June 11th was the start of the 19th FIFA World held for the first time in the African continent with 32 countries from Asia, Australasia, Europe, and the Americas competing for the coveted Jules Rimes trophy. Singapore had high hopes with the Goal 2010 set in 1999 but till today, with the foreign talent scheme well and firmly entrenched, Singapore are still nowhere near the International standard, only being 'kampong champions' of South East Asia in 2007, 2005 and 1998.
The point I would like to make is that a simple game of football equalises and fascinates the entire world whereby huge countries like China and India with a combined population of 3 billion (almost half the world's polulation) do not have a team in the World Cup, whereas much smaller countries like South Korea (70 million),Australia (20 million) and Denmark (6 million) can qualify for it.
Its a great leveller for the major economic superpowers like the US have to face much smaller countries like UK, Ghana and Slovenia at the same level and have to rely on tactics, skills and teamwork to win. This is indeed one major viewing sporting event whereby the USA, China, Australia or Russia are NOT the favourites to win.
No comments:
Post a Comment