The Caribbean is one seriously beautiful region in this world.
Plush rain forests, beautiful beaches, sunshine all year round – and dirty little tax secrets amid the pebbled and/or sandy beaches.
Much of the Caribbean was her Majesty’s property for hundreds of years.
The structures that were left behind in the sixties, when nearly all Crown Colonies were thrust into “independence”, are decidedly British, too.
Not a fan of Qatar and aware of numerous potential and obvious downsides (debilitating summer heat above all), we have always kept an open mind about a World Cup in the Middle East, once the hosting rights were allotted.
The opposition towards the tiny Emirate has always been virulent. Even during the bidding phase, critics from all sorts of corners crept out from all sorts of rocks built on bias. Others, genuine ones without an agenda,
What began as a peaceful protest against one deeply corrupt President’s reign – no, I don’t mean some weird country in tropical climes, but rather Ukraine’s Yanukovich – rapidly degenerated into snipers murdering friend and foe alike and paid thugs creating havoc on Kiev’s Maidan Square. What followed were scenes that are reminiscent of a revolution, and subsequently bore the hallmark of a well orchestrated coup d’état.
The phone conversation between one Victoria Nuland,
‘Tourist shot dead on golf course’. ‘Stadia will never be finished on time’. ‘Political mayhem leading up to World Cup’. ‘World Cup will be a failure, local population protests’. ‘Street violence and lacking infrastructure’.
No.
These are not headlines pre-Brazil.
These, and worse, were the headlines prior to the first ever World Cup in an African country, in South Africa, four years ago.
It is a bit rough to be writing about such enormously important things like football when the world around us appears to be going completely bonkers. Wars in every corner of the square-headed globe, some idiot developing and launching ever “better” drones (they kill faster and with laser gun precision), robots that will replace humans by 2029, and are smarter – well, hardly a difficult task considering the stupidity that reigns everywhere where humans congregate.
February 9, 2014 is a day to remember in many more ways than one.
It is not an earthquake that hit something somewhere. It is not a flood that engulfed English villages (although that happened too) and it is not some major lottery win that would have astounded folks around Europe (although that also happened).
February 9, 2014, is a day of shame (for 49.7% of the voting public) or indeed a day of glorious victory (for the slim majority of the voters,
January 9 – INSIDE World Football is proud to announce our new and groundbreaking partnership with NeEase – www.163.com -and its main sports portal where INSIDE World Football will be a daily feature in Chinese. Launched today, INSIDE World football’s daily content is available to some 500 million Chinese users. NetEase is one of China’s most visited websites and China’s largest email services provider.
If one looks at Europe, or the so-called Western world for that matter as a whole, the headlines scream economic and financial mayhem, massive youth unemployment, rigged Libor rates, faked growth figures, dishonesty everywhere, bankster madness and a complete disorientation if not alienation of large parts of society, literally everywhere.
Nothing seems to be working the way it used to. There seems to be a disease engulfing all parts of society that threatens to destroy core values and every aspect of modern life.
So, Ronaldo, the Great Field Marshall, is pissed.
And with him, Ancellotti (Angelotto?) and the whole of Spain, and Portugal, and the Government of Portugal, and – well, I guess GOD and Snow-white, too. Not to mention the Seven Dwarves, Superman, Donald and Daisy Duck and Roadrunner.
Definition:
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce uneasiness, apprehension, fear, or worry; by repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing the associated anxiety; or by a combination of such obsessions and compulsions. Symptoms of the disorder include excessive washing or cleaning; repeated checking; extreme hoarding; preoccupation with sexual, violent or religious thoughts; relationship-related obsessions; aversion to particular numbers; and nervous rituals, such as opening and closing a door a certain number of times before entering or leaving a room.
The FFA – Australia’s Fabulous Football Association – have started to shout. Sometimes, one gets the feeling that people think the louder they scream, the more their argument rings true. Not so. Content still rules over tactics and style. And Australia’s most recent style is unique, to say the least.
There goes a sore loser. Nearly three years after having secured just a single vote (where two were promised “for sure”, and another 10 at least confirmed with hugs between old men,
By Paul Nicholson, Editor-in-chief, Insideworldfootball
Disappointing habits are alive and well – actually thriving across all media. Insideworldfootball’s big scoop on Monday set the agenda for the day and a couple of days after – we’re proud of that and stand by every word of the interview as it was printed.
But let’s get this straight from the start. At no point did FIFA’s president ever say that awarding the World Cup to Qatar was a mistake.
Winter or summer?
Confucius say: Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
A summer World Cup has always been the FIFA choice in the past. Ever since the first one in 1930 in Uruguay.
But then, in Switzerland for example, women were not allowed to vote until the sixties – hence women not voting “had always been the choice” until such time as they were allowed to become full-time citizens.
Not an easy thing to figure all of this out, admittedly. When Qatar won the hosting rights over several rival bidders who were pretty sure that they would have beaten the peninsular state in the middle of the Middle East, there was plenty of crying about alleged foul play.
Several investigations later, be they internal, overt or covert, executed by ‘official investigators’ (such as chief FIFA investigator Garcia, who, one hears, is about to throw in the towel in favour of kitchen utensils,
The world has gone totally mad, hasn’t it? Ever since the “US citizen-without-a-passport”, Edward Snowden, went public and gradually released his material about global spying, institutionalized by US and UK spooks at the NSA and GCHQ, a storm of aggression has hit him and the US alike.
Meanwhile, in a parallel universe (and somewhat ridiculous to compare with issues of real concern), a handful of people continue digging and investigating for a very handsome fee –