Hai Romania...
As we predicted, the only lesser nation capable of producing A Shock in Euro 2008 is Romania.
Although, whether an Agreed Draw may be correctly termed A Shock is another matter.
Whatever.
Close historical ties (check out the statues in praise of the French military in Grădina Cişmigiu in Bucureşti) are a valuable commodity in a Group Of Death. As are economic ones. If one match may be set aside as an Agreed Draw then a clear advantage is created due to the lack of physical exertion required to achieve this Illusion.
Unfortunately, for the French, in particular, the Netherlands had only to compete for half an hour, prior to a kindly intervention by Match Officialdom.
Competitive Advantage morphs into Short-Termist Strategy.
Perhaps, Domenech fucked up on Jupiter Rising.
Still. we're sure that the Italians are pleased that they have spent the majority of this year abusing any Romanians in their midst.
The weird thing is this, right...
The Roma, who are the ones who have been so appallingly treated in Italy, are also equally appallingly treated in Romania. Three million strong (in a population of 23 million), the Roma are extremely limited in the choice of career route - musician, road-ice-clearer, mafia man, drug dealer, footballer - Bucureşti seemingly shares a racist agenda with Brixton. What the mainstream media projects as "Italians hating Romanians" is, more accurately, "Italians and Romanians hating Roma".
Mutu and Nicolita should be up for it anyway...
Nationalism tends to destroy these Summer Spectaculars.
The Nationalism of Football takes on three forms.
The first is opaque, even invisible to the average observer. These are the national machinations that take place "behind the scenes" at FIFA and UEFA, the battles between the major European powers and the power loci developed by other self-elective entities globally. UEFA oscillates between France/Italy and Germany/Scandinavia at many levels of its hierarchy, for example.
The second is joyous. The Romanians celebrating the complete lack of sporting event unfolding in front of their eyes, or the Dutch making restrained, but presumably joyous, grunting noises in pseudo-harmony, or Croatia's fans turning an away game against the hosts into a home match, both numerically and on a decibel level (which is a first ever feat of some proportion!).
The third nationalism is xenophobic nonsense. Germany v Poland - 157 arrested, of which 143 were from Germany.
Media nonsense, thug nonsense, political nonsense (check out the cultural atmosphere developed by the totally nutty Kaczynski twins, for example).
Sounds like Iraq. Cue...
Football and Politics Mix. In Iraq, and then some... Some history.
On May 26th, Blatter banned Iraq from all competitions due to the present government disbanding the Olympic Committee. Present government - Shia dominated/ Olympic Committee - Sunni dominated. On May 29, FIFA backtracked allowing the World Cup Qualifiers against Australia to go ahead.
Blatter doesn't do resolve on matters of principle.
Only matters of money...
In July 2006, Ahmed al-Hijiya, the President of the Olympic Committee, was captured during a Committee meeting by militiamen operating under the watchful eye of the Iraqi government. He hasn't been seen since or his whereabouts remain unknown or he is dead. How Hyperreal do you want it?
Ahmed Habib writes, on Z Net: "Systematic theft and corruption have characterised the new Iraqi government, and logically the Iraqi Football Association would fit into this debacle as well".
"They are all thieves," says Fatah Insayef, Iraqi footballing legend, speaking angrily about the infighting between the Iraqi FA and the Iraqi government which led to the FIFA mini-ban. "I would never work under occupation. If I work for the Iraqi FA, or if I work for any sector of the Iraqi government, I would be serving the occupation".
Evidently, Fatah Insayef is slightly more politically aware than Jamie Redknapp.
Iraq's footballers have markedly overachieved despite the impacts of the occupation, a coalition-of-the-willing initiated civil war, being paid only £10 ($20) per day while playing for their country, having to play home games in Dubai, suffering the inevitable defections as players seek a better life abroad. And yet, Iraq still won the Asian Cup and finished fourth in the Olympics. After the latter triumph, a sneering George Bush claimed the success was due to the American-led occupation. He was soon put right by yet more politically aware players - Ahmed Manajid, Salih Sadir and others responded by denouncing the occupation and saying that if they were not fighting for Iraq on the pitch, they would be doing so in cities like Baghdad or Fallujah.
Hearts And Minds...
FIFA has allowed the Iraqi government, puppets of the illegal American occupation, to politicise the sport to unheard of levels of corruption. Blatter firstly used inflammatory language in threatening the government minister, prior to being pressurised into a u-turn as soon as FIFA had summoned the guts to act.
Bizarrely, something beautiful has come out of this affair. Proper football...
Check out Emad Mohammed's 27th minute stunner for Iraq against the Aussies (see: http://youtube.com/watch?v=KKnefCZ6z0U).
Total respect to Iraqi footballers.
Total disrespect to everybody else.
Euro 2008 is dull beyond comprehension. My colleague who is attending the matches in Switzerland informs us that the place is teeming with "inappropriate middle-men seeking their percentage of a wage-slavery-trade" which is, presumably, not so unusual in the Land of the Private Banks.
There are agendas at large and at play.
Advertisers in Britain are taking no interest in the event and all of their greedy little eyes are focused on the Olympics. It is therefore most unfortunate that National Disasters have prevented the mainstream media from continuing their virulent campaign of China Hate leading up to the Pollution Games. Don't remember too much focus on American atrocities prior to Atlanta...
Of course, the marketeers are staying out of the market because the punters are too.
The football is poor quality. The teams do not play together frequently enough to evolve in the same manner that a club side does. If you can't generate some interest based on the historical wars and disputes of your country, these events are a bit like darts. Only without the cheering...
"We're so close to the touchline that we can almost reach out and touch these volunteers" - dribbled John Motson at the Opening Ceremony.
Instead of all the cows and milk-maids (who Motson also salivated over rather too eagerly), instead of this Spectacular Illusion, give us the Reality.
The Opening Ceremony should have featured lots of investment bankers and hedge fund managers, their clients with their suitcases of ill-gotten gains based on some buried crime, the Davos ensemble of global leaders and a graphic to display a belief in the power of referenda - "you can vote for whatever you want, just let us get along with our business".
FIFA and UEFA suits in Corridors of Power - one in each penalty area.
The words N-E-U-T-R-A-L-I-T-Y and D-I-S-C-R-E-T-I-O-N would alternate on cards held up by derivatives traders.
The overall choreography should be based on the random walk of unfettered trade before everybody sails off into the sunset on hyper-yachts...
Or cows and milk-maids...
Our favourite moment, by some distance, so far features neither the Opening Ceremony, nor the football, nor John Motson.
As yesterday's Romania/France match deteriorated into farce, Raymond Domenech kicked a suitably placed bucket.
The astrological stars let the man down again as his foot lodged in the pale in a manner suggestive of extensive training at one of those amazing Parisien Circus Schools.
In the Clown Section.
© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological
