View From the Editor: Horse play and the FIFA World Cup - July 2006  

Readers, S&T has bad news. The 2006 FIFA World Cup is over. “Ach du liebe Gott” as they say in Germany (and we used to say in German lessons many moons ago while we terrorised Miss Dickenson). “What on earth did we do before the World Cup started?”, whines S&T and the team at ArkSports Towers. We guess we’ll just have to watch the tennis instead. What do you mean Wimbledon is over as well? That’s just bad manners!
S&T was lucky enough to visit Berlin during the World Cup and say "Guten Tag" to our chum and ‘S&T: The Conference 2006 closing addressee’ Marius Schneider who is FIFA’s head of information services. We caught up with him at quarter-final stage in FIFA’s Media Centre next to the historic Olmpiastadion looking a tad tired. He had certainly been putting in the hours, making sure that the almost endless flow of World Cup data was reaching the right places, including 21,000 accredited media personnel. Typically, the information services team arrived at the Media Centre in Berlin (the hub of all World Cup-generated data during the event), around five hours before a match and didn’t leave again until the wee small hours. Multiply that by 64 (the number of games played) and we are talking serious sleep-deprivation! No wonder the Media Centre on-site café offered a loyalty-programme for its Espressos and Lattes.
“World Cup fever has certainly gripped Germany,” said Schneider, speaking after Germany’s quarter-final win over Argentina. (S&T is still covered in bruises from our German friends’ celebrations). “For the first time ever we have seen flags on cars in the country and the German people have been fantastic. The World Cup has been great for Germany – both in economic terms and also because of the feel-good factor.”
S&T asked Schneider how he felt a FIFA World Cup compared to an Olympic Games in terms of managing information services. “In many ways, a World Cup is easier than an Olympic Games,” he said, “because they have a lot more sports spread over a variety of terrains than us. However, we have a higher number of accredited people which means the volume and pressure is much bigger for us, especially as not everyone is interested in receiving the same information.”
Schneider was very pleased with FIFA’s main new development for the 2006 event – a completely web-based media channel. “The International Olympic Committee have been fascinated by it. They only have intranets during their events.” FIFA made the decision not to use intranets this time around as they are expensive said Schneider, “and you end up doing everything twice”. The 2006 FIFA World Cup media channel was powered by Yahoo and prompted a mixed-reaction from journalists – as they had to create a Yahoo account before they could use the system. “Some journalists had accounts already but some didn’t…” Those poor loves. What a bore to have to spend a few minutes registering for something that will make their coverage easy-peasy….

Horses for courses

Meanwhile, back in the land that S&T revealed last month wasn’t that fussed about the FIFA World Cup (i.e. the USA), S&T is delighted to report that some Americans have found a novel way to embrace the beautiful game. S&T will now quote from a press release received during the World Cup. (It is just too perfect to paraphrase).
“On a recent afternoon, a 72-year-old woman, several 1,000-pound animals and one creative trainer played soccer with a ball the size of a big-screen TV. Horse soccer, that is.” (Really, we should stop there, but that would be cruel.)
“Horse trainer Renee Miller stumbled onto the sport while trying to help a skittish horse be less fearful of objects in its path. She walked the horse while rolling her children's 50-inch rubber play ball in front of it. In time, the horse became accustomed to the ball. She then gently pushed it against its long legs. To her surprise, the horse kicked the ball. Soon he began whacking it all over the place! She told her husband, Randy: "Bring the horses! We're going to teach them to do this, and we're going to play soccer! The first time anybody plays now, they're hooked!" Others agree, including the oldest participant to date, Sally Dwyer. At 72, she doesn't play many other sports with younger players. Horse soccer is different. "If you can ride, you can play," she said. Dwyer is having so much fun, she's dreaming big. She not only thinks the game will spread around the country, but she also thinks it should be an Olympic sport, with her as one of the oldest competitors. The Millers are ready.”
Apparently the Millers have assembled a group of teams (their own team being the ‘Chuck Norris Roundhouse Kickers’; we think 'Monster Mash' pop combo Bobby 'Boris' Pickett & The Crypt-Kicker 5 should come out of retirement) and have set up a website where people can view a video at www.horsesoccer.com, as well as purchase a training kit with a DVD and horse soccer ball. They claim any horse can be trained to play in 15 minutes. And we wager that they won’t be asking for £150,000 per week, a pop star girlfriend and a Ferrari.
But back to the release: “As the game began, six horses and riders trotted around on a bed of soft loose dirt inside a large white barn. The horses ran quickly to the ball, their ears straight up. Suddenly Sally Dwyer's horse whacked the ball hard enough to send it bounding down the field on a fast break with other horses close behind. Moments later Dwyer - wearing a blue shirt that read ‘Warning: my horse kicks and scores’ - did just that.” (Perhaps the new England manager, Steve McClaren should take note?)

'UK running out of bubbles' crisis

There’s not really much else that S&T can add to that except mention a completely unrelated to soccer (or indeed horses) feeling of fear induced by the news that back on our side of the pond, the UK is facing a crisis caused by a lack of bubbles. “Mein Gott in Himmel!” we hear you cry! (Which incidentally was always the cue to let Miss Dickenson out of the cupboard).
Apparently, the fizz is literally going out of drinks in Blighty because stores of carbon dioxide are running dangerously low. If a new source of bubbles isn’t found soon, the whole country could be feeling flatter than when England went out of the FIFA World Cup quarter-finals. Personally, S&T is more worried about the effect that caffeine-withdrawal will have on several million children unable to tank themselves up with Coca-Cola, Pepsi and the like. Yikes.

Rachael Church
Editor

Do you think horse soccer will take off or is it just plain silly? 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 glad that One Tree Hill is back on UK screens although there were too many flashbacks in episode one for our liking.

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