Sepp Blatter's FIFA Copa del Mundo 2014

[Burnden Paddock]

Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica. 2am ko in our opener against Italy. Oh well, just enjoy the rest of the football.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Spain and the Netherlands We are rubbish enough as it is, this is going to be rough...

Maybe they'll forget the whole charade of doing well this time. Hopefully.

[newcarsmell]

...

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Fixed

[Little Green Man]

Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica. 2am ko in our opener against Italy. Oh well, just enjoy the rest of the football.

In Manaus as well.

[newcarsmell]

Cheers for that !

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Cheers for that !

No problem. For YouTube just use the MLVJm7QW3dA bit between the tags. Don't ask me why though

[Lost Leopard Spot]

In Manaus! LGM. We might as well not go.

[Little Green Man]

England manager Roy Hodgson raised his concerns about the prospect of playing in Manaus before the draw - only to see the city come out of the hat for England's opener with Italy

"Manaus is the place ideally to avoid," the England boss had said. "The tropicality of Manaus is the problem. It will be a difficult venue for everyone, but for northern European players it will be a little bit harder."

The mayor of the Brazilian city seemed to take offence. Arthur Virgilio said in a statement on his Facebook page: "We would prefer that England doesn't come. "We hope to get a better team and a coach who is more sensible and polite.

"He's one of the few people in the world who is not curious about the Amazon, who doesn't want to know Manaus."

I foresee tabloid pictures Our Roy photshopped with a few hungry piranhas.

[Prufrock]

Yon mon is a bit touchy though isn't he. He didn't say it was a shithole, just that it might not be ideal for the old football. They wont be going for a holiday, as LLS has pointed out, that's what they're doing now.

As for the group, it's a tough one, but not impossible. Italy in that humidity will be awful, because, as per, we'll spend most of the game without the ball. Game between two 'name' teams who aren't actually that good. Got to fancy us against Uruguay too, Suarez and Cavani are brilliant, but the rest of that team is falling apart. Fifth, again, in the group. God I hope Costa Rica is better than that Trinidad game!

[CrazyHorse]

Not sure why folk want an easy group anyway. I'd rather be picked with Germany then at least I know we can't get beaten by them on penalties until the final.

[a1]

wonder what the SAP version of that scene is.

come to think of it , is bumblebee man edited out and replaced with a stereotyped german or summat ?

[Prufrock]

Did chuckle at this:

"The French? They will surely fancy their chances of qualifying from a group containing Switzerland, Ecuador and Honduras. "It's true, I won't hide it from you, it could have been tougher," said France coach Didier Deschamps.

PS. Nice one Michel."

[Jakerbeef]

The World Cup draw gives me a headache with all the pots and teams which aren't allowed to play in certain groups. So I will just read about it in the morning.

... &, apparently, Platini has been meddling with the system to help France's situation in the draw.

Big surprise that is.

He's as bent as Blatter. God help us if he replaces him when Blatter finally has his fingers prised off the door jamb.

Yep. The utter gall (ha). Just wish the pair of them would f*ck off.

Couple of sour-faced c****


Phew. Needed to get that out.

[TANGODANCER]

Has the whole world lost its sense of humour? Twitterati fans in outrage at a harmless piss take at Hodgson during the draw? Kinell, what's hapened to fun?

[thebish]

engerrrrland opening game now moved to 11pm (UK time)

[Worthy4England]

I'm surprised Platini doesn't just have the fecking thing engraved with France. They'll probably have a re-draw from the second phase, just to allow France through.

[bobo the clown]

.... and, in 2022

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25653594" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So, winter it will be then.

If that was the case that should have been in the bid. It hasn't suddenly got warmer.

I look forward to Blatter's funeral being sometime prior to these events. Corrupt tosser.

[ChrisC]

.... and, in 2022

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25653594" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So, winter it will be then.

If that was the case that should have been in the bid. It hasn't suddenly got warmer.

I look forward to Blatter's funeral being sometime prior to these events. Corrupt tosser.

This won't be the end of it. Plenty of court battles to come me thinks.

Some of the FIFA committee are still saying a final decision is yet to be made. Hmmmm.

[BWFC_Insane]

.... and, in 2022

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25653594" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So, winter it will be then.

If that was the case that should have been in the bid. It hasn't suddenly got warmer.

I look forward to Blatter's funeral being sometime prior to these events. Corrupt tosser.

It is an absolute disgrace. Messing around with the football calendar to match the political objectives of FIFA is absolutely ridiculous.

Didn't the bid involve massive air conditioned stadia so as to mitigate the weather problems? Or has that conveniently "been forgotten".

Really angry because it will interrupt the Christmas football program which is a great time to watch football and also will make it much harder to take time off work to watch the actual WC games.