There is a lot of weirdness going on in South Africa at the moment: FIFA and MATCH are screwing the tourism industry; Vuvuzelas are on sale for 5 times their normal price of R20; and motorists are shredding the national flag by driving too fast on the motorways.
Then there is "Zakumi San", the world cup mascot who is made in China, along with the national team T-shirts. Such is the nature of business and trade unions. I vowed not to buy anything with the FIFA logo on it, because I don't support organised crime.
But I was given tickets for the
England vs USA match on Saturday, because a friend is doing temp work for the USA team. So who do I support, apart from Bafana Bafana? Do I acknowledge that my grandparents came from England and my brother lives there? Or do I support the USA team because the
US needs to get a clue about soccer and catch up with the rest of the world? Of course we'll have to put up with bolshy US Secret Service people escorting Joe Biden around the place, but is that any worse than the chaos created by the English soccer hooligans? Its going to be an interesting time. Will I be able to pluck up the courage to wave a US flag? I doubt it. Why is it the English team and not the UK team? More weirdness.
It's the England team because United Kingdom isn't a country. Would be a bit like me saying to you "Why is it the Cameroon/Nigeria/RSA/etc team and not the Africa team".
ReplyDeleteOh and the England shirts are also made in the far east, despite being tagged "Tailored in England"!
Does the "England" team include players from Wales and Scotland?
ReplyDeletePardon my confusion but I thought England was a "province" of the UK, and the other provinces were Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
In the news the BBC always refers to the "British Prime Minister" not the "English Prime Minister" so it's all rather quaintly confusing.
I'll strongly recommend Ghana, but then i'm a little biased :)
ReplyDeleteNo the England team is only English players. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all have their own teams, none qualified for the World Cup this year though. You'd get very stern looks, and possibly a few swear words, here if you said England (or Wales, Scotland) was just a "province" of the UK lol
ReplyDeleteI can certainly see your confusion when the prime minister is a British PM not English PM. Though within recent years both Wales and Scotland have got their own parliaments and both (especially Scotland) would happily cut all ties and be in total control of their country and both are slowly moving towards that. (The Northern Ireland situation is a lot more complicated)
Oh and of course just to confuse matters further in the Olympics its the British team, not English/Welsh/Scottish ;-)
(Don't ask me why, history was never a favourite subject of mine)
As it turned out, both England and the USA went through to the next round, in spite of the USA having two legitimate goals disallowed by the referees.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Refs can be bought? I can't think why not. It would be interesting to find out whether someone has investigated FIFA match fixing on the part of refs.