Best African Players Comment About Censorship

2010 World Cup, football, soccer, USA, Portugal, Japan, Denmark, Uruguay, Paraguay, Italy, Côte d'Ivoire, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Ghana, Brazil, Germany, France, England, Slovenia, Korea Republic, Mexico, Netherlands, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Korea DPR, Cameroon, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Portugal, USA, Uruguay, Switzerland, Honduras, Greece, New Zealand, Spain, Nigeria

A few days ago I posted about the greatest African player ever. A post like this gets noticed and many people commented with their opinion.

I also managed to get readers from the Big Soccer forum and Xtratime.com community.

Here, I share some of the best comments.

Reader Chxta said: 'As with most things African, this is a topic that would be quite controversial, for example a lot of the titles won by Egyptian clubs have always been hotly debated.

For me it is a straight fight between Milla, Hassan and Kanu.

Milla shone on the world stage, but never got to the pinnacle of club football.

Kanu has shone on the world stage, but arguably in youth competitions (Olympics for example), however truth be told is that he is, the most decorated player in the English Premiership at the moment, and the most decorated African player ever. However, he hasn't even scored a Nations Cup goal much less win the tournament.

I'd probably give it to Hassan on the strength of the impact he had on his country's game.'

BigSoccer poster Cazlon said: 'Unfortunately there is little point in a ranking like this.

Who outside of their respective country still knows about Abdul Razak, Thomas N'Kono, or even the legendary Kalusha Bwalya ?

European/American tabloids don't, certainly not if you limit the selection to the last decade.

Fair enough.

Xtratime reader Andy Christ said: 'It's between Weah and Eto'o and the Cameroonian will probably edge it after another 3-4 good seasons. Drogba might also come close to Weah's legend if he stays in the form he showed last season. Kanu and Okocha have never been world class and Milla never did enough in Europe. Hassan is somebody who is an unknown factor outside Africa but I doubt if that many Africans outside Egypt seriously rate him above Weah or Eto'o.

He may be right. Only time can tell.

The issue isn't settled and only time will tell who really is the greatest African player ever. Kanu? Milla? Eto'o in a few years? Or someone unknown to the masses, as Cazlon pointed out? Let the debate continue.
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A few days ago, we posted a story about censorship and FIFA's attempts to discourage use of their brand. We noted the case of Anton Vosloo, who ran the wildly successful www.2010-soccer-worldcup.com. FIFA ordered it shut and the site was closed within days.

This comment comes in from Anton Vosloo himself: 'They said the actual domain name was the problem and not so much the content. There are already much more than 7 sites out there.I think it was more the group of us that had a high page rank on google. My site was a free directory for travel related sites in Southern Afica.


I think it's sad that FIFA has come to this, but maybe they're right? Maybe they do need to protect their assets? What do you think?

Read the article and the posted link in the article to learn more about this story.
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Kudos to the Iraqi soccer team on their Asian Cup victory. Once again, football uplifts and transforms a nation. The power of a ball. It's incredible ...

Road to 2010 to Shut Down

2010 World Cup, football, soccer, USA, Portugal, Japan, Denmark, Uruguay, Paraguay, Italy, Côte d'Ivoire, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Ghana, Brazil, Germany, France, England, Slovenia, Korea Republic, Mexico, Netherlands, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Korea DPR, Cameroon, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Portugal, USA, Uruguay, Switzerland, Honduras, Greece, New Zealand, Spain, Nigeria

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 ...

Best African Players A Comment About Censorship

2010 World Cup, football, soccer, USA, Portugal, Japan, Denmark, Uruguay, Paraguay, Italy, Côte d'Ivoire, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Ghana, Brazil, Germany, France, England, Slovenia, Korea Republic, Mexico, Netherlands, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Korea DPR, Cameroon, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Portugal, USA, Uruguay, Switzerland, Honduras, Greece, New Zealand, Spain, Nigeria

A few days ago I posted about the greatest African player ever. A post like this gets noticed and many people commented with their opinion.

I also managed to get readers from the Big Soccer forum and Xtratime.com community.

Here, I share some of the best comments.

Reader Chxta said: 'As with most things African, this is a topic that would be quite controversial, for example a lot of the titles won by Egyptian clubs have always been hotly debated.

For me it is a straight fight between Milla, Hassan and Kanu.

Milla shone on the world stage, but never got to the pinnacle of club football.

Kanu has shone on the world stage, but arguably in youth competitions (Olympics for example), however truth be told is that he is, the most decorated player in the English Premiership at the moment, and the most decorated African player ever. However, he hasn't even scored a Nations Cup goal much less win the tournament.

I'd probably give it to Hassan on the strength of the impact he had on his country's game.'

BigSoccer poster Cazlon said: 'Unfortunately there is little point in a ranking like this.

Who outside of their respective country still knows about Abdul Razak, Thomas N'Kono, or even the legendary Kalusha Bwalya ?

European/American tabloids don't, certainly not if you limit the selection to the last decade.

Fair enough.

Xtratime reader Andy Christ said: 'It's between Weah and Eto'o and the Cameroonian will probably edge it after another 3-4 good seasons. Drogba might also come close to Weah's legend if he stays in the form he showed last season. Kanu and Okocha have never been world class and Milla never did enough in Europe. Hassan is somebody who is an unknown factor outside Africa but I doubt if that many Africans outside Egypt seriously rate him above Weah or Eto'o.

He may be right. Only time can tell.

The issue isn't settled and only time will tell who really is the greatest African player ever. Kanu? Milla? Eto'o in a few years? Or someone unknown to the masses, as Cazlon pointed out? Let the debate continue.
***************************************************

A few days ago, we posted a story about censorship and FIFA's attempts to discourage use of their brand. We noted the case of Anton Vosloo, who ran the wildly successful www.2010-soccer-worldcup.com. FIFA ordered it shut and the site was closed within days.

This comment comes in from Anton Vosloo himself: 'They said the actual domain name was the problem and not so much the content. There are already much more than 7 sites out there.I think it was more the group of us that had a high page rank on google. My site was a free directory for travel related sites in Southern Afica.


I think it's sad that FIFA has come to this, but maybe they're right? Maybe they do need to protect their assets? What do you think?

Read the article and the posted link in the article to learn more about this story.
******************************************

Kudos to the Iraqi soccer team on their Asian Cup victory. Once again, football uplifts and transforms a nation. The power of a ball. It's incredible ...

The stadium will hold the final and opening matches

stadium

So now I know where I'll be in approximately three years time, July 11th, 2010.

Sitting in the sun at Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg, sipping on a Castle, chatting with Zola and Desmond Tutu, watching the Final game of the madly successful African World Cup.

FIFA's executive committee let the world know Wednesday that the final game of the World Cup will be held in the legislative capital city, in the 94,700-seat stadium.

The stadium will hold the final and opening matches, five first-round matches, one second-round match and one quarter-final.

Wish me luck!!!

Road to 2018 Final

So when do I start the blog on my way to the 2018 Final?
If this story is true, I won't have to go far ... (thanks to Reuters for this story)

A bid by the Benelux countries to host the 2018 World Cup was launched on Wednesday with the man steering it emphasizing it was a single bid from one political entity and not a joint bid from three countries.

Alain Courtois was director of the Belgian half of Euro 2000 which his country co-hosted with the Netherlands.
He said at the launch of Belgium's part of the triple bid with Luxembourg and the Netherlands that it was definitely "not a joint bid" which are no longer favored by FIFA.

"We are one entity, one political entity with a common economic base," Courtois said.
"Benelux has its own parliament which has existed for 50 years," he told Reuters.

He said they were confident of convincing FIFA president Sepp Blatter of awarding the finals to Benelux, even though Blatter has said FIFA is not in favor of future joint bids for soccer's showpiece event.

Only one of the 18 World Cups staged since the tournament began in 1930 has been split between two countries -- the 2002 finals in South Korea and Japan.

With the 2010 finals in South Africa and the 2014 finals probably set for Brazil, the destination of the 2018 finals is far from certain as FIFA have not yet fixed their continental rotational policy that far into the future.

Blatter has said the 2018 event could be held in North America, but a number of countries around the world are also considering bidding with England, Russia, the United States, China, Italy, Spain and Australia all possible contenders.

Courtois confirmed that both Belgium and Luxembourg had given their political backing to the bid with the Dutch expected to follow suit next week when the Dutch FA (KNVB) meets its government.

He said: "In 2000 we were the first European Championships to make a profit and the fact that we are one of the most wealthy, accessible and highly populated regions of the world means we are a perfect choice.

"But you must also look at the recent awarding of the European Championships to Austria-Switzerland in 2008 and Poland-Ukraine in 2012 to see that joint bids can also be successful too."

Good News from South Africa 2010

Some good news today from the people working hard in South Africa to get the country ready for the 2010 World Cup extravaganza.

Construction of the main stadium for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa will be finished early, the main spokesman for the country's 2010 organizing committee said on Tuesday.

Tim Modise told a briefing that government officials were confident the Soccer City stadium in southern Johannesburg would be ready by April 2009, well ahead of the October 2009 delivery deadline set by soccer's governing body FIFA.

"The flagship stadium, where the opening and final games will be played, will be delivered several months ahead of time," Modise said. "They have been working 24/7 on it."

South Africa is building five new stadiums and refurbishing five others in preparation for the World Cup, which is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors to the country.

Work on the stadiums began this year, later than expected, prompting concerns South Africa would not meet key construction deadlines and spurring reports that FIFA might consider moving the World Cup to another country.

FIFA officials have repeatedly denied any plan to strip South Africa of the prestigious tournament. The organization's President Sepp Blatter said after touring World Cup sites in South Africa last week that "only an act of God" would see the tournament taken away from the country.

The Soccer City stadium, which is located near the giant black township of Soweto, will have 94,000 seats. Designed to resemble a giant calabash shell, the stadium will create the image of a traditional African cooking pot when lit up at night.

While praising officials for picking up the pace on stadium construction, Blatter and others have urged organizers to pay attention to the construction of hotels and other World Cup facilities and ensure the streets are safe for visitors.

South Africa's high level of violent crime -- much of it centered in and around Johannesburg -- has raised fears that fans and athletes could be easy pickings for criminals during World Cup events in the nine host cities.

Thanks to Reuters for the details of this story.