June 24 – English head for the beaches as the Mexican wave rolls on and a Scolari look-a-like fools a reporter and a nation
English head down for the beaches
England’s elimination from the World Cup has triggered a rush for the beaches of Spain. GoEuro, a travel site comparing flights, trains and buses (goeuro.co.uk), has revealed that since the defeat against Uruguay, the number of bookings have increased by 4.5%. This is a significant jump considering that the growth rate in the market for countries still competing has remained flat during the same period. But with English summer holidays officially beginning, the English will find they do not have the beaches to themselves. GoEuro saw a similar increase in numbers in Spain after its elimination. The positive side is that neither nations will have to battle the German towel brigade.
All in a lather
The white foam spray used by referees is making a mark. But one anti-perspirant brand in the UK is making a virtue of the fact that its spray product doesn’t.
For whom the phone rings
Costa Rican coach Jorge Luis Pinto had his car broken into in April. Among the items stolen was a contact book containing phone numbers from the footballing world that had taken him 20 years to compile. After his team’s remarkable qualification for the knockout stage, those contacts should be calling HIM for advice.
Unfortunate snap shot
20,000 people have signed a petition after Kiwi referee Peter O’Leary is spotted ‘celebrating’ Nigeria win with the Nigerian keeper. Well, perhaps a bit of a stretch to read too much ‘Nigerian celebration’ into this but it is likely that O’Leary will have cancelled any summer holiday plans for Bosnia and Herzegovina after incorrectly ruling out Edin Dzeko’s goal for offside. A ruling that effectively dumped the east Europeans out the tournament.
Mexican wave rolls on
Mexico’s coach defended the use of a derogatory expression used by the team’s fans every time the opposing goalkeeper takes a kick. “We’re with our fans,” said Mexico coach Miguel Hererra. “It’s something they do to pressure the opposing goalkeeper.” Mexico’s fans were as impressive in their support of their team as Hererra’s tactical dismantling of Croatia was last night. Football Against Racism Europe has already contacted FIFA about incidents involving fans from Mexico, Brazil, Russia and Croatia, but the Mexican fans have been cleared to continue. Commonsense prevailed in the case of Mexico.
A case of mistaken identity
A Brazilian columnist and TV presenter has been left red-faced after an interview he thought he was doing with national team boss Luiz Felipe Scolari turned out to be a lookalike. Mario Sergio Conti was on a flight from Rio to Sao Paulo thnking he had struck lucky with the person sitting next to him. The “interview” was then published on the website of two of the leading newspapers in Brazil. The problem is that the passenger at Conti’s side was not the real Scolari, but a look-a-like called Wladimir Palomo, who had gone to Rio to take part in a TV comedy programme where he was playing – you guessed it – Scolari.
Compliled by Paul Nicholson and Andrew Warshaw