But don't you want Senegal to take that damn cup back to Africa?

Just wondered if you have any evidence to back up what you say about buying your way to the world cup? (If this is true, where are Australia and The Netherlands?)
Granted there have been some dodgy results in world cups, but just ranting about things like this isn't really news. It's just highlighting the fact that you don't like football and are being forced to watch it. Sorry about that, but a lot of people are getting a lot of pleasure out of the world cup, even if it is rigged.

The reason why host nations win the cup often is down to home advantage (home fans and being used to the weather conditions). The reason this is the first time in living memory we are being allowed time off work (although most of us aren't) is because it is the first time in my living memory that all the games are being played during the day.

neo- capitalism prefers at the moment not to have a raging class- conscious society. the overt class war was won in the 1980s (for the capitalists) and now, it wants the Labour party to oversee the temporary removal of class notions among the working strata. however, this means that the social whole must be held together by other means, ususally based on psychological manipulation, and football is one of the key forces in this. i find it heartbreaking to think that the long struggle against racialism here has ended in young black people waving the resurrected mdieval 'england' flag, while desperate refugees risk their lives in the channel tunnel. this anxiousness to 'belong', to be 'together', is a classic symptom of what W. H Whyte termed the Organizational Society. so much for 'solidarity' when its really needed.
The way refugees are treated is a direct function of the racial maipulation being waged on the population; while the white traditional bigot classes are appealed to directly by keeping out the foreign 'scroungers', blacks are consoled that they are now 'british',( which despite the surface appearance , is not anti-racialism at all.) to keep these two social groups in 'balance', a projection against another group is an inevitable function.

Oh dear! It's not difficult to see who was the last to be picked for the teams in the playground, is it?

It's not a question of sport anymore, that's for sure!!

Otherwise, people would be actually out playing football, instead of sitting in the pub/home getting hammered to the brain while paying through the nose for a worthless spectacle of advertisments.

The large majority of players at profi-level are fouling, pulling shirts, gougeing, putting the boot in where possible - in fact they represent a terrific example to the youth on how to get along in today's corrupt system, and are worshipped as gods as a result of their wealth. Seeing their version of 'Sportsmanship' makes me feel sick to the stomach.

Although the main driving force behind this new secular religion is obviously money, the ruling class has not been slow to see the benefits provided by close co-operation, just as the State was ever ready to bind in symbiosis to the Church for the better control of their common sheep.

The fanatical, blind devotion evoked in the 'fans', and it's effects in society at large is a gigantic phenomenon that sociology should be studying, but is not.

Am I the only one who finds this strange?

Greetz, BlackPope

"Now the word national team has gone out of the window due to globalisation. The teams are made up of players from all over the world just like the management of any major corporation"

So where are all the Brazilian players in the England team then? National sides have to be made up of players from that nation.

Progressives don't like team sports for the same reasons as they dont like genuinely popular festivals like Crimbo, the millenium, etc. A bizarre mix of principle ('over-commercialized crap'), misanthropy ('nobody sends Xmas cards to my bedsit') and snobbery ('they can't all be right, I AM').

Better than capitalists tho.

A lot of players now originate from outside the EU and play in EU clubs. This is globalisation in practice due to lower wages being paid. The same has started to happen to national teams with foreign managers and players whose only relation to the country they are playing for is their great great grandfather was born there or related in some obscure way to someone who was.
vngelis