The African Football Confederation (Caf) has made a stupid and callous decision to ban Togo from the next two Africa Cups of Nations after the Togo team pulled out of the competition when their bus was attacked by a separatist group called the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda.
Three people died from this shooting and the team were understandably shaken up. Still, Caf has decided that because the government of Togo recalled the team after the tragedy that this somehow represents political interference from Togo on the competition itself. Fucking ridiculous.
Sure, ban the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda from ever fielding a team in the Cup but Togo? Why punish the players for being shot at by a rogue separatist group? This borders on the bizarre.
Perhaps this is a result of Caf having the same president for 20 years in the form of Issa Hayatou and he and his minions are out of touch dictators rather than leaders?
Last year Barcelona advanced to the final game of the Champions League after a last minute goal against Chelsea by Andres Iniesta. Nine months later a study shows that the birth rate in Barcelona has jumped to 45%. It would be interesting to see if the same could be said of Euro 2008 or how regional birth rates in Spain fared during the 80 years of La Liga. And what if they win their first World Cup this year?
Meanwhile Portsmouth, far more worse off than merely struggling with relegation this year, are in danger of being liquidated by the Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs department for being 97.2 million dollars in debt. As well as not being able to pay their players they had to shut down their website, at least temporarily, after being unable to pay their service provider. One senses a lot of laser tattoo removal in the future.
They are not alone at any rate as Crystal Palace has also entered into bankruptcy .
In the tabloid round up – Wayne Rooney generously recognized that there are ten other men on the field with Him .
Father of the Year John Terry as been been accused of having an affair with the ex-girlfriend of former Chelsea team mate Wayne Bridge.
And Sir Alex Ferguson is calling out Manchester United fans for taunting Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger with a chant that involves the word ‘paedophile’ in it. Now is that because he has such a young team?
It looks like fiery tempered Craig Bellamy got into a fracas with a fan after Michael Owen’s last second goal yesterday. I suppose one should not stage a pitch invasion alone unless naked then perhaps Bellamy would not have gotten near. As it was he walked well out of his way to do so. You might remember Bellamy attacking his fellow team mate John Arne Riise with a golf club during his time at Liverpool over a karaoke dispute. Bit of a hot head that one.
Over at Kick the Balls, Alan Black tells of the dark agony of the missed sitter. And check out his Hooligan Opera while you are there.
Cyrus Philbrick debates the different types of fandom on Footsmoke.
Since all the Craig Bellamy dust up footage has been yanked from the internet almost as soon as it was posted, I leave you with Brian Clough on the attack from a decidedly different era. Here’s a kiss then.
How does small fry Stoke City prepare for their second year in the Premier League? Apparently they socialize and develop a tactical bond by playing Call of Duty and Gears of War according to the Guardian.
And before you laugh too hard consider that Stoke, having only been promoted to top flight football in 2008, currently sit at fifth position on the Premier League table. It’s no secret that the Army also uses tactical squad based video games to get its recruits bonding and working together. Not that any of this would replace slogging through the mud or being on the pitch. No one at Stoke is going to level cap a mage in World of Warcraft and then proceed to pocket the most Premier League goals for this season.
However, it does make one wonder about the effect of online bonding and how the player’s mirror neurons affect their performance when they are on the pitch. Since the exact same neurons fire whether we are navigating real space or simulated 3-D space and that the mirror neurons themselves are supposed to be responsible for empathy the team could be benefiting a great deal from their online interactions. Then again the studies are so new that Stoke’s gaming nights might simply enable them to perform better by keeping them out of the pubs.
For every study promoting the cognitive benefits of video games there are probably 50 articles that decry them as evil. The former at least has its basis in science and the later always in morality and almost always someone else’s morality; an outsider’s morality delivering the same vindictive condemnation that is usually found between competing religious fanatics.
For more on mirror neurons check out this Nova segment on them.
And Stoke City can be found playing against Chelsea this Saturday but without their grenades and plasma weapons and such.
The contemporary arts journal Xtra (volume 11, number 4) has an article by Jennifer Doyle called “Art Versus Sport”: Managing Desire and the Queer Sport Spectacle, that delves into the intersection of desire, eroticism and sentimentality in art and sport and the Utopian dimensions present in both. Some interesting observations are made beyond the analysis of dreamy Youtube mashups that feature a playing field of grappling men while Jordan Spark’s Battlefield plays on the soundtrack, mainly about the perception of women on those particular battlefields.
If your delicate Western sensibilities are offended by a constant cacophonous drone that never abates then you had better bring earplugs if you plan on attending the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. That swarming, buzzing noise issuing from your television set during Confederations Cup coverage is here to stay according to FIFA.
The vuvuzela is a cheap, plastic horn sold at the stadiums in South Africa and has been accorded no small amount of cultural status by South African officials who have rather hilariously described it as South African Football’s beautiful noise.
Cries to ban the harsh wall of noise horn have been countered by accusations of cultural insensitivity and racism. Before the latter chorus got as loud as the vuvuzela orchestra FIFA went ahead and made the decision not to ban the horn.
Considering my early exposure in life to the sounds of bands like Hüsker Dü and to industrial music I think I will fare well at the 2010 World Cup. I might even buy a vuvuzela myself. When in Rome. . .
