Hugh Masekela tells Keme Nzerem of the UK’s Channel 4 News that he thinks the World Cup is just a passing fancy.
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Breaking Down in Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso’s football championship was been suspended for lack of money this past Sunday, said the Burkina Faso Football Federation. “We regret to announce the cessation of the national first division championship until further notice, for lack of financial resources,” said the Burkina Faso Football Federation in a statement. The Federation said more than 400 million CFA Francs at banks, trainers, service providers and their movable and immovable property, including its headquarters built with funding from FIFA had been seized. “All our belongings were seized by a bailiff, even the chairs were taken…”, said Chairman, Zembédé Theodore Sawadogo, at a press conference this week, blaming the “financial difficulties” in its structure on the mismanagement of his predecessors.
It is story that has not registered much interest in the football watching world. It’s a shame. You want to open a Lionel Messi Church? That’s all good. I won’t forget to wear my Sunday best. But let’s not forget the magical congregation over in Burkina Faso who also know a good goal when they see one.
There have been goals in Benguela, Cabinda, Luanda and Lubango, but no goals are being scored in the Stade Slyvio Cator in Port-au-Prince. Haiti’s goalposts don’t exist anymore.
Angolans paused for Haiti before every Quarter Final, the carnage of their own wars against colonialism and as proxies in the Cold War never far from their thoughts. A nation blessed by the curse of geology showing solidarity with their brothers and sisters, torn asunder by the earth’s crust, an ocean apart.
France, Britain and the United States have a history of moving Haiti’s goalposts, naming and renaming Haiti’s coach and officials, tightening the touchlines, painting countless penalty spots across Haiti’s box, forcing Haitians to cheer from terraces made from shaky dumps of their own subsidized imports, with many supporters not able to read the terms and conditions of their own oppression as laid out in the match programme.
Haiti’s goalposts don’t exist anymore. The smashed and mangled uprights belong to the “Humanitarians” now. The Stade Slyvio Cator is a tent city with thousands crammed into the spaces once created by Haitian footballers. There are no calls for the ball, but for water, medicines, medical attention and food.
Like the African Cup of Nations, Haiti’s disaster is being broadcast across our globalized world. The world knows more about the grain and scale of Haitian suffering than any calamity it has ever encountered.
Our goal must be to help Haitians restore their own goalposts, and one day when Haitians are replenished with food, water, housing and control over their own lives, we can celebrate Haitian goals again.
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Safari for Shevchenko?
(So to Group 6. Andorra and Kazakhstan will not feature here. Andorra belong in a preliminary stage, as discussed earlier. And Kazakhstan are better served keeping Australia company. Belarus will return as a more dangerous dark horse in qualification for Brazil 2014.)
Ukraine are two points behind Croatia, but have a game in hand and finish their campaign in Andorra. Pre-Capello conventional wisdom would have pointed to an already qualified England getting turned over in Dnepropetrovsk in October. An England win will not be the surprise it once would have been. Ukraine will probably have to rely on the Kazaks keeping the Croats quiet in Astana on October 14. Goal difference favours Ukraine.
Ukraine were the deeply disappointing dark horses of the last World Cup. Group results suggest Ukraine have regressed. Would you trust a Shevchenko retread for a South African safari?
Costa Rica have just fired their coach Rodrigo “La Bomba” Kenton Johnson.
Costa Rica were themselves bombing, failing to score in their last three World Cup qualifying games. “He was fired today. It still hasn’t been determined who will be named,” said Costa Rica FA, spokeswoman Gina Escobar.
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Subcommandante Maradona
Paraguay have qualified. Chile can choke. Ecuador too. Argentina are at home to Peru next. Uruguay have superior goal difference. Venezuela are lurking. Colombia cannot be ruled out just yet.
There are so many permutations, yet it is difficult to discuss without getting drawn into the Argentine drama.
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All White Experience?
While Omar and his boys from Bahrain were shooting down the Saudis in the Kingdom, New Zealand were in that other Kingdom kicking it with the Hashemites. It was an experience. New Zealand won the friendly 3-1. The Hashemites ain’t got game no mo’.
New Zealand fancy their chances now. Former captain, Steve Sumner, interviewed for the Christchurch Press, said Bahrain was their “best and easiet” route to the World Cup finals. Sumner also sees English Premier League experience as important for New Zealand, noting in the same interview, the presence of some hacker from New Zealand in Blackburn Rovers’ squad.