2006 cup demo world rants-

2006-06-05T03:11:00.000-07:00

Emirates Airline's in-flight entertainment service will broadcast of every game from the 2006 FIFA World Cup 64-match tournament to its passengers, its news agency, WAM reported Monday.

Emirates, an official partner of FIFA World Cup has bought the rights to the broadcast of every game beginning with opening game in Munich between hosts Germany and Costa Rica on June 9, before the closing with the final in Berlin on July 9.

The deal in association with official FIFA World Cup Middle East broadcaster ART will provide Emirates passengers flying during the football fiesta with up-to-date action from the world's biggest sporting occasion.

Emirates will also be operating dedicated live viewing stations at 16 airports in 10 different countries, football-loving passengers will miss none of the joy and heartache of a tournament.

2006-06-04T08:27:00.000-07:00

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Football fans up and down the country still desperate to get their hands on World Cup tickets are shelling out thousands of pounds.
Touts have been selling tickets at a mark up of more than 2000 per cent. Tickets with a face value of £60 have been selling for £750.
100,000 England fans are expected in Germany for the World Cup, which begins next Friday - but it is estimated that only 30,000 of them have tickets.
Unnamed tickets originally allocated to commercial sponsors are fuelling the black market.
New laws have made it illegal for anyone to tout tickets in England or Wales for World Cup games.
However a loophole in the law mans the sale of tickets over the Internet is not covered.

2006-06-02T08:40:00.000-07:00

The euphoria that gripped the nation after the Black Stars' qualification to their first ever World Cup competition is indescribable. For some of us who eat and dream football, it was the most fulfilling experience that could ever happen to us.
However, I have to admit that if excitement alone wins matches, then a country such as England should have been winning the World Cup at each competition. Many of us have been very worried about the Stars' preparation towards this year's football's biggest festival. Personally, I have wondered whether our preparations have been commensurate with the passion with which we discuss soccer.
Cancellations
In less than fifty days, the Black Stars will join the 31 other countries to attempt to win a trophy that has for a long time been the preserve of some traditional powerhouses. Sadly, however, our FA has struggled to organize quality friendly matches to fine tune the players for the tournament.
Friendly after friendly was announced and just when it was almost time for these matches to be honored, the FA announced a cancellation. For the records, Ghanaians were told to expect matches with Argentina, Iran, Turkey, and Hanover, yet the closer these events got the easier it became for the FA to announce cancellations. What is the reason behind the cancellation of matches?
Isn't it a shame that a World Cup team like Ghana cannot organize a friendly with a quality team that will participate in the same competition, especially when the likes of Togo and Ivory Coast have been successful in that direction? At some point, countries such as Portugal were busily looking for opponents when we continued wallowing in our "faith-based" philosophy of running football.
The game of football has changed so much and preparation is an integral part of any tournament. Now, the football association is running around, hastily organizing matches with less than two (2) months to go. What happened to the numerous trips made by members of the FA?
Looking for the easy way out
It beats my naked imagination why we have blatantly refused to learn some good lessons from the Egypt 2006 debacle. In that tournament, while the likes of Tunisia and other teams had some good preparation, our FA frustrated early camping efforts only to settle for immediately arranged matches with Togo, Tunisia, and Ismaila only for team moral to be dampened.
I am told the FA was successful in organizing the previous or even the upcoming friendly matches because their opponents bore/will bear the financial costs. Sources indicate that the Stars played Saudi Arabia because the Saudis footed the bill [and even paid the Ghanaian contingent], played Mexico because the Mexicans made the call and paid for all the expenses, while they will play Stuttgart because they [Stuttgart] have their own venue, or else that could have led to the cancellation of the match.
More so, they will play Jamaica because most of the Jamaicans are based in England, while the FA chose Austria because the Black Stars will be camping at no cost. While, I am not averse to the FA's choice of Austria over Portugal [for the Stars' camping] it will make no sense if the resources saved could not be channeled into other areas that will contribute to make the team better.
Why do we always settle for cheapness and look for the easy ways out? What happened to the funds FIFA gives to all participating teams? The match coordinator for Ghana's friendlies against Jamaica and Korea noted that Ghana does not have the resources to pay for any stadium to be opened for three weeks, so getting a venue in London proved impossible."
He added that Filbert Street, the old football ground for Leicester Football Club was only secured because the rugby team also uses the ground and the rugby league has just begun." Isn't it a shame how the FA has to overburden itself with a few weeks to the fiesta when it had enough time to make adequate, proper arrangements?
The Black Stars, we are told, will play Terek Grozniy on 8 May, before taking on Anji Mahachkala on 11 May in Russia, before the deadline for the submission of the final squad lists for the World Cup. What on earth are the Stars going to do in Chechnya? What were they [the FA] thinking in making such a choice?
Were they so desperate they would willingly throw our boys into harm's way without even batting an eyelid? Or it's just a case of very poor geographical as well as socio-political knowledge? More so, why are we playing/touring Europe so close to the World Cup? Why can't we invite the teams to play some of these matches in our Camp base in Austria? Somebody has a lot of explanation to give at the GFA!
Sometime ago, the President of the GFA indicated his organization was going to announce a selection of a 32-man pre-World Cup team from which the coach was going to use as a pool for the selection of a formidable team for the mundial but there has been no commitment to this. As far as I know the Stars would play Stuttgart on the 26th of April and yet the list for the game has been shrouded in secrecy. I strongly am of the view that the running of football in the country is a service to the millions of fans, who own the team. GFA is just managing it for the teeming football loving fans.
Mediocre targets
I am not surprised then that that FA, including the coach has set, for itself, mediocre targets at the World Cup. How could anyone be content with a mere second round berth after qualifying just as any other team did? An official from the FA comes out to indicate how happy the FA will be should the Stars make it to the second round and the next moment the coach confirms it. In a previous feature article, I catalogued a litany of excuses given by Coach Ratomir Djukovic in the period leading to the Egypt 2006 Nations Cup which were evident in the team's lackluster performance.
It is unfortunate that while the players have consistently indicated their willingness to challenge traditional notions of success at the tournament, the authorities have made nonsense of that with their ego-bruising utterances. Darrel Royal notes that "the only place one can win a football game is on the field. However, though, the only place too one can lose it is in your mind." If we have such a mindset then the Stars might lose their matches even before they get to the field.
As far as I know, with good preparation, our ability to win this cup is as realistic as any of the powerhouses. But like an eagle, the day it belittles itself to the rank a chicken, it will equally begin to act and behave like so. Even though the eagle may have within itself a super flying ability, it would wonder around like the poor chicken. Members of the FA and the coach had better be careful what they say to the media.
It is good to set realistic targets but it is even worse to spew out utterances that will affect the morale of the team. Why go to the event when you have such a low level of confidence? I don't think the FA is already admitting its failures and making excuses should our boys fail to deliver.
Who ever believed that Greece could win the European Cup in 2004? Who would believe that Turkey and South-Korea could qualify for the 2002 World Cup semi-finals? Did anybody ever give Cameroon the chance when they played Argentina in the 1990 World Cup? How about performances by other African teams? Back in 1978 The Netherlands was not given a penny's chance at the World Cup, because star-player Cruijff refused to play, yet they made it to the final.
Ghana has a very rich football history that could facilitate its drive for success. Our problem is that we have a mentality that any little thing should suffice; thus since the Stars will be making their first ever appearance, any performance should be satisfactory. I will always argue that Ghanaians will not settle for mediocrity!

2006-06-01T07:19:00.000-07:00

A number of racially motivated attacks have sparked fears of a wave of neo-Nazi violence to coincide with the World Cup.
Last week, police said they had detained 27 people in Berlin and in two eastern towns for a series of racist attacks on foreigners that left at least one man with severe head injuries.
Uwe-Karsten Heye, head of the anti-racist organisation "Gesicht zeigen" ("Show face"), warned last month that black soccer fans would be risking their lives if they ventured into parts of Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg.
The Africa Council, which represents Africans living in Germany, said it would print a list of places where African soccer fans should not go during the tournament.
"The concept of no-go areas is not a new phenomenon: we were highlighting this eight years ago," said Kay Wendel of Opferperspektive, a support group for victims of far-right violence based in the Brandenburg city of Potsdam.
The no-go areas stem from the neo-Nazis' attempts to create liberated areas or zones, Wendel said, such as the one they came close to achieving in Wurzen.
A report last month by the German domestic intelligence agency showed that while the overall number of extreme right-wing supporters had fallen last year, the number of extremists prepared for violence had increased.
Far-right groups have traditionally found their strongest support in the formerly communist east. Before unification, foreigners were rare in the East and after the Berlin Wall fell, a lack of education and rising unemployment created ideal conditions for right-wing sentiment to grow.
About 100 people have been killed in far-right violence since unification in 1990. The attacks have been most frequently aimed at dark-skinned foreigners living in the east.
NPD SUPPORT
The racism debate has propelled the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) back into the spotlight, just over five years after the government tried to have it banned.
In a petition to the Federal Constitutional Court, the government cited Wurzen, in the eastern state of Saxony, as an example of a town where the party's supporters were seeking to create "liberated zones".
The attempt in Wurzen failed but many NPD supporters remained in the town, the government noted.
The NPD is open about the fact that it has sought to get away from its former image as a party of skinheads; it says it is seeking a broader appeal among the "bakers, nurses and country doctors" of Germany.
"It is different from how it was five years ago when people had the image of a guy in a bomber jacket," said Peter Marx, the NPD's deputy leader, from his office at the Saxony parliament in Dresden. "The party has changed structurally."
For student Meister in Wurzen, this is worrying.
"The biggest issue is no longer the violence on the street but that the NPD are being taken seriously as a democratic party," he said.
While Germany's domestic intelligence agency says the NPD has become more attractive to neo-Nazis and skinheads in the past year, the party says it condemns violence.
Marx says the NPD has no plans to disrupt the World Cup with demonstrations or rallies at matches, adding there is no need for soccer fans to feel threatened.
"Someone from the Congo is safer here in Dresden or Berlin than in his home country, than in Soweto, Sudan or anywhere else on the continent," he said. "If someone were to say that he does not feel safe here, that would be simply wrong.

2006-05-30T03:50:00.000-07:00

Some 3,300 banning orders introduced to prevent known English hooligans from travelling to the World Cup in Germany came into force on Tuesday.
The orders, introduced following riots by England fans in Belgium during Euro 2000, are central to the government's drive to prevent fans causing trouble during the June 9 to July 9 tournament.
Anyone subject to a banning order has to hand in their passport to police by the end of the day and must report to a local police station every time England play.
Failure to do so could result in a six month prison sentence and a fine.
The Home Office says cooperation between German and English officials has been unprecedented, with both sides confident they can stop serious trouble breaking out.
The 1998 World Cup in France -- the last time it was held in Europe -- was marred by rioting England fans and almost 1,000 English hooligans were arrested during Euro 2000 in Belgium and the Netherlands.
But there was little trouble at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan while Euro 2004 also passed off without too much trouble -- although some 50 people were arrested in a tourist town several hundred kilometres from where England were playing.
Many fans have told Reuters that the key to a peaceful tournament is the approach taken by the police.
Police in Portugal, after taking advice from their British counterparts, operated a fair but firm approach, and German officials have said they are keen to do the same.
Under an agreement between the two governments, 79 English police officers will travel to Germany for the tournament and will be either working with the host Federal police at ports and on the trains while others will be based near the stadiums.
A small number of German police officers will also be present at English ports and airports to monitor England fans leaving for Germany.

2006-05-30T02:21:00.000-07:00

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