The fallout from that night in Paris continues.While some have accepted it as one of football’s great injustices (and the ensuing drama/debate as part of the reason we all love sport so much), others have chosen to self-medicate in the warm, comforting arms of conspiracy theory.
Damien Duff is part of the latter camp. Talking to reporters from a shadowy car-park alcove, the Fulham winger revealed the World Cup 2010 playoffs have been orchestrated by a higher power, made up of German sportswear giant Adidas, the French Football Federation and Michel Platini:
Do I think it’s a conspiracy? Definitely. FIFA want the big teams in the World Cup, they want France in the World Cup, and it may sound silly but they want teams sponsored by adidas. Adidas sponsor the World Cup, they sponsor France. Michel Platini has a lot of influence as well.
Maybe we’d have had a better chance of going to the World Cup if it was sponsored by Umbro.
Hilariously, The Sun point out, in his rage Duff seems to have forgotten, as well as his weekly pay packet from Fulham, he gets paid a £100,000 a year to wear football boots made by … Adidas.
What to do now? So far, The Spoiler has heard: ‘ban Henry from the World Cup’, ‘ban France from the World Cup’, ‘replay the fixture’, and a whole lot of rude words directed at Thierry Henry - mainly all on TalkSPORT.
Thanks to his possessing an incredible, almost slapstick, level of incompetence, Raymond Domenech doesn’t have a lot of friends amongst the footballing community. Especially in his own country. He could have even less today, after making a rather ill-judged faux pas during Friday’s pre-playoff press conference:
People can say what they want, when they want. I stopped listening to them a long time ago, otherwise I would have committed suicide.
Meanwhile, 45,000 turned out in support at Robert Enke’s memorial service over the weekend…
Ignoring England’s ridiculous, money-spinning, injury-ravaged jaunt to Brazil; and the baffling decision to put the first friendly anyone might have given a toss about for ages firmly out of physical reach of the average fan, there are some actually important games going on this weekend.
The World Cup 2010 UEFA playoffs start tomorrow, complete with added seeding-system nonsense, as eight European teams fight it out for four of the remaining nine places. Who will take a first leg advantage?
Ireland vs France
Shots have been fired by players and diplomats alike, prior to this weekend’s marquee clash. Raymond Domenech’s job rests on the outcome, which in turn rests the surety of his centre-back pairing - currently Gallas plus ‘whoever wants a go’. This one may be closer than the French team care to admit.
The Corrigan Brothers (Gerard, Brian and Donncha if you must know) made an indent into the world’s brow, when they popped up at Barack Obama’s inauguration with their song ‘There’s no one as Irish as Barack O’Bama.’ Well now they’re back back back, with a jaunty tune aimed at propelling the Irish into the 2010 World Cup.
Watch out for the reference to John O’Shea and Eamon Dunphy (after the latter described him as “not good enough” ahead of a United match) as well as the tremendous verse, “Sometimes we lack skill, Sometimes we lack speed. Who needs Stephen Ireland, Bring back Andy Reid.”
Thespoiler is a huge fan, and demand that if the Irish make it through, ‘Here’s to Trapatonni’ becomes the official FAI song. Altogether now - “Let’s take it to the French. Here’s to Trapatonni.”
Thespoiler is nothing if not topical. Hence we’re bringing you live coverage of the play-off draw for the European Qualifiers. Matches will be played on the 14th and 18th of November - countries listed first are at home
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