Fifa President Sepp Blatter speaks during
the World Cup final draw banquet. Photograph: Laurence Griffiths -
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So how can we while away the hours - HOURS - until Fifa song-and-dance man general secretary Jerome Valcke comes on to do his turn?
Tum te tum. Ah, here's a thing. The Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd track
posted below, Baia (aka Bahia), was written by a chap called Ary
Barroso. He was a football commentator in his spare time, and whenever a
goal was scored, he'd parp on a miniature mouth organ by way of
celebration. Erm. I'll level with you, there's nothing much to say at
the moment, I'll not insult your intelligence by pretending otherwise.
Along with yesterday's teaser, our pre-draw coverage is close to tipping the 5,000-word mark. That's the equivalent of the first three chapters of War and Peace, or two-thirds of the opening chapter of Ulysses. You lucky people!
It's just under two-and-a-half hours until the draw begins. It takes place at 1pm in Costa do Sauipe, Bahia ...
... which translates as 5pm in the British Winter System, or
whatever it's called. It probably won't start then. Anyway, 140 minutes
or so to go. By way of comparison, BBC Television's coverage of the 1969
Moon Landings only began 30 minutes before touchdown. Just saying.
Good afternoon, everyone, as we continue our rolling
coverage of Fifa Event Organiser Operatives laying out chairs, topping
up water jugs, straightening tablecloths, testing microphones and
polishing raffle spinners while everyone else is in another room at the
conference centre swilling cheap fizz / at the hotel pool swilling cheap
fizz / asleep. Pulitzer, please!
Official Fifa-unapproved World Cup draw handover ...
Having been providing a rolling report on quite literally Nothing
Happening for several hours, I'm about to head out to the woods with a
revolver and a bottle of brandy. Scott Murray is beside himself with
excitement at the prospect of taking you through to the draw's
conclusion, mainly because he'll get to report on some actual
ball-fondling action once proceedings get under way in Costa do Sauipe
in one hour and 40 minutes.
More World Cup draw nostalgia ...
The year: 1982. The location: Spain. Who turned up in Pot 2 only the former Yugoslavia? Great days.
World Cup draw nostalgia ...
Savants and people who might well need psychiatric help will recall
that around this time four years ago, England were in Pot A, rubbing
shoulders with hosts South Africa, as well as Brazil, Spain,
Netherlands, Italy, Germany and Argentina. They were picked to go in
Group C, along with the United States (Pot 2), Slovenia (Pot 4) and
Algeria (Pot 3). Bolding up the first letters of the words "England', 'Algeria', 'Slovenia' and 'Yanks', the Sun came up with the famous 'EASY' headline that could hardly have been less prophetic.
An official Fifa-sanctioned Christmas tree. Photograph: VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images
Security on patrol at Costa Do Sauipe. Photograph: Adam Davy/PA
Rio's favelas being 'socially cleansed' ahead of World Cup
It should go without saying, they're arriving in style: a fleet of
limos with police outriders. Matt Dickenson from The Times reports ...
Some former Brazilian legends speak ...
Former World Cup winner Romario: “I am not against
the World Cup but I can’t be for the money that is being spent on it. As
much as we want the World Cup, the Brazilian people deserve respect,
they don’t deserve this open abuse of their money ... the much-discussed
social legacy looks like it won’t get off the drawing board. Almost all
the transport projects are behind schedule, some have been put back and
will be opened only after the World Cup and others have been cancelled
altogether.” World Cup ambassador Carlos Alberto:
“It’s a missed opportunity to make a few things better for the Brazilian
public. I am in no doubt the tournament will be a huge party, but the
improvements to infrastructure are not going well.”
World Cup cheerleaders can read more about the shameful treatment of the people of Brazil by their own governement and Fifa in this thought-provoking article by Ewan McKenna. Fifa president Sepp Blatter has no time for
people who don't toe the Fifa party line. Photograph: Laurence Griffiths
- FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images
Updated
No rolling report of a World Cup draw in
Brazil would be complete without a photograph of this man Photograph:
Alexander Hassenstein
An email from Brendan McGerty ...
"I live down the road from the draw in a place called Guarajuba," he
writes. "While I'm not important or cool enough to be at the draw, I
was given the responsibility to wash the clothes of some of the Fifa
delegates due to the laundry backlog at the 'seven star' resort. Have I
finally made it to the big time? Is this how you started in journalism?"
No Brendan, my start in journalism had little or nothing to do with
scrubbing Sepp's smalls. It was far less auspicious.
Updated
Lend us your ears ...
Want to hear award-winning author*, Blizzard editor and Guardian
football egghead Jonathan Wilson debate a World Cup draw that hasn't
happened yet with Italian football journalist Tancredi Palmeri? For 71
minutes? Of course you do.
*He won it in Italy, so the inevitably corrupt process of picking him as the winner means it probably doesn't count.
Updated
The personnel in charge of this afternoon's draw
Fifa Secretary General Jerome Valcke will conduct the draw and will
be joined by a number of distinguished "assistants": Uruguay's Alcides
Ghiggia, England's Geoff Hurst, former Brazil captain Cafu, Italy’s
Fabio Cannavaro, Argentina’s Mario Kempes, Spain’s Fernando Hierro,
France's Zinedine Zidane and fun German Lothar Matthaus. This afternoon's draw assistants. Photograph: Marcus Brandt/dpa/Corbis
More on that Paul McGrath chant ...
My colleague Paul Doyle has just told me that he addressed this
particular incident in a particularly harrowing Small Talk interview he
conducted with Paul. "I've heard about that," McGrath said. "I'm sure he
had no idea what was going on. But to me, it's just lovely. I mean,
it's just the greatest honour to have any kind of association with a man
like that even if, as I say, he would have been completely baffled by
it." McGrath went on to reveal that he'd once been given the opportunity
to meet Mandela, but said he "made a balls of it". Read the interview in its entirety by clicking on this link.
Correction and clarification
"The famous 'Ooh Aah Paul McGrath's Da' chant was outside the
Mansion House (Mayor's residence) on Dawson Street in Dublin," writes
ColdUpNorth in the comments section. "Mandela was getting the freedom of
the city and it coincided with the parade to celebrate the return of
the RoI team from the World Cup, USA. I was there and the whole crowd
cracked up laughing. Mandela just waved at us - he had probably never
heard of the great Paul McGrath!" Members of the National Guard march past
Mansion House in London, which is not to be confused with Mansion House
in Dublin. Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images
Hats off to the Adam Hurrey at Football Clichés
He has put a seriously impressive amount of work into combining
ingredients from a whole host of different competitions to come up with their idea of the perfect World Cup.
From best format , ball and mascot, through most ideal stadia and TV
coverage, to best kits, goalscoring and indisicipline, Adam has left no
stone unturned in his efforts to dream up the perfect World Cup
experience. Clink on the link above to read his findings, click on this one to visit his website and follow him on Twitter on @FootballCliches.
Our man Owen Gibson is in Costa do Sauipe
Our sports news correspondent is one of many Fleet Street hacks currently lording it up on a week long jolly
typing their fingers to the bone at the official Fifa-approved
seven-star resort where today's draw takes place. Last night our very
own Captain Buzz-kill filed this dispatch from the front line, in which
he pointed out that behind the sun, samba and beautiful game there are
concerns over the hosts' stadiums, transport, security and legacy. Click on the link to find out more. Two Fleet Street news correspondents race to
meet another tight deadline as they approach the end of their week long
reconaissance mission to Brazil. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images
When World Cup draws go wrong ...
A young and sprightly looking Sepp Blatter presides over the shambles that was the draw for Spain 82. Thanks to Steve Pye for drawing my attention to this clip on Twitter.
My own personal favourite Mandela memory ...
... dates back to 1994, when the great man paid a visit to Dublin
and was greeted in - I think - Dublin's College Green by thousands of
excited Irish folk who repeatedly serenaded him with a loud chorus of
"Ooh-ah, Paul McGrath's da! Ooh-ah, Paul McGrath's da!" I sincerely
hoped somebody explained what they were on about and pointed out that,
in the wake of McGrath's heroic performances at USA 94, there could be
no higher accolade. The poor man must have been terribly confused. Former Republic of Ireland international Paul McGrath. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Getty Images
Updated
Fifa pays tribute to Nelson Mandela ...
Having forced a grieving Nelson Madela off his sickbed to attend the last World Cup final,
Fifa president Sepp Blatter has released a statement announcing how
upset he was to hear the news about the death of his "dear friend"
Nelson Madela.
"It is in deep mourning that I pay my respects to an extraordinary
person, probably one of the greatest humanists of our time and a dear
friend of mine: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela," he said. "He and I shared an
unwavering belief in the extraordinary power of football to unite
people in peace and friendship, and to teach basic social and
educational values as a school of life. When he was honoured and cheered
by the crowd at Johannesburg’s Soccer City stadium on 11 July 2010, it
was as a man of the people, a man of their hearts, and it was one of the
most moving moments I have ever experienced. For him, the World Cup in
South Africa truly was 'a dream come true'. Nelson Mandela will stay in
our hearts forever. The memories of his remarkable fight against
oppression, his incredible charisma and his positive values will live on
in us and with us." Despite what Sepp Blatter would have you believe, Nelson Mandela was always more of a rugby man. Photograph: John Stillwell/PA
It has 32 balls and makes grown men and women sweat ...
Think of the World Cup draw as being like a very complicated and
particularly longwinded game of bingo. The draw for next summer's World
Cup finals takes place in Costa do Sauipeat later this afternoon and you
can follow it live, right here on this rolling report. Here's how it
works.
As hosts, Brazil are automatically seeded and have already been
placed in Group A, taking spot A1 in the draw. Spain, Germany,
Argentina, Colombia, Belgium, Switzerland and Uruguay have also been
seeded on the basis of their Fifa ranking.
Those teams will be in Pot 1 for the draw, while the other three pots
have been determined by "sports and geographic factors". Pot four
contains nine European teams, one of which will be drawn to go into Pot
2. Those pots in full ... Pot 1: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Uruguay Pot 2: Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Chile, Ecuador (plus one from Pot 4) Pot 3: Australia, Iran, Japan, Korea, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, USA Pot 4: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, England, France, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia (one team will end up in Pot 2)
The draw will then take place and teams from the same confederation
cannot be drawn in the same group (ie two South American teams cannot be
placed in the same group), but with one exception: two teams from the
Uefa region will end up in the one of the groups.
To prevent three European teams ending up in one group, the European
team which ends up in Pot 2 is already guaranteed to be put in the same
group as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia or Uruguay - one of the South
American teams from Pot 1. Eyes down: this evening's World Cup draw is like a very complicated game of bingo. Photograph: Christopher Thomond
Updated
So, what is this 'World Cup' everyone's talking about?
The 2014 World Cup finals will be staged in 12 different stadia (a
few of which may even be built) in Brazil from Thursday 12 June to
Sunday 13 July next year. The host cities are Belo Horizonte, Brasilia,
Cuiaba, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Manaus, Natal, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de
Janeiro, Salvador and Sao Paulo. Conditions for matches played in the
north of the country (Fortaleza, Natal and Manaus), which is bigger than
the USA, are likely to be very hot, muggy and humid, a state of affairs
that has already prompted England manager Roy Hodgson to unwittingly
offend Arthur Virgilio Neto, mayor of Manaus, by announcing he hoped
England wouldn't have to play there.
"We Amazonians also prefer that England do not come," sniffed Neto.
"We hope a better national side comes, with more football and a more
sensitive, cultured and educated coach. Here is one of the few people in
the world who isn’t curious about the Amazon and doesn’t dream of
knowing Manaus."
It seems fairly obvious that Mr Neto has firmly grabbed the wrong end
of the stick with both hands, as Hodgson's only beef with Manuas is its
prohibitive tropical climate, which is almost certainly not conducive
to getting the best out of pasty players like Wayne Rooney, Leighton
Baines and Phil Jones. Say what you like about England's manager, but he
is nothing if not sensitive, cultured and educated. He speaks six
languages, he's managed all over the world and ... drum-roll ...
regularly reads books. The England manager Roy Hodgson is so
insensitive, uncultured and poorly educated that speaks six languages,
has managed all over the world and is a big fan of high-browed
literature. Photograph: Handout/Reuters
Updated
The complete travel guide to Brazil's World Cup cities ...
Ahead of the World Cup 2014 draw, locals and experts from Brazil's
12 host cities give the lowdown on the stadiums, the bars, what to take
and where to go in between matches. To see and hear what they have to say, click on this link. Aerial view of the Christ the Redeemer
statue atop Corcovado Hill and the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil. Photograph: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images
Updated
This boy and his official Fifa-sanctioned
baby loggerhead sea turtle (caretta caretta) may well feature in a
montage during this evening's World Cup draw. Photograph: Ricardo
Moraes/Reuteurs
The official World Cup ball has been launched, the scare stories
about violent crime in Brazil have been written and the grumbling about
oppressively hot weather and the price of flights and accommodation, not
to mention the inadequacies of the Brazilian transport system has begun
in earnest. Thankfully, today's the day we get to discuss some actual
football as the 32 nations who have qualified find out who'll they'll be
playing and where at Brazil 2013. Amid much pomp and ceremony, the draw
ceremony is due to begin in the paradise resort of Costa do Sauipe in
the Brazilian state of Bahia at 4pm BST and will probably end some time
in the middle of next week. We'll spend the build-up keeping you posted
on how the draw will happen while bringing you other news of interest*,
so stay tuned and cross your fingers in the hope that your team doesn't
end up in the inevitable Group of Death.
* Disclaimer: News may not be of interest. The sun rises over the resort area Costa do Sauipe, scene of today's World Cup draw. Photograph: Gernot Hensel/EPA
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