Did You See That One Sepp?
I would suspect that Sepp Blatter may have seen the Ukrainian ghost goal last night for two reasons.
Firstly, even it had been scored, it wouldn’t have changed who went through to the next round.
But of course, he did see it, as it was against England, his bete-noir, who are always complaining about the suspender-loving Swiss idiot.
To be charitable to the England players and officials, they have not denied it was a goal. After all, we have a lot to gain from the Hawk Eye technology to check these problems. as it is developed by a company, based in Winchester. But after seeing Sepp’s judgements on this matter over the last few years, I suspect he’ll give his seal of approval to anybody but this company. Although it is rumoured that the company are working on a system especially for Sepp, that detects if women are wearing Stockings.
But what was the extra linesman doing on the goal-line? Answers on the back of a postage stamp please. He certainly wasn’t looking.
The Fake Sheikh Strikes Again
With the demise of the News of the World, the fake sheikh, Mazher Mahmood, seems to have struck again for its sister paper The Sunday Times. It’s reported here on the BBC.
The Sunday Times alleges, during a two-month investigation in which reporters posed as Middle Eastern ticket touts, it found corruption involving people representing 54 separate countries.
Note the Middle Eastern ticket touts!
Obviously, these tickets weren’t distributed correctly, but then that had nothing to do with the London organisers. Yet again, Olympic rules are framed to feather the nests of members of the Olympic family.
I haven’t received my Sunday Times yet, but it will be explosive reading. They do name some of the countries on their web site and the list contains the usual suspects. The BBC reports that the Greeks actually asked for more tickets, because they had siold so many. This is from the BBC report.
Accusations include an allegation a member of the Greek Olympics Committee said he had “persuaded” Lord Coe, chairman of the London organising committee, Locog, to give Greece more tickets on the pretext demand had outstripped supply.
So did the Germans fund all of these Greeks to come to London?
I hope LOCOG trace the tickets that went to these countries and withdraw them, so that suckers will pay thousands of pounds for a worthless piece of card. There’s a fat chance of that.
After all the BBC has already exposed someone from Ukraine in this report.
Are The Frogs Floundering?
Let’s face it the French haven’t the best record as fighters when it gets wet; Trafalgar, Copenhagen, Quiberon Bay. And they don’t seem to be doing too well on a rain-effected pitch in Donetsk.
Could Hodsgon’s luck be thinking about turning as France need to beat the Ukraine.
Is the Ukraine the Place for Euro-2012?
I have just read this article about the Ukraine on the BBC.
England will be playing their three qualifying group matches for Euro-2012 in the Ukraine, although not anywhere near where Yulia Ymoshrenko is imprisoned. The Times also reports bomb explosions in the city.
I think that it could be a bit of a difficult trip for England and especially their supporters.
Remember too, that the patron saint of the Ukraine is Saint Andrew.
Talk about a baptism of fire for England’s new manager. Fire must be fought with fire! Even if only it the of the metaphorical sort! So the England team should contain the two English heroes of the Nou Camp; Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard. And of course Stuart Pearce must be on the touchline! Even if he’s just number two in name to some overpriced so-called man with the right experience!