World Cup Weenies
It's that special time again, where once every four years the best football teams in the world meet up to kick a ball backwards and forwards into a net - which is odd because on the whole the ball doesn't really care where it goes. Anyway, we still do it, and it can be thrilling to watch - the nationalism, the sense of occasion, the picking of the underdog team to root for, the fact that I saw a big England flag with my home town written all across it. All these things make it one of the best sporting events on the planet.(BTW, and just to contrast, it's not a "world series" if only one country plays ... just so you know)
There are a couple of football fans in the office, and it's been the subject of conversation for a couple of weeks now. One topic has been the sheer number of yellow and red cards awarded, a lot of which have not been deserved. Which got us onto the subject of cards in general, and sportsmanship in the world cup. We noticed there's still a lot of diving going on, falling over without any need for it to try to get the foul or penalty. The consensus was these guys just need to grow some stones and act like men, not small whiny girls.
And we came up with the solution ! Instead of just having yellow and red cards, we want to introduce the pink card. There wouldn't be any penalty to it, but if the ref saw you took a dive and you were just faking, you'd be shown the pink card. Everyone around the world would know you were just a bit of a girl. And if you got two pink cards in the tournament, you'd have to wear pink shorts in the next match.
A lot of these offenses seem to be committed by the latin american teams, a typically macho culture. Imagine going back home and having to explain why you got two pink cards in the world cup. Emigration to an non-football playing country (yes US, I'm looking at you) would be the only option.
posted by Paul @ 10:06 AM
2 Comments:
Living in the heart of Little Italy allows me to keep tabs on when the Italians are playing and - sometimes - how well they are doing in the match.
I think the pink card theory is fantastic and something along those lines is great deterrant.
Wow, I was just looking at the group of 8 and 6 of the teams have won the cup before and only 7 teams have ever won the cup. Since my team (Equador) is out I shall now root for Portugal. I have to pick an underdog, otherwise I really would not have much interest as I dont know the game well.
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