Not since Don Revie quit as England manager to take charge of the UAE in 1977 has Middle East football been so intensely under the media spotlight. As the recriminations over England’s failed bid to secure the 2018 World Cup continue, it is the winner of the following tournament that has proved more intriguing. The […]
This opinion piece was inspired by a previous blog post on the World Cup. The post was based on a timely and popular topic that was getting a lot of interest in The National newspaper. It was the only comment piece that day to have been written in-house by a staff member.
For every spectacular goal scored, or dive unpunished, World Cup audiences in the Middle East are on the edge of their seats for reasons that have nothing to do with the action in Johannesburg, Rustenburg, Cape Town or any of South Africa’s proud sporting stadia.
I was in South Africa in December last year for a flying visit. With the countdown for the Fifa World Cup well underway, I decided to dig out some of the many photos that were taken in a five-day visit to the Rainbow Nation.
This story first surfaced as a ‘diary job’ for the Evening Chronicle before the 2006 World Cup that was soon picked up by national and international media organisations…