Spain v France – I’m Looking Forward To The Match, But Not The Inane Adverts!
I have just watched the most inane, irrelevant and time-wasting adverts on ITV before the 2026 World Cup semi-final between France and Spain.
They’ve even started up again.
I want to watch football not adverts.
- I do hope some clever geek is devising a TV, that automatically cuts out adverts, using Artificial Intelligence!
- I would even pay extra to watch an advert-free feed.
If the second option made more money for FIFA, we might see that.
Searching For Jude Bellingham Station
A few years back, I wrote Southgate Expects, during Euro-2020, about the signage at Southgate station during the 2018 World Cup, which I described in Gareth Southgate Station.
So I wondered if anything would be done at Bellingham station in South London, after Jude Bellingham’s exploits in an England shirt, overnight on Sunday.
To get to Bellingham station, you take a train to Sevenoaks from Blackfriars station.
These pictures show views from one of the UK’s most unusual stations, which is on a bridge over the River Thames.
In the last three pictures, Bellingham is shown as Jude Bellingham on the train information display.
There Was Only One Lion Of Vienna, But Fifteen Lions Were Too Much For Mexico, The Crowd And The Officials
One of my earliest memories of football in the 1950s, is the exploits of England centre-forward Nat Lofthouse of Bolton Wanderers.
- I have vague memories of watching the 1953 Matthews Final on our first television, where Lofthouse was on the losing Bolton side.
- I don’t have any memory of the infamous game for England, that gave Lofthouse his nickname.
- But I do remember the controversial 1958 Cup Final between Bolton and Manchester United, which came three months after the Munich disaster. The final was controversial because Lofthouse barged the Manchester United goalkeeper; Harry Gregg into the net for the second goal, in their 2-0 win.
But football was a much tougher game in the 1950s.
The Lion Of Vienna
This except from Lofthouse’s Wikipedia entry, explains how he received his nickname.
On 25 May 1952, Lofthouse earned the title ‘Lion of Vienna’ after scoring his second goal in England’s 3–2 victory over Austria. In doing so he was elbowed in the face, tackled from behind, and finally brought down by the goalkeeper.
I’m afraid some of the tactics of the Mexicans needed more punishment than the officials gave them. And where did the officials conjure up eleven minutes of added time from?
Perhaps Trump had promised a nice holiday in one of his resorts, if they could not stand in the way of a Mexico-USA final, or at least ensure, that England didn’t progress to the quarter-finals.
After all FIFA rescinded a red card for USA’s star forward. Read about this surprising decision in this article on the BBC, which is entitled Red Card System In Disarray Over Trump, Fifa And Balogun Decision.
Thomas Tuchel On The Officials
This article on the Independent is entitled Thomas Tuchel Hits Out At Mexico v England Referee In Furious Rant: ‘Everything Went Against Us’.
Does BYD Stand For Bet On Your Destination?
Today I came back from Walthamstow Sainsbury’s to my home in Hackney, using two BYD electric buses on route W15, a diesel bus on route 488 and a Reliable Routemaster on Route 38.
Both the BYD electric buses stopped short of their final destination.
I also changed early to the 38, so I could have a Diet-Coke in a cafe that looked friendly.
It was!
- As you can see, it was right by a bus stop, where luckily for me, 38 buses called.
- I have written a few posts about the horrid BYD electric buses on route 141, but London shouldn’t be made to suffer an inferior product.
- If Manchester and Leeds can have UK-built buses by Wrightbus, that are delivered as diesel and converted at an appropriate time to zero-carbon, why can’t London and the rest of the country?
London’s fleet of a thousand Routemasters, which were built by Wrightbus, a few years ago, seem to have found a new niche in the world of advertising and I wouldn’t be surprised to see an experimental fleet of zero-carbon Routemasters.
Here’s a few images of Routemaster paint schemes.
I like them. I wonder, if a bus has gone missing to have a special makeover, if England get to the latter stages of the World Cup?
Carlos Queiroz Has An Excellent cv For Coaching A Good African Team In A North American World Cup
Carlos Queiroz is the head coach of Ghana in the 2026 World Cup.
I have just read his Wikipedia entry.
These are a few points.
- He was born in Mozambique.
- He is 73, which is older than I thought.
- He played professional football as a goalkeeper, which is unusual for a well-respected coach.
- He was a successful coach of young players and won the Youth World Cup twice with Portugal.
- He has coached at a top-level in the United States and Japan.
- Queiroz is a graduate of the University of Lisbon.
- He has managed the Portuguese National team.
- He authored the Q-Report, detailing plans to professionalize the development of footballers in the United States.
- He has coached Real Madrid
- He coached at Manchester United alongside Alex Ferguson.
- He has also coached the national teams of Columbia, Egypt and Iran.
I must admit with a cv like that, I’m surprised he hasn’t managed a Premier League team, that’s in serious trouble of relegation.
LEON Are In World Cup Mood
I took these pictures in LEON on Moorgate, this morning.
I won’t be eating one as it contains coconut, which is something, that I don’t like.
World Cup 2026: Fans To Pay $150 For Train Ticket To Stadium
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on DW.com.
This is the sub-heading.
Transportation costs for World Cup fans traveling to US stadiums could be more than 10 times higher than regular fares. Local officials and FIFA bosses are trading blame for the increased prices while fans feel fleeced
These three paragraphs add some detail.
Football fans trying to get to MetLife Stadium from New York City for the World Cup matches this summer will have to pay $150 (€127) for a round-trip, according to local transportation officials.
The price is almost 12 times higher than the usual $12.90 fare for the 15-minute trip from Penn Station in Manhattan to the stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
“We are going to charge $150 for our roundtrip ticket on our system. So from New York to MetLife, MetLife back to New York,” said Kris Kolluri, the president and CEO of NJ Transit.
For less than the equivalent of $150 dollars, I could get a ticket from my house to any of the Premier League grounds in England and some will take a lot longer than 15 minutes.
Welcome to Trumpland, where the World Cup is primarily to make money.
Sepp Blatter Eviscerates Gianni Infantino Over Trump, Ronaldo And Saudi Arabia
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Daily Telegraph.
This is the first paragraph.
Sepp Blatter can no longer bring himself to say Gianni Infantino’s name. Instead, the Swiss administrator – who ran Fifa from 1998 to 2015 until he left amid an enormous corruption scandal – refers to Infantino only as “my successor” and “the leader” as he takes his adversary to task ahead of Friday’s World Cup draw.
The article is worth a full read and the video is worth watching.
I’m Watching The World Cup Draw With A Sick Bucket
Here’s the bucket, which is an ideal accompaniment to when Trump appears on television.
Note.
- I have seen a number of American presidents and Trump isn’t even worth rating.
- As Putin and Mohammed bin Salman’s friend and apologist he certainly doesn’t deserve any form of Peace Prize.
- And who was the strumpet in the lizard costume?
- I thought Robbie Williams had more sense than to provide entertainment.
- Who’s this black guy in a red hat?
- Rio Ferdinand seems to be doing a good job.
But then everybody has a realistic price.
I actually suspect, I won’t watch much of the World Cup, as I can find better things too do. I certainly won’t watch any matches, where Trump is present.
The Anonymous Widower 