FIFA president Sepp Blatter opposes using technology to help referees
make decisions. But the outcry over mistakes such as Frank Lampard's
disallowed goal in England's World Cup loss to Germany seems to have
changed things.
The broadcasting and marketing revenues from the 2010 World Cup in South
Africa include a record $1 billion in sponsorship deals — 80 per cent
more than in 2006, according to market analyst Sportcal. And that during a
worldwide recession.
"Bounce bounce bounce bounce / Thwackety wackety zingety ping / Hittety
backety pingety zang / Wack, thwok, thwack, pok." These are the opening
lines from Thwok! by Matt Harvey, the first poet-in-residence at the
Wimbledon tennis tournament.
Just how dramatic was Landon Donovan's 91st-minute goal in Wednesday's
win-or-go-home US-Algeria World Cup game? Well, it caused Twitter to
collapse temporarily, and it might have been the single biggest driver
of Internet traffic ever.
Vuvuzela apps are topping the Apple iTunes charts. They allow iPhone
owners to annoy friends and family by turning their phone into a
virtual trumpet. One app, Vuvuzela 2010, has been downloaded more than a million times from Apple's App Store.
With 125 players from 26 Premier League teams in the World Cup, England
proves that it has the world's strongest football league. Despite
injuries to Michael Ballack and Michael Essien, Chelsea FC has the most
club players in South Africa: 13.
The number of expected World Cup visitors has been downgraded from
750,000 to 200,000. Tickets have been bought up by the government
and given away to South Africans. Expensive accommodation is deterring
many football fans from travelling.
The South African football team does not expect to win the World Cup.
But with the help of Nelson Mandela and lots of noisy plastic trumpets,
Bafana Bafana ("The Boys") hope to avoid the humiliation of a
first-round exit next month.
Michael Essien, Salomon Kalou and Kolo Touré are globally famous African
footballers. On Sunday, World Malaria Day, they will be leading a
campaign to make people aware of the disease that infects up to 500
million people every year.
In 2008, she began competing full-time in the Association of Surfing Professionals' World Series. In her first competition against the world's best women surfers, she finished third. The loss of an arm to a shark is
just part of life, she says.
