Road to 2010 to Shut Down

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If FIFA has their way, I may have to 'suggest' I'm going to South Africa for some big event and not out-and-out say I'm off to the FIFA World Cup.

This smells of censorship ... A report in the Times of South Africa states that the world football governing body has ordered about seven websites to shut down or face legal action.

Seems FIFA said organizing the 2010 World Cup is “extremely expensive” and that its successful staging hinges on the significant financial investment from their sponsors and licensees.

David Murray, FIFA’s senior legal counsel, defended the ultimatum to the websites saying the sites could cause the public to believe their firms provided “this official service ... which is not the case”.

In a letter to Anton Vosloo, who ran the wildly successful www.2010-soccer-worldcup.com, Murray said: “We appreciate that you may not have been aware that companies such as yours, which do not have a formal licence to Fifa, cannot use the infringing signs. For this reason, we are writing to explain this to you and to politely request that you immediately refrain from using the domain name and the infringing signs.”

Vosloo shut down his site within days.

So what's the big deal if some people write about the upcoming games?

Maybe I'm not getting this. Anyone care to interject?

You can read the entire article here. Let me know what you think ...