and the Waterfront is absolutely pumping. It seems like everyone has a smile on their face and is happy to be here and that makes for a wonderful atmosphere.

There were dancing girls (and boys), Sugarsmax and Slikour from Skwatta Kamp, a giant Coca-Cola makaraba, a plethora of Zakumis, life-size foosball, huge footballs from World Cups since 1970 and a Sony-sponsored 5-a-side tournament. Even by Waterfront standards, that’s a lot going on.
I could hardly keep up and I had to go and hide in a local lab until the excess of adrenaline had left my body. Fortunately, it didn’t take long before the shaking subsided and the people stopped staring.

I was rushing around, but still managed a few shots here and there. You can find them all here. I have a feeling that this vibe is going to continue throughout the week – and hopefully onwards towards the World Cup. I’ll definitely be out and about snapping as and when I can, so don’t forget to come back and check regularly.

Not drunk

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Tiger Woods’ car crash news is breaking all over Twitter.

Woods, 33, pulled out of his driveway in the Isleworth community about 2:25 a.m. when he struck a fire hydrant, and then drove into a tree at his neighbor’s property, FHP reported.

Woods was apparently taken to a nearby hospital “in a seriously rat-arsed condition”.

I don’t know about you, but I’m always striking fire hydrants and then driving into my neighbour’s arboreal vegetation in the early hours of the morning. I like to test to see how quickly the local council can get out to stem the big fountain of water that spews from the broken faucet. If they arrive before it gets light, I feel that my exorbitant rates bill is doing at least some good. 
Next door’s tree just annoys me by dropping leaves in my pool so I try and knock it down while I’m out damaging the car: it saves time and effort just billing the insurance once.

I’m not drunk when I do that though. Honest.

Sorry seems to be the easiest word…

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Wow. Much drama from last night’s play-offs for the final *counts* six berths in the World Cup here next year. As if the entire Sudanese army turning out for the “Match of Hate” between Egypt and Algeria wasn’t enough (and according to reports, it actually wasn’t enough) we then had more drama in the dramatic France v Republic of Ireland match in gay Paris.

In case you’ve been in a hole somewhere listening to explosions in Sea Point, this is the extra-time goal that drew the match and won the tie for Les Bleus, sealing their place in the World Cup draw at the CTICC in Cape Town neeext Friday:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8woNGFj9fxM]

But *gasp* was that *gasp* handball by French Striker Thierry Henry? Well, yes it was.

Now, I wasn’t going to blog this. It’s been done to death already by angry Irishmen, angry Englishmen and everyone in between. Although actually, there’s mainly only sea between, but someone might have written from a boat or something. You can do that these days. But anyway, I wasn’t going to blog this – that is, until I saw Henry’s side of things:

Thierry Henry and Richard Dunne lay prone in the penalty area where just a few minutes earlier, a travesty of justice had thieved an Irish team their fleeting chances of glorious triumph.
Dunne knew he had cheated. Henry tried to explain. Words did not need to be spoken. But they were. “I handled it,” the French captain confided. His admission was superfluous. “I didn’t mean it,” Henry continued.

Dunne takes up the tale of woe:
“He told us we deserved to win. How is that supposed to make me feel? It makes me feel worse. He’s admitted he cheated. We should have won the game. He just said ‘that’s it’.
“He just said he handled it, he didn’t mean it. Looking at it, it’s quite obvious he did mean it. It’s there for everyone to see and they’re not going to change it now.”

Loving the first sentence from the entirely factual and wholly unbiased Irish Independent there.
Of course, the reaction of Thierry Henry after the goal shows just how terrible he felt about the whole thing as he ran off to celebrate with his French pals in a big heap on the right wing.

And then this on twitter:

hentweet

“im not the referee… but if i hurt some one im sorry”? “if”? Seriaas?

I wonder if he thinks that makes everything ok? (It doesn’t.)
Probably best to keep your mouth shut and your hands off the keyboard next time you cheat, Thierry.

The Irish do deserve that game to be replayed, because there was so much at stake last night. The Irish won’t get the game to be replayed, because there was so much at stake last night. From the moment FIFA announced the seeded draw for the European play-offs, it was clear what their motives were. Big clubs mean big viewing figures mean big money. Simple as. And while things have played (controversially) right into their hands, they’re happy and act like nothing ever happened –  in fact, their report on the game omits any mention of Henry’s left mitt.

So what sanction should Henry face? After all, he’s openly admitted that he cheated. And the implications of that naughty handball were huge.
Here’s my idea: ban him for three games. But not just three arbitrary warm-up friendlies against Lithuania, Iceland and Hungary. Ban him for France’s next three competitive games. Which now just happen to be in South Africa next June. Some sort of justice? Perhaps.

As for those that think that this sort of thing “doesn’t matter”, you just don’t understand.
I feel sorry for you.

UPDATE: Liam Brady: “For the integrity of the game, something has to be done.”

UPDATE 2: FAI lodge official complaint, and request/demand a replay.

There is precedent for the invalidation of such results. In 2005, the Bureau of the Fifa World Cup organising committee reached a decision to invalidate the result of a World Cup qualification match between Uzbekistan and Bahrain on the basis of a ‘technical error by the referee of the match.

Tasty!