View from the Editor: Loving the beautiful game - June 2006  

Readers, after months of frenetic anticipation, the soccer highlight of the year has finally arrived, with S&T poised in glee to support our boys through the highs and lows of a campaign that we hope will lead to heady glory. Yes, S&T is delighted to report that S&T-sponsored team Bromley Common Football Club has at last kicked its first ball – albeit during a friendly match – beating the opposition (or ‘oppo’ as one says when ‘up with the kids’) by three goals to two.
Unfortunately, we weren’t actually able to be there in person to watch the match, having a prior engagement at the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix (we know, poor excuse, but in our defence we did spot Boris Becker going into the Amber Lounge), but we were ready for the next friendly match the following week, which got cancelled because… well, actually, we’re not sure as the oppo didn’t actually give an excuse. This sponsorship malarkey will take some getting used to!
Meanwhile, at the time of writing, a few other balls had been kicked at another soccer spectacle – something called the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany. S&T feels a bit pulled on this one, needing England to come second in its group so that (if the team wins the following match), then a Berlin-based quarter final will be set up. (S&T will be in Berlin that day, need we say more). However, if England finishes top (which obviously would be brilliant under all other circumstances), that would potentially set the lads up for the quarter final the day after the Berlin one, exactly at the point when S&T is on a flight back to England. S&T can see this getting messy. When will live sports programming ever get piped onto aeroplanes? The air industry is just so selfish!

Some Dutch and UK women ‘hate soccer’ shock

Keeping things soccer-flavoured for a bit before we return to the subject of the Grand Prix, S&T’s favourite headline this week was the declaration: ‘Women Revolt Against World Cup’ which conjures up images that dear Jules Rimet would probably find disturbing. Apparently there is an organisation in the Netherlands called ‘Women for a Football-free Holland’ that has launched an anti-soccer initiative website (www.wegmethetwk.nl) imploring women-folk to resist anything to do with the beautiful game. Apparently this anti-World Cup fever is now spreading to the UK through the launch of www.stoptheworldcup.co.uk on behalf of ‘Women for a Football-free England’ (WFE) and may now, pause to shudder, even have reached the steps of ArkSports Towers! This sort of nonsense is enough to make S&T want to rip off our marigolds, turn the cookies in the oven on low, leave the kids with the nanny and launch a counter-attack. We’re off to register www.ifyoudon’tliketheworldcupthat’stough.com and would like to offer the likes of WFE spokeswomen ‘Gemma Lineker’ and ‘Posh Vickie’ (apparently not their real names, no really, heaven forbid that they care passionately enough about their cause for that), the following advice when confronted with a television showing FIFA World Cup action over the next month. Turn over the channel or leave the room. See, it’s not that hard.
Such people would be better off moving to the US until the tournament is over. Not because S&T has anything against the US that justifies inflicting a lorry-load of soccer-hating Dutch and UK women onto their shores per se, but because according to a poll carried out by research company comScore, 56% of US sports fans do not know that the World Cup is being held in Germany and only 10% plan to follow the games. And that’s despite an estimated $420m invested in official soccer partnerships by US-based corporations to gain worldwide visibility. ComScore found that over 50% of declared US soccer fans either said they “didn’t know” the companies that were official partners of the game, or incorrectly identified them. No US tour on the horizon for Bromley Common Football Club then, methinks S&T.

LED cube shadow menace

At the time of writing, it was a case of ‘played one, won one’ for the England soccer team (much like for our Bromley Common FC lads). What was notable about that particular England match apart from the spectacular Paraguayan own goal, was the shadow that the giant LED cube at the Waldstadion in Frankfurt cast over the pitch in a giant spindly web-like formation, with a giant ‘blob’ at its centre. (S&T is such a wordsmith). The players on the pitch probably enjoyed the regular intervals of shade in the scorching temperatures, and we are sure the crowd adored the replays and statistics on offer in giant technicolour splendour, but it certainly wasn’t pleasing on the eye for the television viewer – being remarked upon by the television commentators and, more importantly, S&T’s mates at ArkSports Towers alike. And that was on top of being distracted by the relentless flurry of pollen that hurtled across the screen every second thanks to the joys of high definition programming and a pukka plasma screen. Technology can be just too good sometimes! Where’s that hanky?
LED shadows notwithstanding (and surely set to become the latest curse to befall the broadcasting industry – you read it here first remember), LED screens were certainly a must at the Monaco Grand Prix. S&T was lucky to have had a vantage point from a balcony overlooking the chicane by the start of the Lowes tunnel, but for the punters stuck to their plastic temporary seats scattered around the course without access to television or radio commentary, how on earth could they tell what was going on around the corner or through the other end of the tunnel? And with their ears practically bleeding from the noise of the Formula One cars whizzing by, they wouldn’t have been able to phone a friend to find out. Still, it was all good fun and S&T’s blood-to-champagne ratio has now stabilised back to its normal 50/50. We still have a rash from all the air-kissing though. (Not to mention all the other kissing that begins with an ‘a’).
Right, we’re off to watch some footy now, so catch you next month. Mwah, mwah.

Rachael Church
Editor

Are you a US-based S&T reader who is dotty about soccer? Or is gridiron much more your bag? If you have any comments or feedback on this article or any of the features in S&T, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please e-mail your comments to editor@sportandtechnology.com. Or watch television instead. S&T is currently enjoying EastEnders but is sad that Grant Mitchell has left again.

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