1, April 2022
Cameroon to take on Brazil in Qatar World Cup 0
The 2022 World Cup draw has Cameroon facing Brazil, England taking on the USA and reigning champions France meeting Denmark in the group stage as the focus turned to the football after a number of off-field issues dominated the leadup to the awarding of the tournament.
Here are the groups the teams have drawn:
Group A: Qatar (hosts), Netherlands, Senegal, Ecuador
Group B: England, United States, Iran, Wales or Scotland or Ukraine
Group C: Argentina, Mexico, Poland, Saudi Arabia
Group D: France, Denmark, Tunisia, Peru or UAE or Australia
Group E: Spain, Germany, Japan, Costa Rica or New Zealand
Group F: Belgium, Croatia, Morocco, Canada
Group G: Brazil, Switzerland, Serbia, Cameroon
Group H: Portugal, Uruguay, South Korea, Ghana
In a twist of fate, reigning champions France face a similar group to the one they played in during their sluggish start to a victorious 2018 World Cup campaign, in which they drew against Denmark and narrowly beat Peru.
The USA also have an interesting group, taking on England, their fellow Anglophones, the nation that invented football, and the Euro 2021 runners-up. Team USA also face geopolitical antagonists Iran in their first footballing clash since Iran beat them at France ’98.
The real group of death is Group E, featuring two of the strongest teams in national football, Spain and Germany.
Most controversial in history
Off the pitch, this is the most controversial World Cup in history, with Qatar dogged ever since it was named host in 2010 by accusations of vote-buying — which were hotly denied — and questions over the country’s suitability.
From human rights concerns to the ongoing war in Ukraine, it has been impossible to keep the spotlight solely on the sport, but FIFA president Gianni Infantino has repeated, as he did on Thursday, that it “will be a fantastic and unique World Cup”.
Concerns remain over the treatment of gay and transgender supporters coming to a country where homosexuality is illegal, as well as over the working conditions of hundreds of thousands of migrant labourers in the country, including those who built stadiums.
Thursday’s FIFA Congress in Doha saw Lise Klaveness, head of the Norwegian Football Federation, speak out to say that the 2018 and 2022 World Cups had been awarded “in unacceptable ways with unacceptable consequences.”
“Human rights, equality, democracy, the core interests of football were not in the starting XI until many years later,” she said.
“There is no room for employers who do not secure the freedom and safety of World Cup workers.”
The chief executive of Qatar’s World Cup Supreme Committee, Hassan al-Thawadi, countered by saying he was disappointed that Klaveness had made no attempt to talk to Qatari authorities before speaking out.
He said the first World Cup in the Middle East would leave “truly transformational social, human, economic and environmental legacies.”
Source: REUTERS
6, April 2022
Maradona’s 1986 World Cup ‘hand of God’ jersey to be auctioned 0
The jersey worn by Diego Maradona when he scored twice against England in the 1986 World Cup, including the infamous “hand of God” goal, is to be auctioned off later this month, Sotheby’s announced Wednesday.
The blue number 10 shirt has been owned since the end of the controversial World Cup encounter by opposing midfielder Steve Hodge, who swapped his jersey with Maradona after England lost 2-1.
The quarter-final showdown, one of the most memorable in World Cup history, held particular significance for Argentina as it was played only four years after they lost the Falklands war.
The match became etched in football folklore for Maradona’s two goals — one notorious and one sublime — in Mexico City’s seething Aztec Stadium.
The first came shortly after half-time when Hodge, on the edge of the England penalty area, intercepted a pass and flicked the ball back towards goal.
England were incensed and complained to officials who, believing Maradona had headed the ball, allowed the goal to stand.
Maradona then stirred the controversy afterward by saying the goal had been scored “a little with the head of Maradona, a little with the hand of God.”
Four minutes later, Maradona struck again and this time there was no doubt.
Receiving the ball and turning inside his own half, Maradona left five English defenders in his wake before gliding past Shilton and slotting home for a strike that was voted “Goal of the Century” in a 2002 FIFA poll.
National hero
Argentina won the final to lift the World Cup for the second time in eight years and Maradona, already a superstar, became worshipped in his home country.
After his death from a heart attack in 2020, Argentina held three days of national mourning.
Hodge, whose autobiography is titled “The man with Maradona’s shirt,” has for the past 20 years loaned the jersey to be on public display at the National Football Museum in Manchester.
Sotheby’s said in a statement to AFP that it will hold its own public display for the jersey in London, during the online auction scheduled for April 20 to May 4.
The decision of whether to keep it accessible to the public will be up to the winning bidder.
Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s head of streetwear and modern collectibles, said “the list is long for the type of people or organisations that might want to own the item.”
“It could be an individual, it could be a museum, it could be just somebody who wants to own the best of the best, a football lover or a club.”
Bidding for the Maradona memorabilia will start at £4 million ($5.2 million), below the $5.6 million record for game-worn shirts, set in 2019 for a jersey Babe Ruth wore while on the New York Yankees.
Last year, a jersey worn in the 1950s by Brooklyn Dodgers star Jackie Robinson — the first Black player in Major League Baseball — sold for $4.2 million.
Source: AFP