Russia & Qatar to host World Cups

Congratulations to the people of Russia & Qatar (and the rest of the Middle East).  I am really pleased for you and hope you enjoy the World Cups and that your nations benefit in a positive way.

Of course, being an Englishman, I was gutted that England did not win the vote.  And my favourite for 2022 would have been Australia.  But never mind there is no point having sour grapes and I am not writing this post out of bitterness.  However, I am disappointed with the outcome of the FIFA voting and especially that Qatar won.

Reasons Qatar should not host the World Cup

• They have no football heritage
• They have never qualified for a World Cup and only once got past the first round of the Asian Cup
• There are huge amounts of commercial opportunities for FIFA through choosing Qatar – this is not a viable reason for choosing a nation to host a tournament
• Travelling and staying in Qatar will be a nightmare for the average fan
• Qatar are super-rich and can simply build the best stadiums and complexes and would have been able to put on extraordinary hospitality for FIFA delegates – it goes against everything that was great about the World Cup in South Africa

Reasons why Qatar should host the World Cup

• It will be great for the people of the Middle East to have a home tournament.
• The stadiums look incredible!

Doha Port Stadium, Qatar

Reasons Russia should not host the World Cup

• Few people would dispute that Russia is a nation full of corruption – given the recent accusations towards FIFA one wonders if there are some dodgy dealings going on
• They have not qualified for the last two World Cups – I hate nations getting free places at tournaments when they would have been unlikely to qualify otherwise (eg Ukraine & Poland at the next European Championships)

Reasons Russia should host the World Cup

• They have a great footballing heritage – from 1958-1972 USSR made it to eight major quarter-finals and won the European Championships in 1960 (something England never did!)
• They have never hosted a major tournament before
• Many cities will benefit from hosting matches

I think us English need to get over our superiority complex.  We have no divine right to host or win major football tournaments.  Only 2 delegates voted for the England bid!  And I think we can assume one of those was our own Geoff Thompson!  That’s pretty embarrassing and shows that we must have had a very poor bid.

What are your thoughts…..?

South Africa 2010 Draw?

The following is what are likely to be the seedings for the draw for the World Cup on 4th December:

Pot 1:    South Africa, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain, England, France, Argentina

Pot 2:   Portugal, Netherlands, Switzerland, Slovenia, Greece, Denmark, Serbia, Slovakia

Pot 3:   Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, Ghana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Algeria

Pot 4:    South Korea, Japan, Australia, North Korea, Mexico, USA, Honduras, New Zealand

What do you reckon would be good, and bad for England?  Can you spot any potentially juicy ties?  What about Spain v Portugal?

I think a fascinating, and historical, group for England would draw us with Portugal, Cameroon and Australia.  What are your thoughts?

Thierry Henry = Maradona

Except the Frenchman is clearly not as skillful.

I just don’t know what to think about last night.  The injustice of it all makes me livid.  There are handballs and then then there are handballs.  Just like Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’, Thierry Henry clearly deliberately controls the ball with his hand, TWICE(!), to set-up William Gallas to score the goal the cheats France into the World Cup Finals and robs the more deserving Irish from their place in South Africa.  Here is a video of it from Irish TV:

I could understand a split second of madness from Henry by using his hands, but as a human being you have to own up to stuff like that but instead he runs off to the security of the adoring French fans and takes with him the lifetime label of being one of football’s great cheats.

Also, is it beyond the realms of possibility that FIFA put pressure on the match officials to help the former World Champions get carried into the World Cup like an inept but corrupt politician frauding his way into power…?

World Cup is a fix

I am really disappointed that FIFA are doing their best to prevent heroic efforts from weaker footballing nations enabling them to qualify for the World Cup.  Instead favouring the under performing giants of Portugal and France.  We are currently in between legs in the play-offs for the Finals in South Africa.

Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Republic of Ireland gave a fantastic display in the Group Stages:

• Bosnia finished ahead of Turkey and Belgium with only Spain, arguably the best team in the world, beating them.
• Ireland remained undefeated through the whole campain.

However, once FIFA saw that precious France and Portugal were struggling they decided to seed the play-offs to give them a much better chance of qualifying.  Both giants are now firm favourites following the first legs despite atrocious group performances.  In my opinion neither of these teams deserves to be in the Finals.  They achieved similar results to Ireland and Bosnia despite playing much weaker nations.  I say chuck them and their prima donnas out!

 

Ban Israeli Sportsmen

You may have heard in the news that Israel’s tennis player, Andy Ram, has been granted a visa to play in Dubai just a week after his compatriot Shahar Peer was refused entry into the Emirates for a different tournament.

The Chief Exec from the ATP said, “No player who qualifies to play an ATP World Tour event should be denied their right to compete on the basis of ethnicity, nationality or religion.”  Well he has obviously forgotten about the ban on South Africa from international sport during the latter part of apartheid.

I really think reviving this tactic is a line the international community should go down.  Israel seems to value sport a lot, even managing to play in most European competitions because it’s too dangerous for them to compete against their Arab neighbours.  It would send a damning message if the world refused to play with them because of their racist and oppressive policies.

Sadly, it is unlikely anybody will enforce anything against Israel.  The ‘free’ world has been pussy footing it around this compulsive criminal of world politics since it came into existence in 1948.  The world stood by as Israel occupied the small amount of land that had been left to the Palestinian people in 1967 and has shown its constant lack of spine ever since as Israel consistently flounts international law as it attempts to wipe the Palestinian people from the land they have lived in for millenia.

This video shows protesters using a Barcelona v Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball match.  It might be tough on the players but they need to wake up and realise what an evil entity they represent and start lobbying their government.

Church

I loved church this morning.  It is far from perfect but has so many great qualities:

• Feeling part of something – I got there early to set-up and left late to set-down and got involved with the singing, praising God and praying for the sick.
• People being healed – God intervened with the goings on of planet earth and healed hips, shoulders and necks.
• Hot chocolate – I don’t drink tea or coffee, hot chocolate is a million times better than squash.
• Fun times – We sang the first couple of songs then it all took off and we had a good old dance and laugh and praised God for everything he has done for us.
• Seeing friends – I love so many people at our church and I can tell they love me and they make me smile.
• Meeting new people – in the last few weeks I have met people from South Africa, Taiwan and even Kenilworth.
• The Bible – we learnt what the Bible had to say about being proud about things and how we should be humble, very provoking.
• God – yup, he was there and he spoke to me.
• We had no sixth sense experience like this one:

 courtesy of ASBO Jesus