So the golden $31Mn question is....

Welcome to my World Cup 2010 blog page.....truly meant for footie fanatics...and anyone who loves reading any litearture out there re: football (must admit I am one of them)
So what really is the history of football..as we know it...and who would win the $31mn prize money in Jo'berg on July 11...here is my take on both these topics..


Well according to the Genesis of footy....In the beginning God created Nike (whether Phil Knight came first or air Jordan is a different question altogether).....and the guys (and gals and ad agency folks...who sometimes can border between the previous 2 options) at Nike then created this truly remarkable film (although my old P&G friend Gautam Kiyawat thinks this is terrible). But I cannot comment on the copy commenting skills of media folks !! The 3 minute film more or less captures the real history of football as we know today...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idLG6jh23yE


And then on the 2nd day, he created Champions League Football.....(and for those who think IPL cricket is amazing...this blog is not for them..Amen). And as Champions League evolved over the years....comes a special year - i.e. 2009-10 season. And this year has been truly memorable. and for a change (and to the long term benefit of the English football team - more about this later), the centre of gravity of European football has (thankfully) shifted back to the continent. I have to figure out the best TV package for watching the spanish and italian leagues next year rather than the SKY HD package that had become the norm for most footie fans. And specially with Mourinho, Fabregas, Rooney, Gerrard and gang all set to move to Spain in the 2010-11 season, the La Liga will be the truly great league to follow till Wenger, ancelloti and Fergie decide to bring these guys back to London and Manchester.. Needless to say, the 2009-10 season truly belonged Mourinho and his Inter Milan team that walked away with an outstanding victory last weekend.


http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/newsid=1491983.html




And then on the 3rd day, God created the 6 great clubs - first of course - Arsenal (partly because God follows alphabetical protocol), then Barcelona, then Chelsea, Milan (the AC variety), then Man U & finally Real Madrid. The least said about this the best....but between these 6 clubs - almost all the players will feature in the quarter finals of this years WC.  


and then he listened to the footie spouses and rested for 3 days...


And on the 7thl day...he decided to create the World cup...and then on the behest of Eve, God decided that he would have this tournament only once every 4 years !! (Adam was busy watching the Premier League with Magners Apple cider when this happened and hence didn't get to vote). 


So we have the World Cup 2010 in S Africa ....and this my friends is a short history of this game !!


As in the past 5 world Cups...I have predicted (and missed by a mile) the winner. Given my poor forecasting record, I have no 'rep to protect' (as they said in Grease 2)...unlike my colleagues in the journalistic world like Simon Kuper (one of the best footballing writers around) ...anyways, I will still go ahead and take a shot at predicting the 2010 cup winner. But before that  - one interesting statistic...how much would the winning team make ..and the answer is 


The winning team takes the trophy & a total of $31m (£18.7m). The runners-up will get $24m, semi-finalists $20m and the quarter-finalists $18m each. Teams that reach the second round will get $9m and even those eliminated in the group phase will receive $8m. Each team have already received $1m from Fifa towards their "preparation costs". With the Us Dollar strengthening every second, FIFA should have hedged and provided the winning cheque in Euros instead...


So my dream semi-final line-up would be Brazil vs. England (Cape Town, 6th July) and Argentina vs. Spain (Durban, 7th July). a Brazil vs. Argentina final would be the ultimate cup lover's dream..but it looks like Spain vs. Brazil with Spain taking the trophy on the night of 11th July. ahem !!


And before I sign off, a truly honest point..just to check my predictions, I logged onto Ladbrokes.com and what do I see....(link below for you to see for yourself)


http://sports.ladbrokes.com/en-gb/Navigation?dispSortId=253&byocList=s722


Ciao soon...on my next blog...


Neil