French Captain doesn't play...

In a follow-up to yesterday's story; the latest breaking news before the South Africa - France World Cup game today is that Patrice Evra, France's captain, has either refused to play in the match or has been dropped and is thus excluded from their line-up...

It is latest event in a series of self-created mishaps that have derailed France's World Cup campaign, caused French football fans to turn against their team and turned France into the laughing stock of world football...

In 1998, France won the World Cup and their players will forever be remembered by the French public; this year's crop of players are likely to be remembered just as long but for altogether different reasons!

Bavaria Beer Babes Busted!

A group of 36 female Netherlands supporters, all identically clad in orange dresses, were removed from the Netherlands-Denmark match by stewards and were then quizzed for three hours by South African police - with FIFA subsequently claiming that their appearance in the stadium represented 'ambush marketing'.

Ambush marketing sounds like it might involve violence - perhaps turning a corner and having an advertising billboard dropped on your head - but, apparently, it's when a company who aren't the sponsor of an event stage something to get attention for their brand...

You see, the dresses they were wearing were the very same dresses that were given away in a promotion by Bavaria beer in the Netherlands. They're plain orange dresses - no branding, no Bavaria logo - but, since FIFA have an official beer sponsor in the shape of Budweiser, they are fanatical about protecting their sponsorship income.

South African authorities are being a tad vague about the reasons the women were removed from the ground (since, last time I checked, wearing orange and making a lot of noise fails to differentiate you from pretty much any other Dutch football supporter) but FIFA are rather vehement about their decision saying the women were "used by a large Dutch brewery as an instrument for an ambush marketing campaign."

I would also think that the 36 women in question might have grounds for some kind of legal action as - being held and quizzed by police for wearing an orange dress seems slightly over-the-top. What next? A night in the cells for being seen drinking Pepsi rather than the official Coca-Cola? A week doing hard labour for chowing down on a Big King rather than a Big Mac?

Two things sprung to mind when I read this story:

1) Bavaria - if they are indeed behind this - must be cackling to themselves over their breakfast this morning. For the insignificant price of 36 tickets and some cheap orange dresses they staged a stunt that - due to FIFA's heavy handed tactics - has made front page news around the world. Had FIFA done nothing, most people probably wouldn't even have noticed...

2) The Dutch supporters should probably appreciate the humour of this and turn up en masse in orange dresses for the Netherlands-Japan game. I would love to see how FIFA deals with several thousand mini-dressed Dutch supporters with tickets turning up at the stadium! Perhaps someone should start a campaign?

And finally, as I wrote this, I began to wonder - how did FIFA actually manage to spot this group within a crowd of thousands wearing orange? It had to be some kind of tip off. And, based upon how this all turned out, I'm guessing that call came from someone not a million miles away from Bavaria...

The World Cup dominates...

Image, Reuters

Unless you have been hiding underneath a rock, you can't have failed to notice that the World Cup is now officially upon us...

South Africa opened the tournament with an enthusiastic, but slightly naive, display of football against Mexico. For much of the first half, their defence seemed quite content to give the Mexican attackers as much space as they wanted and it was, therefore, a little surprising to all concerned that, despite some good chances and a goal ruled out for offside (which may explain the flurry of google searches on 'football offside rule'), Mexico and South Africa went in level at half-time. It was even more surprising when, ten minutes into the second half, Siphiwe Tshabalala rifled a stunning left foot shot into the net to give South Africa the lead. For a while it seemed that South Africa were going to get their fairytale beginning but, in the 79th minute, Mexico's Marquez levelled the score and it ended 1-1.

In comparison, the second match of the day - between Uruguay and France - was the sort of game that people who don't like football use as an example of why they don't like football. And they have a point. Uruguay were game but lacked the necessary class, while many of France's players looked like they'd clearly rather be somewhere other than the pitch. A drab and largely dull game, it could perhaps be prescribed to insomniacs for its soporific qualities. It ended nil-nil, which, quite frankly, flattered all involved...

But, while most of the world was getting overexcited at the prospect of the World Cup, a large number of people in the US were far more interested in January Jones - who was involved in a car crash and then fled the scene, blaming paparazzi (note to self: try this next time something like this happens) - and John Goodman who appears to have lost about 30% of his body weight.

Tomorrow, it will be interesting to see if the US joins the rest of the world in going utterly World Cup crazy as Team USA gear up for their big battle with England. Although, I wouldn't like to bet serious money on it, to be honest...