Half Time Heroes World Cup Review

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Half Time Heroes World Cup Anti Interview England

Half Time Heroes Anti -Interview with English Football Fan Dave From Bow in East London

No, I’M Jack the Ripper 
Who wants to beat England? I know I do! The World Cup draw means that a potential round of 16 clash between the Socceroos and England is a real possibility.

Also the World Cup bid for either 2018 or 2022 will be decided in December this year and this pits Australia directly against England. I spoke to a well known media personality in England about  Old Blighty’s chances at the World Cup in South Africa and for the World Cup bid.

Half Time Heroes: England’s World Cup group compared to some other teams was relatively easy with USA, Algeria and Slovenia. Will England win the World Cup? 
Dave from Bow in East London: One problem is we love the underdog to win in any team competition, so with our ‘team of life’ it’ll be hard not to support Slovenia and Algeria for at least part of each match. Will England win? Don’t you remember 1966?

HTH:Who do you think are your key players?
DFBIEL: Simon Cowell (pictured below) and the commentator from the 1966 match who uttered the immortal phrase “they think its all over...it is now” (a piece of commentary anyone living in England will hear about 25 times a day from the start of the tournament)

HTH: England’s main weakness is having to cope with the pressure from themselves and an expectant public what’s the hubris level like this time?
DFBIEL Hubris? after 1966? No chance.


HTH: As an Englishman would you have preferred an English manager as opposed to the current boss Italian Fabio Capello. 
DFBIEL: The Romans, ice cream, Isabella Rossellini...um...thats about the end of the list for interesting Italian exports. After all, We didn’t need an Italian in 1966.

HTH: The World Cup bid for 2018-2022 has England as the favourites for winning in 2018, Australia is not for behind in terms of the current odds but even as an English man you must admit that Australia should host in 2018 and England can have it in 2022. It would be much better in warm welcome country as apposed to cold and rude Old Blighty, wouldn’t you say?
DFBIEL: I had no idea we were even in the running, and I think you forget global warming in your calculations there, my son - England will be a warm and tropical climate by then. I’ve got an Aussie mate who thought everyone hated him for the first year of living here because everyone was so rude to him at work and down the pub.

Then he realised it was just our sense of humour he didn’t get and everyone had liked him all along. If, for the sake of argument I can say he represents all Australians, I’m not sure that a nation which is thin skinned, and is a bit slow on the uptake is an ideal host for a multi-cultural sporting event. And we have form hosting the World Cup, I think it was in 1966, by all accounts a very successful tournament.

HTH: What would you say if the Football Federation of Australia used this Bill Hicks joke to sell Australia as a better World Cup destination than England?

Bill Hicks On Convicts being sent to Australia:
“Let me get this straight... You keep the shitty food and the shitty weather and we get the Great Barrier Reef and lobsters the size of canoes? ...I’m Jack the Ripper! --No, I’M Jack the Ripper!”

DFBIEL: You don’t get the joke do you? It’s not about us, its about you

HTH: David Beckham and Posh Spice; 
 too much is not enough or leave me alone already? 
DFBIEL: Who’s asking?
(pictured left, Posh reckons that England is in pole position to win the World Cup in South Africa.Photo of Posh by Darkness Blackheart)

HTH: The English Wags (wives and girlfriends) get as much coverage as the players what do you think of this recent phenomenon in football?
DFBIEL: We’ve always liked a bit of glamour and a touch of class in our game (see 1966 final for instance), and if our team isn’t supplying it, then all power to the WAGs I say.

HTH :What would you say is the current vogue in hooliganism fashion? The  polo t-shirt, loafer wearing skinhead apparel, or the Chav, tight jeans and hoody over the head type look?
DFBIEL: Something with big pockets coz you have to dig deep to fork out enough readies to see the inside of a stadium these days.

Interview featured in Half Time Heroes January

Waiting for the democratisation of Australian Football

There were some very interesting developments that took place in the world of television football broadcasting recently. The first piece of news I found interesting was the BBC’s attempt to get football events such as the World Cup and FA Cup back on free-to-air television.

The Guardian report said that events such as the World Cup, Olympics and the FA Cup final benefited society as a whole if they were to return to free-to-air television.

Its research shows that one in five adults claim that watching at least one sport on TV motivated them to participate. What about the other four?

I guess that’s another researcher’s job.

Meanwhile, FFA chairman Frank Lowy stated in an interview to the SMH last week that the future of Australian football needed free-to-air to be included in it.

Speaking to Michael Cockerill, Lowy said: “We have a contract now, until 2013. I’ll do my damndest to make sure we get free-to-air after that. We can’t do it beforehand. These people [Fox Sports] are not going to give up. They came in and took a punt, a big punt; they gave us the basis for the competition. They’re not going to give up their contractual rights, and I don’t blame them for it. But the future needs more teams, a second division, and also some free-to-air.”

In Argentina, football fans there are enjoying watching their teams go around on free-to-air television for the first time in eighteen years. A deal by the FA and the government was struck to ensure that all domestic top flight matches can be broadcast for free by any national television channel wishing to do so.

In a recent article penned by one my favourite football writers, the Guardian’s Marcela Moya y Araujo reported that Julio Grondona the president of the Argentinian Football Association (AFA) said the decision to give football back to the people was “like the parable of life itself.”

Standing next to Grondona was the president of Argentina Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, and she announced it as a “historic” day in the “democratisation” of football.

While accepting an Argentina shirt from Diego Maradona, the president said “Football is an extraordinary business,” and “It doesn’t need to be subsidised. It needs to return the right to those who provide us with it to be enriched by it.”

She mentioned its importance as part of the cultural heritage of the nation, and referred to Argentinian football as a “registered trademark”.

The World Cup hosted by South Africa will be shown on SBS in all its glory next year. Whether you love them or loath them, knowing you haven’t paid for the privilege will make it taste that much sweeter.

Published here:

http://www.theroar.com.au/2009/08/26/waiting-for-the-democratisation-of-australian-football/

To Boo or not Boo, That is the Question

I wonder if booing is embedded in the English pysche so much that it is a permanent reaction to not having your expectations met, neither as a football fan nor as human being.

Only the English would boo Bob Dylan because he had the gall to play electric guitar in the second part of a concert.

Eliciting a famous response by an upset punter who said “Bob Dylan played like a bastard in the second half,” Frank Lampard always cops boos from the England fans it, but you really can’t feel sorry for him, can you?

How many goals can you score from deflections?

After Ashley Cole played a poor back pass from which Kazakhstan scored, sections of the crowd at Wembley preceded to boo him after every touch he made.

The English like to choose their villains from their own teams: David Beckham, Wayne Rooney and John Barnes all had sections from the home support boo them during their England career.

When I was in Rome in 2002, I was lucky enough to see a Champions League game between Roma and Galatasaray, the team Harry Kewell now plays for.

While the Romans chanted “Death to Istanbul” after the game (the score was 1-1), the best booing action came at half time. On the big screen you could see the camera was panning around the ground and stopping at random people.

If it stopped at a pretty girl, the sixty thousand crowd would cheer emphatically. If it stopped at a not so pretty girl, the crowd would boo.

So the English boo their own players, the Italians boo their own crowd, and the Australians boo the referee and Kevin Muscat.

And that’s the way it should be.