When it comes to soccer,* Australians are a blindly optimistic lot. We came into the World Cup with by far the lowest ranking of the 32 countries and then got handed the crappiest draw of any team. That’s the New York Times saying that, by the way, not just this Aussie diehard. And yet we…
Category: FIFA World Cup 2014
Survivor: Blatter Island
Imagine for a moment that FIFA is the reality TV show Survivor and Sepp Blatter the contestant that’s gone rogue. Delirious from a diet of media bile and the relentless glow of the public spotlight, his words and deeds become increasingly desperate and bizarre. Sitting round the campfire at night, he talks of the World…
World Cup ads: cast your votes
In the lead-up to the World Cup, things go from bad to worse for Brazil’s government. Now it has been hit with a lawsuit for false advertising, with independent federal prosecutors arguing commercials talking up the benefits of the World Cup are “absurdly divorced from reality.” Which simply serves as an excuse for us to…
Brazil’s World Cup countdown hits discordant note
In a game of word association, Brazil conjures many possibilities. Football. Carnival. Party. Colour. Movement. And, of course, music. Brazilian drums and samba beats that get those hips swinging as only Latino hips can. There’s also The Girl from Ipanema. And let’s not forget Peter Allen’s I Go To Rio or Barry Manilow’s Copacabana. Hey,…
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