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Wednesday, September 15, 2010

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

Link to World Cup Soccer - South Africa 2010

Togo National Football Team Was “Completely Fake”

Posted: 15 Sep 2010 05:30 AM PDT

My-Vuitton-is-a-Fake 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.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

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World Cup 2010 Blog: “Euro 2012: Ukraine’s Stray Animal Problem” plus 1 more

Euro 2012: Ukraine’s Stray Animal Problem

Posted: 13 Sep 2010 03:00 PM PDT

adespota1

When a cow was slaughtered to bless the opening of Soccer City in the buildup to this summer’s World Cup, someone somewhere was surely protesting. However, where there are religious and cultural issues at hand, it’s a bit of a grey area and opinions are divided.

This one’s a little bit less of a grey area, even for someone who’s anything but an animal lover (guilty): Ukraine may slaughter strays ahead of Euro 2012.

Quick, somebody get Sarah McLachlan to do a commercial.

Predictably, PETA’s pissed. Activist Tamara Tarnavska seems to be leading the charge while also informing us of all Euro 2012 has to offer (it’s like Vegas, but with football):

"The idea is not to stop Euro 2012," she said. "Of course we cannot stop the fans. The fans want to see football [soccer], prostitutes in Kiev and vodka — I cannot stop them with the stray animals. But people who really care about the environment, who really care about the lives of others cannot visit Kiev or the other cities at this time."

She continued: "Hundreds of thousands of animals [will be killed across Ukraine in the run-up to the tournament]. The Ukrainian authorities really haven't done anything to take care of the stray animals. No shelters or neutering work. Just catch and kill."

"The problem will be resolved without question," said Deputy Prime Minister Borys Kolesnikov, whose portfolio consists exclusively in making sure that Ukraine is prepared to host Euro 2012. "There will be enough money to save all the animals."

But Tarnavska says that so far her official appeals have gone unanswered. What's more, she fears that the money dedicated to preserving the country's animals will disappear down a black hole of corruption, as it has in the past.

Stereotypes are bad, but also are typically generated for a reason and Ukrainian authorities have been in enough hot water over a lack of progress that even if the money for the safe removal of animals isn’t used to buy Committee Member X’s mistress a new mink, it may go to other things deemed more important, like roadways or vodka.

So the animals need saving, and the spotlight has been thrust into use:

Already she says the movement has garnered the signature of several celebrities, including George Clooney, Brigit Bardot and Ukrainian world heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko.

Then they should simply allow the Klitschko brothers to run around town punching animal officials in the face, acting the part of superhero, while George Clooney pretends to be a superhero pretty well (but not quite good enough for an Academy Award).

Problem solved.

Children Recreate Football’s Greatest Moments

Posted: 13 Sep 2010 01:14 PM PDT

This commercial, when stumbling in entirely oblivious, comes to realization in stages, something along the lines of…this is half-decent for a home video…hey, that kid’s fairly ridiculous – is that Gato?…wait, that’s Maradona recreated…and finally…oh, it’s a commercial.

But seriously, is that first kid Gato?

This commercial would also serve as a lesson to all those with designs on tugging at the heart strings of a futbol mad nation.

Monday, September 13, 2010

World Cup 2010 Blog: Help Wanted in Ghana: Black Stars Look for New Coach

Help Wanted in Ghana: Black Stars Look for New Coach

Posted: 12 Sep 2010 12:07 PM PDT

Ghana WC Celebration

Despite making it to the quarterfinals of the World Cup this summer in South Africa, the man that took them there has declined to extend his contract with the Black Stars. Milovan Rajevac, rejected the four-year extension offered by the Ghana Football Association (GFA) for a more lucrative financial deal with Saudi Arabian club, Al-Ahli. In addition to the World Cup quarters appearance, Rajevac helped Ghana reach the finals of the 2009 African Nations Championship and the 2010 African Cup of Nations since arriving in August 2008. Now, the GFA are scrambling to find a suitable replacement for their African Cup of Nations qualifier against Sudan in October.

The news that Rajevac was moving on was undoubtedly a hard pill to swallow for both the Federation and Ghana fans. However, the controversy surrounding why and how this breakdown happened has spawned a few rumors over the relationship between the Ghana Federation and Rajevac. For more on that, check out the Ghana World Cup Blog entry on the subject.

Regardless of how and why it happened, the show must go on and Ghana must decide who will take over the job.

GFA President, Kwasi Nyantakyi, told the BBC the Federation is meeting on Monday (September 13) to discuss the vacancy and to review the possible job candidates.

We have made no decision at this stage but everything should be clear after the meeting on Monday.

We will make all the major decisions about the way forward at the meeting.

The key issues to be determined in the meeting are who should be appointed in the interim to oversee the team’s qualifiers should a long-term candidate not be secured in the next few weeks as well as if a Ghanaian be given preference for the job.

Unless Ghana has already tracked down a few leads on available coaches, it seems likely an interim coach will be named. Akwasi Appiah, Rajeva’s assistant, has been named as a possible interim-coach. It remains to be seen if he will be offered the long-term job. From what I have sussed out, which admittedly is not based on a thorough background check, Appiah seems to have support in Ghana but not necessarily from the Federation.

Earlier this year the Ghana Federation was criticized for the disproportionate gap in salary they paid to Rajevac and Appiah. In 2008 he was heavily rumored to be offered the management position before agreeing to the position of assistant coach. The debate surrounding Appiah seems to overlap with the debate over the importance of having a Ghanaian leading the team. Given the success Rajevac achieved the past few years with Ghana, its hard to argue against their decision but some are questioning the logic behind GFA’s chronic devaluation of Ghanaian coaches as “not good enough.”