Category: world cup 2010

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

The FIFA World Cup draw – a warning

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Let the moaning begin. Eh?
But yes, because Cape Town is going to be hosting the World Cup 2010 draw on Friday 4th December and there’s going to be a party. And they’re going to shut a few roads to make sure that the partygoers don’t get flattened by… you know… cars and stuff.

There’s a full and comprehensive list of road closures, including times here and there are sure to be some people moaning about the traffic despite the fact that they’ve had adequate warning via the radio, newspapers and internet. And despite the fact that these roads are regularly closed when there are large conferences at the CTICC. And despite the fact that no-one in their right mind would try to drive up Long Street on a Friday afternoon or evening.
Some people are just like that.

The traffic is just the tip of the iceberg though. Some people are still in denial about the whole World Cup thing and they’re going to go out of their way (with the help of the sensationalist SA media and the Daily Mail) to publicise every little bit of negativity that they can possibly find in glaringly bright lights. And with an estimated 700 million viewers fixing their eyes on Cape Town next week, they’ve got their first little platform ready and waiting.

This should be a celebration – and it will be. The World Cup will bring jobs, people, infrastructure and money into South Africa. But possibly worth more than all those put together, it will bring publicity. And publicity can swing either way.
It’s like that, is publicity, flip-flopping between sides like Allan Boesak.
There is, of course, that age old saying that “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”, but that’s complete bullshit. Try telling that to Gary Glitter or… well… Allan Boesak.
While this is a huge opportunity for South Africa, it is sadly also a huge opportunity for those that seek to derail the good things that are happening in this country and the hope that goes with them. I’m talking about the racists, the ex-pats, the union leaders and those who put their own selfish agendas in front of the good of the country. They too will be watching the draw next Friday, but for different reasons to you and I. They will be looking to pounce on anything that is not 110% perfect; be it the traffic, the TV production, the pre-draw entertainment or the weather.
Whatever they can find to dampen the celebration, they will use.

It’s sad that I feel this way, but I think that it is important that someone gets this message out there before the mis- and dis-information spreads its way out across the media. Simply put, you can fully expect the usual situation of the media over-reporting the negative aspects of life in South Africa to be concentrated while the World Cup is on. (And that includes the World Cup draw). Every incident of pickpocketing, poor organisation, drunken fist-fighting, overfilled buses or littering (ok, maybe not littering) will be documented and analysed in minute detail under evocative and exceptionalist headlines. Believe it, because it’s true.

Whatever happens, it is vitally important for South Africa that the optimism and the positive vibe that surrounds the World Cup is not drowned out by the small but vociferous minorities that want to drag this country down. So go and enjoy yourselves, have fun. And take photos and blog it, because that’s exactly what they’ll be doing for the other side.

As for me, I’m planning to leave my comfort zone of Southern Suburbia and take my Dad into town to join the chaos party on Long Street.
Can I, as they say, get a woop woop?!? (Oh, and England picked as team C1? Thanks.)

P.S. I just updated this with some amazing video. Go see.

Brazil again

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As the last of the 32 teams to qualify for next year’s World Cup in South Africa were decided this week (some more honourably than others), only now do our local newspapers reveal that we’re wasting time, money and effort on the whole competition. Because they already know who will be the winners:

Football’s romantics might wish for a long-awaited Spanish victory in the 2010 World Cup, or a historic African triumph, but it looks like it will be Brazil all the way.  
Brazil’s coach, Dunga, may have alienated some fans with pragmatism rather than Brazilian flamboyance, but the tournament should end with a sixth success for the World Cup’s most successful team.

And even who they will beat in the final:

the final appears likely to be between Brazil and European champions Spain.

Honestly – all this fuss over infrastructure, security, stadiums, money and Thierry Henry’s left hand could have been easily avoided if we had known this earlier. We could have just handed the trophy over to Brazil and got on with life as usual, complaining about the form of the national football team and ignoring the fact that the Springboks aren’t doing very well, because “they’re still World Champions”.

Which leads me to an interesting point. Could it possibly be that the SAPA-AFP journalist who wrote the Brazil piece just worked out who would win and come second by looking at the current FIFA world rankings? (And if so, would that not also predict the Netherlands beating Italy in a tight 3rd place play off match in PE village on July 10th?)
If the tournament is really going to be decided by world ranking alone, then why are we bothering?

It really is nothing piece of journalism. A space filler full of speculation and unsubstantiated reasoning, obviously written by someone who knows nothing about football. Sadly, it’s exactly the kind of rubbish we’ve come to expect from The Times. Could they really not find something better to put in there? My 3-year-old son could have done a better job.

Happily, Carlos Amato’s open letter to Thierry Henry spares their blushes somewhat.

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!

A Shocking Discovery

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As each new batch of Bruce Sutherland’s superb work is released onto the web on the City of Cape Town’s 2010 Gallery page, the images circulate around Cape Town and the broader environment by email and make their way onto blogs, usually without any credit for the photographer.
But that’s not all. In addition, there are the usual snide remarks about the costs incurred and the disruption caused by the construction going on around the city.
“CaptainNull” and his posterous blog is the perfect example:

 Wow….  I think our water rates is going to go up along with our electricity rate, but it sure looks purty.

That’s exactly right. At the Cape Town Stadium they are *shock* watering the grass that they are growing on the flat bit between the stands and what’s more, they have fitted lights so that people can play football – even if it gets dark!!! Like… at night, for example, I would imagine.

What on earth are they thinking????

Don’t they realise that we, the Cape Town ratepayers, are paying for that water and that electricity?
How dare they? This is an outrage worth several exclamation marks!!!!!

But that’s not all. Being the investigative sort that I am, I dug further into this issue and quickly found other places in Cape Town get watered and lit up using our money as well! Even other stadiums.
But that’s not all. I also discovered that the Council was paying for city buses to be filled with diesel using the cash we give them and the they (the City Council) are facilitating such diverse activities as road-sweeping, provision of healthcare, housing and even policing – (almost) directly from the ratepayers’ pockets!!!!! I was aghast.

I realised that suddenly, what started out as a mini-rant on potential copyright infringement had snowballed into something bigger than I could ever have imagined. When I look at it now, it seems so obvious, but for years, people – myself included – just haven’t seen the wood for the trees.
These so-called “services” “provided” by the City Council are actually paid for by the city ratepayers.

But that’s not all. I can officially reveal that I have discovered the same practices appear to be taking place in several other cities (well, one was a village) across South Africa, with unsuspecting citizens literally giving their hard earned Rands to their local councils each month, only for those same councils to splurge the money on education, parks and road maintenance.

There’s more to come on this story, I’m sure. But I felt that it was time that people learned exactly what their rates are being used for. If I disappear or don’t blog again, assume that Dan Plato has caught up with me (perhaps using shady henchmen also paid for with my money).
In that eventuality, someone else must please carry on the fight against this heinous injustice.