Murray Out / Capello In

I was born in England to a family that I have traced back hundreds of years. I class myself as English first and British second. It is not my fault that someone decided to roll four countries into one union, but as many English people know, we are hated for it.

Even so, if, for example, either Wales, Scotland or Ireland were in a football match such as the World Cup and England weren’t, I would support them.

I have one exception only, Scotland’s Andy Murray.

In 2006, Murray caused uproar when he was quoted as saying he would ‘support anyone but England’ in the World Cup. He later released a statement saying it was said in jest, but he still received large amounts of hate mail to his website.

Not only did Murray fail (again) in his bid to win this year’s Wimbledon, he lost in style; three straight sets to Rafael Nadal. As is customary with mardy tennis players, he smashed his racquet into the net in temper.

In true Murray form he hung his head and made excuses when being interviewed by Sky News. He struggled to look at the camera and resembled a child sulking after losing his favourite dinky toy.

Hard luck, Murray, but thanks for the laugh. You have made my day after a truly miserable World Cup.

And now for something different...

It appears the FA are to let Fabio Capello carry on as England manager despite the team's miserable World Cup performance. It would cost the FA £12million to get rid of him.

I have a suggestion, why don’t they find an ENGLISH manager for the ENGLISH team.

Capello's England fails miserably in World Cup

I’m not a drinker these days, but I had four pints of lager yesterday while watching the football in my favourite pub. I would like to say we had a brilliant day, but England lost 4 – 1 to Germany in the World Cup, which means they are now on their way home.

I watched in disbelief when the Uruguayan referee disallowed a perfectly valid goal and the whole pub erupted. After the match had ended, I had to wonder what would have happened had the goal been allowed.

Would England have won the game and gone through to the next stage? We will never know, but I doubt it, as Germany were the better team.

I, like many others, had great expectations when Fabio Capello took over as manager. After all, his record as manager is pretty good, with League and Champions League titles under his belt with teams like Milan, Real Madrid, Roma and Juventus.

His time with England isn’t so good and I see many are asking him to throw in the towel. I too believe he should go, my reason being that he just can’t deliver the goods.

Anyway, enough of that. The point of this article is to tell you about my afternoon.

The streets were deserted, the pubs were full and the fans were singing their heads off. I met up with friends, some of whom I haven’t seen for quite a while. If ever you want to meet up with old friends but don’t know how to get in touch, you know they will appear on footy day. Sorted!

Football days in my local go like this... DJ playing football songs, 1st half of the game, more footy songs, 2nd half of the game followed by disco. It is a very lively affair thanks to the wonderful landlord, landlady and bar staff.

We really didn’t think the game would go the way it did and the disappointment on people’s faces as Germany scored that fourth goal said it all. Some walked out, but many of us stayed to the end to watch the match come to its painful conclusion.

Everyone was numb, stunned, dumbfounded to see our national team get such a thrashing.

We all piled outside to sit in the sun and drown our sorrows when a football appeared. This is common practise when England play. The whole pub comes outside and plays footy in the street. It’s a main road and I remember a few years ago the town was cut off as cars, buses etc couldn’t get through.

Of course the police came and closed down all the pubs in the area. God knows why because there was no violence, just harmless fun at the end of a long days drinking. The police round here don’t handle things very well to be honest and sometimes it can turn nasty. Little Hitlers, some of them, especially the ‘specials’. I think the authority goes to their head.

Yesterday was different; maybe they realised that if they just take a step back everything will be fine. I didn’t see one policeman, not one, and everyone had a whale of a time.

We lost four footballs yesterday, all of them ending up on top of the shops and no way to get them back. Of course all the shops were shut so we couldn’t buy any more.

I left at around 9pm. I was ready for something to eat and put my feet up, but everyone else was still in full swing.

You really wouldn’t have thought England had lost.

England in final 16 of World Cup 2010

I’ve always believed that when England play against a rubbish side it drags them down to the same level. Watching the first three matches of the 2010 World Cup confirms this and the match against Algeria was painful to watch. The England team were booed off the pitch and rightly so; they were atrocious.

England finally managed to win their last Group C game with a 1-0 victory against Slovenia which takes them through to stage two, and just take a look who they have drawn to play on Sunday... Germany.

While scanning through today’s online newspapers I see that Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer has been mocking England by saying they are ‘stupid’ for not winning their group. I think he needs to check his own team before opening his big fat mouth.

Admittedly Germany came top of Group D, but he fails to mention how Serbia, who came bottom of the group, beat Germany 1-0. How stupid is that?

However, England haven't (as yet) lost a match.

I sincerely hope England thrash the pants off Germany and I will be cheering them on by watching the match on a huge screen in my favourite local bar surrounded by many, many, equally patriotic friends.

While we are on the subject of England, it is interesting to see how many people are flying their Saint George Cross during the World Cup. They are everywhere and it is wonderful to see, but I have a question, two in fact...

Why don’t people fly the flag all year round instead of just for football?

And why the hell don’t they iron their flags before they fly them?

Al Queda targetting the World Cup?

You don't have to be a genius to know that the cowardly Al Qaeda would want to launch an attack at the World Cup. After all, it is what they are good at, isn't it - indiscriminately killing innocent people in large numbers?

The World Cup is a terrorists dream and according to Al Qaeda-linked websites, that is exactly what they could be planning:

"How beautiful would the game between England and the USA be when broadcast live from a stadium full of spectators - when the sound of an explosion rumbles through the stands. The resulting death toll is in the dozens and hundreds - Allah willing." 

The North African Al Qaeda network, who have a track record for violence, also vowed to target resorts, hotels and car parks used by supporters during the tournament and they claimed explosive devices which cannot be detected by security scans would be used.

I have a suggestion for the Al Qaeda sympathisers...

STOP VOTING FOR THE PEOPLE WHO SEND OUR BOYS TO WAR AND START ATTACKING THEM INSTEAD OF KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE!

The World Cup, Terrorism and Racism - South Africa

At the time of writing this article there are 142 days to go before the start of the World Cup. As an ardent football fan I eagerly await the first game.

The good thing for me is that I will be watching the matches in the comfort, and more importantly the safety, of my own home.

While South Africa is a beautiful place, it is also a very dangerous place, especially if you are white and a Christian.

90 people a day are killed in South Africa; white people being slaughtered left, right and centre. Don't believe me? Then take a look at a video I previously posted.

Apart from contending with violent blacks, there is also a very real threat of a terror attack. There are many blogs cataloguing the atrocities and in November 2009, the creator of the Zasucks blog, Uhuru Guru, was arrested for showing the real side of South Africa.

“A massive contingent of police from no less than five different specialist units, ranging from Organised Crime, Cyber crime, vehicle theft, etc; raided his home and confiscated all his computer equipment.

This arrest is motivated ultimately by the State.

When they finished the raid, two very grey, shady looking characters sat him down and questioned him about the blog.

Trying to get him out on bail proved impossible. Not only did the police lie, they pulled every trick in the book to prevent him from getting him to court for bail. He arrived at the police station at about 11h00, which gave them more than enough time to process him and get him to court.”

I believe it is because of blogs like Zasucks, that FIFA’s media committee have been given restrictions on reporting.

Restrictions on video packages for websites - Fifa will allow only single photographs and not the presentation of an in-motion set of frames on websites, to avoid interfering with its video rights; news organisations cannot write anything that brings Fifa into disrepute; newspapers cannot send picture content via cellphones - they may only send text.

The South African Media Interest Group (Sanef) representative Raymond Louw said this meant that a journalist who was not covering the tournament might be prevented from covering an unrelated labour dispute at a hotel where teams were based.

‘Unrelated labour dispute’? More likely they don’t want people to see the truth about South Africa.

If I were going to South Africa I would be buying a stab vest from Protektorvest. Better to be safe than sorry.

To any of you going out there to support your team, stay safe and I wish you luck.

There’s a high chance you may need it.