Fool's Balls Germany 2006 World Cup

The 2006 FIFA World Cup Soccer Tournament is held in Germany, starting on June 9th 2006 and culminating to the final showdown in Berlin on July 9 2006. All in all, 32 best soccer nations from across the globe participated in this greatest game event on earth.

The official FIFA World Cup 2006 website is translated in 9 languages. Namely, English, Chinese, Deutsch, Francaise, Espagnol, Italiano, Portuguese, Korean, and Japanese. The list of countries participated in this World Cup Tournament are Angola, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, England, France, Germany, Ghana, Iran, Italy, Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Netherlands, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Serbia and Montenegro, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Togo, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia, Ukraine, United States of America.

I would definitely love to see our Malaysian team play in the World Cup. Fat hope ! Maybe not in my life time.

Some interesting developments around the world related to this soccer mania :

IN Somalia, the Islamic Courts shut cinema halls and barred residents from watching the World Cup. The Deputy Chairman of the Islamic Courts said "We shall not even allow the showing of the World Cup because they corrupt the morals of our children whom we endeavour to teach the Islamic way of life”

In Saudi Arabia, the cleric Nasser bin Sliman Al-Omar explains why watching the World Cup may cause you to be condemned to eternal torment. He said “I am saying to the fathers, to the mothers, and to the people who watch these games: On Judgment Day, a page in the book will be opened for you, and it will say that you sat and watched the games. Will this make you happy or miserable? Will this make you happy on Judgment Day, when you face -----, or will you wish you had never watched these games?”

In Ivory Coast, the various warring factions in the country's north-south civil war lay down their weapons to observe cease-fire to focus their attentions on the World Cup. Let's hope after the game is over, the Ivorian carry footballs rather than guns to the battlefields....

In certain part of the world, some religion authorities are against the players wearing jersey and shorts on the field as it is claimed these type of sport clothings is against their religious values. Maybe FIFA should consider making it mandatory for all players to wear their respective national costumes when playing on the fields during the next world cup.

In many countries, including Malaysia, people are more interested in results rather than the football skills and tactics of the participating nations. Illegal betting become a favorite pastimes. I would not be surprised to see illegal loan sharks starting to display their arsenal of debt recovery skills few months down the road.

Finally, the Israelis and Palestinians can come to agreed on ONE thing, Football. Both of them love football, and both them agreed that the TV subscription fees for them to watch the World Cup 2006 is too high. Maybe Kofi Anand should send FIFA president as special mediator to this perpetual middle east crisis. Bush, Blair, Abdullah, and the univited imported freedom fighters ( because they can not find employment in their own countries ) should stay out in order not to complicate the middle east peace negotiations.

In Cambodia, Non Nget, chief of monks in Phnom Penh, was quoted as saying that monks can watch the televised tournament but they must do so silently. “Laughing, cheering or making noise inside the pagoda violate Buddha's rules." Though watching matches in silence and solemnity on TV is allowed, Non Nget said that betting on the games would not be tolerated. "If I found any monk betting money on a football match...I might fire him from the pagoda," he warned.

In Thailand, the government has given the monk permission to watch the matches because exposure to worldly affairs including soccer is beneficial for their religious education, said Preecha Gunteeya, director of Thailand's Religious Affairs Department. But he added: "They must be calm and quiet, and there must be no gambling."

I did not know 24 men and 1 referee chasing after a small ball in a perimeter field can have so much influence worldwide. This is a very funny world.