World Cup 2010 Blog: Operation Hooligans: Keeping The Streets Of Rio Clean.

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Operation Hooligans: Keeping The Streets Of Rio Clean. Posted: 16 Sep 2010 07:40 AM PDT As Ukraine cleans out stray animals, Rio de Janiero is doing the same with hooligans ahead of the 2014 World Cup, as well as the Olympics four years later. Whether or not they’ll get the same rumored treatment – lethal injection – we don’t know. But we can be assured that somehow, the Klitschko brothers will be involved here too. The movement to dust up Rio has been dubbed Operation Hooligan, which sounds like it could spawn a Grand Theft Auto spin-off in the future. EA Sports just found another way to make a buck off a major tournament. Rio police arrested 13 suspected soccer hooligans on Wednesday at the start of a campaign to eradicate fan violence from the game before the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. An English-named “Operation Hooligans” was launched involving 160 officers in Rio and neighbouring towns seeking 19 suspects accused of homicide, carrying illegal weapons and forming gangs, a police chief said. “The police will act in a very firm way from now on, until the big events that will be held in Rio de Janeiro, to fight these outcasts infiltrated into organised groups of fans,” Allan Turnowski, chief of Rio’s police force, told reporters. This may be overlooking the point, but is a World Cup really necessary in order to crack down on murderers and gangs? Anyway, it’s a step, and a step with an excellent name; so hopefully they’ll finally nab the duo responsible for the greatest crimes to Brazilian society over recent times: The Melo-Dunga Mafia

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World Cup 2010 Blog: “FIFA World Rankings: August 2010” plus 1 more

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FIFA World Rankings: August 2010 Posted: 15 Sep 2010 08:30 AM PDT There are some big movers and shakers this month, with 30 spot jumps being made like it’s a Sunday stroll in the park and further evidence that hanging onto past glories will get you absolutely nothin’ – what have you done for me lately? Italy and France continue their freefall to oblivion and Bolivia (no, really – they’re holding up the Top 50) and a couple of relatively recent solo acts, Slovakia and Montenegro, are shooting up the table, proving once and for all: sometimes, parting ways with old friends will help your FIFA/Coca-Cola standing. (And that’s really what it’s all about.) But very genuinely in the case of Montenegro, people may want to start taking note – whatever they’re doing is working (producing players like Stevan Jovetic and Mirko Vucinic is a start). They could very well become the next Slovenia, only with less than 700k population. And that with double September wins over Wales and Bulgaria in the qualifiers not yet counting for ranking purposes. Obviously starting from the bottom aids in the meteoric visual rise, but it makes this no less impressive. The August 2010 rankings:

Diego Maradona May Be Coming To A National Team Near You Posted: 15 Sep 2010 07:28 AM PDT Provided you live somewhere near the general region of Iberia, that is. With Carlos Quieroz unemployed and off to the sandy beaches of somewhere to ponder ways to behave like a polite, courteous human being, there’s a large hole atop the Portuguese national team just waiting to be filled – rather snappily, too, with qualifiers commenced again shortly. And wherever there is a large hole, you’re sure to find Diego Maradona lurking about, graciously offering his services to fill it. “It’s true [Maradona is interested]. Diego and I talked about it, and it is a project that attracts us. He is willing and has availability, but has not been contacted yet,” Alejandro Mancuso, one of Maradona’s assistants during his spell as Argentina coach, told the A Bola sports daily. The very obvious first thought is that Portugal is not Argentina – we bring the big facts here – and therefore they do not hold Diego in the same esteem, nor are they required to kowtow at his mere presence, ruling him out on things like common sense and basic footballing reasons. But then that’s not how football always works. Of course there are others, like Paulo Bento, seemingly the media favorite, as well as Javier Aguirre and Jose Pekerman, but it remains very plausible that Diego Maradona could be joining us as soon as October qualifiers, taking up a coaching seat as well as molding the still-impressionable mind of one Cristiano Ronaldo. God help us all.

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World Cup 2010 Blog: Togo National Football Team Was “Completely Fake”

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Togo National Football Team Was “Completely Fake” Posted: 15 Sep 2010 05:30 AM PDT Have you always wanted to play international football, but were never quite good enough? Not a problem, provided you’re willing to tell a few lies and trick a few people. Because that’s how a team of footballers claiming to be the Togo national team managed to play an international friendly vs Bahrain last week. Bahrain apparently won the September 7th friendly match 3-0, but were said to be “surprised by the poor quality of the Togolese team.” They asked a few questions, causing Togolese interim football federation chief Seiyi Memene to explain that: “The players that took part in the friendly match against Bahrain were completely fake. We have not sent any team of footballers to Bahrain. The players are not known to us.” All international games have to be arranged through a FIFA licensed agent, who makes it all above board and official. Seems this one was organized by a man pretending to be a FIFA licensed agent, and with a group of players pretending to be the Togolese national team, which makes it very much below board and unofficial. Looks to me like someone has taken advantage of the disorganization in Togolese football, which had its football federation dissolved by FIFA in December 2009 and will elect new permanent federation members later this year. The interesting thing here isn’t just that the fake Togolese players and agent were able to arrange and play an international football match without anyone getting suspicious. The really odd thing is that Bahrain only managed to win 3-0. Shouldn’t the Bahrain national team have destroyed these jokers by double digits? This is the same Bahrain team that was just one saved penalty kick away from making the 2010 World Cup instead of New Zealand. Sounds to me like this international football business is a lot easier than everyone makes out, so I’m off to make 10 quick phone calls and then challenge the Spanish national team to a kickabout.

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