Move over, Heidi. Johnny Clegg coming.
The FIFA Organising Committee came correct today. The decision to base the procedure for the Final Draw of the 2010 World Cup on the October 2009 World Ranking is a good one. The ranking system was raw, but now it is refined and provides a rather useful way to measure the relative successes and failures of the world's footballing nations.
South Africa will be joined by Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina and England as the seeded teams in Pot 1.
The other 24 teams will be divided into the 3 pots, each with 8 teams.
Pot 2 will consist of teams from Asia (Australia, Japan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic), North, Central America and the Caribbean (Honduras, Mexico, USA) and Oceania (New Zealand)
Pot 3 will include teams from Africa (Algeria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria) and South America (Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay)
Pot 4 will contain the remaining European teams (Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland)
South Africa will be automatically positioned in Group A; the other seeded teams will be drawn into the other groups B-H.
Geographical criteria will also accounted for, ensuring no two teams from the same confederation will be drawn in the same group (except European teams, where a maximum of two will be in a group).
Bring it on.
Will we see an All Whites Haka? The World Cup will be richer for the experience.
I had been keen on seeing Bahrain qualify. Bahrain were the sort of quick counter-attacking outfit capable of the odd 3-2 upset.
New Zealand inspire less confidence as Giant Killers. But who knows? A Haka just before kick off might be worth a buried chicken or two.
While Omar and his boys from Bahrain were shooting down the Saudis in the Kingdom, New Zealand were in that other Kingdom kicking it with the Hashemites. It was an experience. New Zealand won 3-1. The Hashemites ain't got game no mo'.
New Zealand fancy their chances now. Former captain, Steve Sumner, interviewed for the Christchurch Press, said Bahrain was their "best and easiet" route to the World Cup finals. Sumner also sees English Premier League experience as important for New Zealand, noting in the same interview, the presence of some hacker from New Zealand in Blackburn Rovers' squad.
The All Whites would be ill advised to assume that because Bahrain is a small island nation with no Premier League performers the playoff is a sure thing to South Africa.
Bahrain has been hanging with Asia's biggest cats for the best part of the last decade. Bahrain advanced to the final Asian qualifying group stages for the 2002 World Cup. Bahrain was a Semi Finalist in the 2004 Asian Cup, playing the most adventurous and attack-minded football of the tournament. Ask the Uzbeks. And Bahrain were a disallowed goal from qualification in 2006.
This is the experience that matters. Bahrain has it. New Zealand does not. Ask the Fijians.
If only Roy Krishna had had a grandmother from Kilmarnock, Scotland could have been coming down the road.
The South African government announced today the Dalai Lama would not be welcome until after the 2010 World Cup.
The decision followed the postponement of a peace conference that had been scheduled to take place in Johannesburg on Friday. The peace conference was to be an opportunity for a range of characters including Nobel laureates and Hollywood celebrities to come to South Africa to discuss how to combat racism and how sport can unite people and nations.
Opinion is obviously divided.
Presidential spokesman, Thabo Masebe said, "South Africa would have been the source of negative publicity about China…We do value our relationship with China.” Masebe went on to say, “You can't remove Tibet from the Dalai Lama…that becomes the issue and South Africa is no longer the issue.”
But Kjetil Siem, chief executive officer of South Africa's Premier Soccer League, responded by saying, "When it comes to peace conferences ... it has nothing to do with the government." Siem also said the conference was a chance to show what South Africa had accomplished. Football was once as segregated as the rest of South African society, with four race-based leagues. Today, the nation is proudly united behind the upcoming World Cup.
Masebe noted the spiritual leader had been welcomed twice previously in South Africa and would be welcome again in the future — but "not now, when the whole world is looking at South Africa."
I expect Richard Gere and Co. to be outraged. But before you decide to polish off your Tibetan chanting bowl and start a Barney with the South African government, I recommend reading an excellent letter by Slavoj Žižek published in the London Review of Books last April. If you’re down with the Dalai Lama and prefer Gucci shoes to Baydan 271s, then I think you may be in desperate need of a dollop of the following rigourous analysis. Take it away, Professor Žižek:
The media imposes certain stories on us, and the one about Tibet goes like this. The People’s Republic of China, which, back in 1949, illegally occupied Tibet, has for decades engaged in the brutal and systematic destruction not only of the Tibetan religion, but of the Tibetans themselves. It is the duty of all of us who love democracy and freedom to put pressure on China to give back to the Tibetans what it stole from them...What will our governments do? Will they, as usual, cede to economic pragmatism, or will they summon the strength to put ethical and political values above short-term economic interests?
There are complications in this story of ‘good guys versus bad guys’. It is not the case that Tibet was an independent country until 1949, when it was suddenly occupied by China. The history of relations between Tibet and China is a long and complex one, in which China has often played the role of a protective overlord: the anti-Communist Kuomintang also insisted on Chinese sovereignty over Tibet. Before 1949, Tibet was no Shangri-la, but an extremely harsh feudal society, poor (life expectancy was barely over 30), corrupt and fractured by civil wars (the most recent one, between two monastic factions, took place in 1948, when the Red Army was already knocking at the door). Fearing social unrest and disintegration, the ruling elite prohibited industrial development, so that metal, for example, had to be imported from India.
Since the early 1950s, there has been a history of CIA involvement in stirring up anti-Chinese troubles in Tibet, so Chinese fears of external attempts to destabilise Tibet are not irrational. Nor was the Cultural Revolution, which ravaged Tibetan monasteries in the 1960s, simply imported by the Chinese: fewer than a hundred Red Guards came to Tibet. The youth mobs that burned the monasteries were almost exclusively Tibetan. As the TV images demonstrate, what is going on now in Tibet is no longer a peaceful ‘spiritual’ protest by monks, but involves the killing of innocent Chinese immigrants and the burning of their stores.
It is a fact that China has made large investments in Tibet’s economic development, as well as its infrastructure, education and health services. To put it bluntly: in spite of China’s undeniable oppression of the country, the average Tibetan has never had such a high standard of living. There is worse poverty in China’s western rural provinces: child slave labour in brick factories, abominable conditions in prisons, and so on.
In recent years, China has changed its strategy in Tibet: depoliticised religion is now tolerated, often even supported. China now relies more on ethnic and economic colonisation than on military coercion, and is transforming Lhasa into a Chinese version of the Wild West, in which karaoke bars alternate with Buddhist theme parks for Western tourists. In short, what the images of Chinese soldiers and policemen terrorising Buddhist monks conceal is a much more effective American-style socio-economic transformation: in a decade or two, Tibetans will be reduced to the status of Native Americans in the US. It seems that the Chinese Communists have finally got it: what are secret police, internment camps and the destruction of ancient monuments, compared with the power of unbridled capitalism?
One of the main reasons so many people
in the West participate in the protests against China is ideological:
Tibetan Buddhism, deftly propagated by the Dalai Lama, is one of the
chief points of reference for the hedonist New Age spirituality that
has become so popular in recent times.
Tibet has become a mythic entity onto which we project our dreams. When people mourn the loss of an authentic Tibetan way of life, it isn’t because they care about real Tibetans: what they want from Tibetans is that they be authentically spiritual for us, so that we can continue playing our crazy consumerist game. ‘Si vous êtes pris dans le rêve de l’autre,’ Gilles Deleuze wrote, ‘vous êtes foutu.’ The protesters against China are right to counter the Beijing Olympic motto – ‘One World, One Dream’ – with ‘One World, Many Dreams’. But they should be aware that they are imprisoning Tibetans in their own dream.
The Tibet Football Association was founded in 2001, though it is not recognized by FIFA. The team has played about a dozen games mostly in India and Europe, against opposition as varied as the Republic of St. Pauli, a German anarchist outfit from Hamburg, hosts of the inaugural Football Independents World Cup in 2006, and AS Monaco.
The Tibetans first game was against Greenland. The game took place in Denmark and the team was followed by a documentary crew who produced the film, “The Forbidden Team.”
China objected to the match taking place and threatened to cut off all trade with Denmark. Is this a cue for a discussion about Danish colonialism in the circumpolar artic region? Or should I maintain a thread about the passion Tibetans have for football?
Myanmar's World Cup is almost over. China thumped them 7-0 yesterday. Myanmar can now go back to exporting oil, while oil companies remind their shareholders that it's not their fault most of the world's supply is located in non democratic states.
Unlike India, China knew they had to go Belichickian if they were have any chance of representing in South Africa. The appointment of Vladimir "Pižon" Petrović to coach Chinese national team in early September was smart. Very smart.
Despite the scoreline, China's coach Vladimir "Pižon" Petrović had
little praise for his team, whom he criticised for squandering
more than a dozen clear-cut opportunities. "I'm not satisfied with the finishing and the midfield," Petrović told China's Xinhua news agency. "The players wasted too many chances to score and the
midfielders should have pressured the rivals more. The players felt a little bit nervous at the beginning but
gradually they got into form and scored goals," added the wily Serb.
Petrović made his Red Star Belgrade debut in 1971. He was only 16. He won 5 Yugoslav titles with famed club and 34 caps for Yugoslavia.
Petrović was an assistant coach at Red Star Belgrade when they won European Champions Cup in 1991. He has since quietly developed his coaching technique with the at the U21 level with Serbia and Montenegro and in the Chinese domestic game. He led Dalian Shide to the Chinese double in 2005.
I think this Pigeon knows his way to Africa.
FIFA has moved the second leg of China's World Cup qualifier against Myanmar to Malaysia. Myannar had been scheduled to host China in Yangon on October 28. FIFA said the decision had been taken after requests from the Myanmar and Chinese football associations. FIFA has still to announce the exact venue for the match since Kuala Lumpur is already staging a qualifier between Malaysia and Bahrain the same day. A FIFA spokesman said no decision had been taken on future Myanmar home matches but FIFA was monitoring the situation on an "ongoing basis". China host the first leg against Myanmar in Foshan, in southern Guangdong province, this Sunday. (I am sure the ref knows the score.)
The last time Bangladesh played Tajikistan, they got shown the willow. 6-1 to the Tajiks.
The Tajiks were "satisfied" to get out of Dhaka with a draw in their World Cup opener this week.
The Bangladeshi coach Syed Nayeemuddin had a Belichickian game plan and backing from his administrators and the gods.
Nayeemuddin blooded a team with an emphasis on youth. The Bangladesh Football Federation added some spice to the affair, offering US$2,200 per player for the draw. There was free entry to certain sections of the Bangabandhu National Stadium. And it rained all night long!
Bangladesh opened the scoring through Zumratul Hossain Mithu in the 50th minute (pictured left). The Tajiks scored through a "disputed" penalty 8 minutes later.
When did it last rain in Dushanbe?
San Jose State’s Yousef Samy was a member of the Afghan team that lost in Aleepo. The Afghanistan squad was a patchwork of émigrés and refugees with many coming from Germany (which could go a long way to explain why the Syrians had such a hard time of it for much of the game).
Samy (pictured here chesting the ball) has played for the Spartan ‘soccer’ team for two years.
“The Afghan community [in the US] is really big and really small at the same time,” explained Samy. Yousef Samy was born in Berkeley, California to Afghan parents. The midfielder learned the game from his father, Rahmat. Rahmat played for the Afghanistan in the 1970s, when Afghanistan was a relative football power in Asia. (Those were the days when my good ‘brother’ DB used to hang out in Kabul. I must ask him if he ever went the match at the Ghazi.)
“This is an honor to me,” said Samy. “I get to play for my country and for the same team my father played on when he was my age. It takes years to build a national team to the level of competition that we’re going to be facing. I know we’re not going to be the best team; we might even lose really bad. I’m not going into this thinking that we’re going to win the World Cup, but I hope this is going to be the beginning of something that will help create youth programs and get them to play at a more competitive level.”
Amen and All Praises to Allah for that!
Afghanistan made its return to the World Cup stage in Aleppo two nights ago. The Failed Staters of Afghanistan deserve much respect for the performance holding the Syrians until the 73rd minute when Mohammed Zeno broke free to score. (Mohammed loves freedom!) Maher Al Sayed added a penalty in 80th minute, before Zeno added his second late in the game.
The teams will meet again in Dushanbe, Tajikstan, on October 26. Surely, if the US invasion had succeeded all those years ago, the Syrians would still have a tricky trip to the Ghazi Olympic Stadium in Kabul.
Long before the Lebanese and the Sudanese, racial intolerance in Australia was directed at Afghans. (What would President call George W. Bush the Aboriginal experience? "Historic Mass Killings", I think. At least that is what he is calling the ‘Armenian Genocide’, now the Turkish Army is about to roll into Iraqi Kurdistan.)
There is no pleasing some folk. Afghans made fundamental contributions to opening up Australia with pivotal roles in pioneering projects including the Overland Telegraph Line between Adelaide and Darwin, the Queensland Border Fence, the Transcontinental Railway Line between Port Augusta and Kalgoorlie, and the Rabbit Proof fence and Canning Stock Route in Western Australia.
The remnants of the Afghan contribution are now an emblematic part of Australia, from the date palms in Alice Springs to the ‘Ghan’ train line which links Adelaide to Alice Springs and to any tourist who mounts a camel in Cooper Pedy or in the Northern Territories.
Unlike the Lebanese and Sudanese, the Afghans had to face the double whammy of violence and harassment being institutionalized in The Immigration Restriction Act, later known as the White Australia Policy, which denied naturalization to Afghans (most of whom has been resident in Australia for generations). Many were forced to leave the continent.
In recent years Afghan boat people seeking refuse have been offered mandatory detention or have forced out of Australian waters by the Australian Navy.
No doubt Prime Minister Howard thinks the beaches and train stations have enough “wogs” to worry about.
* The first Afghans arrived in South Australia in 1838 when Joseph Bruce brought 18 of the ‘blighters’ into Australia. The first camel arrived at Port Adelaide in 1840. There followed small incremental deliveries of Camels in the years after. The first significant importation of Camels was in 1866 when Samuel Stuckey succeeded in bringing out more than a hundred camels and 31 Afghan cameleers, as well. The Afghan camelmen, came from different ethnic groups and from vastly different places such as Baluchistan, Egypt, Kashmir, Persia, Punjab, Rajastan, Sind and Turkey.
The first known football club in Australia was organised by a school teacher called W.J. Fletcher in Parramatta in 1880. He called them the "Wanderers". Another club soon followed at Kings School and fixtures between the two were quickly arranged.
This challenge to the egg chasing code became very popular in Sydney, but also in the coal mining areas of Newcastle and the Illawarra.
No doubt there were gangs of migrant Scots coal miners hanging around the train station in those days too.
Here are a few of them from South Bulli. Young looking blighters with "black" faces.
Not all Lebanese go abroad to smuggle arms, cocaine, diamonds or to pimp football prospects. (That's just the few ‘smelly’ melons in the crate.)
The Lebanese and their Diaspora has made massive contributions to academia, to the arts and sciences, to business, to food and drink, to industry, to literature, to music, to politics and social movements, and sadly to war. (I know Hassan Nasrallah could teach Sun Tzu a thing or two.) I could blog forever about how the likes of Nassim Talib, Fawwaz Trabulsi, Fairouz, and Charles Malik have inspired and enriched me. Although none of these great folk has hit my spot like a Manoush.
I first came across Lebanese food at the “Middle East” in Central Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Joseph and Nabil still run the best night-spot in town. The best restaurants in the world are in Zahle. (The most beautiful women in the world are also from Zahle, acccording to the Lebanese.) The best pizza I have eaten (outside of Napoli) was in a Lebanese pizza parlour in Berlin. And the best falafel I ever had (outside of Trablous) was in a Lebanese spot near Manley Beach in Australia.
In Australia, the Lebanese community has long been on the receiving end of bitter racism, brought into world-focus during the Cronulla riots in 2005. Lebanese migration to Australia was largely the result of a forward thinking and enlightened Australian Minister, Peter Costello. Australia is now governed by troglodytes, such as Immigration Minister, Kevin Andrews.
The Sudanese are the new Lebanese in Australia. Those lanky blokes that congregate near train stations, yes them. Those blokes with baggy jeans and oversized T-shirts. The white Australians call them "Skinnies".
One such “Skinny” died from severe head injuries he received near the Noble Street Station in Melbourne last week. His name was Liep Gony. Liep was 19. (Three angry white men have been charged.)
Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews contends that the Sudanese are not integrating. Last week, he released a dossier of claims that the “Skinnies” were participating in "gangs", nightclub fights and assembling in parks to drink alcohol at night. (Sounds a lot like Leeds.)
In any event, Andrews’ dossier, timed near the calling of a general election, had been offered as justification for squeezing the Australia refugee program reserved for Africans. (Are Australians not seeing all those commercials about genocide in Darfur?)
One senior policeman told the Melbourne Age. "A lot of do-gooders are saying: 'Leave the Sudanese alone' but some of those kids who, all of a sudden have freedom and some money, get out of control. They're not mimicking the traditional Sudanese culture, they're mimicking the African-American culture, and it does cause problems down there." (So it's James Brown’s fault now is it? Speaking of mimicking Americans. What exactly was Prime Minister John Howard doing when he sent Australian forces into Iraq? Explain that one David Kilculen.)
Let's see how they go when one of Dandenong's Sudanese grows into the No. 9 shirts and develops a knack for heading one of Harry Kewell's crosses into the net. (The brother could be just as popular as that "wog" John Aloisi.)
C'mon Aussie, C'mon C'mon.
* A vast majority of the Sudanese in Melbourne are Christian from Southern Sudan. Their refugee status stems from the conflict.
I would strongly recommend the All India Football Federation read Albert Memmi.
It would help them with their "Bob" problem.
There are bound to be copies on College Street in Calcutta.
I am sure they can negotiate a good price at the new Barna Parichoy mall.
My friend. I give you good price. My friend.
Avramovic is the understated man in the suit, tactically positioned just behind the Singapore President SR Nathan, as the Singapore team celebrated their second consecutive South East Asian Cup triumph in 2007. 
Bob Houghton has been the coach of India for a little over a year.
In that time India has slipped to its lowest ever FIFA ranking, sharing 165th position with Laos, and Houghton has spent most of his time immersed in the club-country debate with the Calcutta League.
I fear India may have made a mistake when they failed to appoint a no nonsense Xs and Os guru from the former Yugoslavia. We will know more after the match in Saida tonight.
While Indians will be watching Lebanese footwork closely tonight, the Indian Army contingent deserves maximum respect for ensuring some Lebanese are able to walk at all.
The "Jaipur Foot Project" was first conceived by the Indian contingent in 2005. South Lebanon is home to hundreds of amputees afflicted by mines, cluster bombs and other forms of unexploded ordnance.
The Indians have since held three camps in South Lebanon fitting 123 Lebanese with artifical limbs. The "Jaipur Foot Project" is a result of an agreement reached with Lebanese officials for the Indian battalion to provide Lebanese amputees with artificial limbs, produced at around a 10th of the average cost by a factory in the Indian city of Jaipur.
