Football gets the world talking???

Once in four years, something call the World Cup is played and nearly 1 billion people will watch the "beautiful game". Now some may say it's a stupid game with 22 idiots going after 1 ball and each of them trying to score a goal to win a cup?? (with the exception of the goalkeeper) "Why can you people like such a dumb game?" says many whom I've met who has a distaste for the game. Women especially absolutely don't understand why some guys are so into football. Well ladies, it is like shopping to you as it is with football to men...GET IT?? Some even said that it's a game for gays. That's probably the nastiest comment I've heard.

Despite all the disagreements and the distastefulness, football is still a game which will definitely generate interest in even the most harshest of critics. Some of us may not be great fans of football but will ultimately sit down to support the only Asian team in the 64 team selected or the losing side. Some may just mock at the stupidity of the game but become drawn to the skills of one touch passing, dribbling, and headers. Some may not like the game, but will sit down and watch a match out of curiousity beacuse of the WORLD CUP BUZZ or its THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINALS. Since World Cup is here football is everywhere, on ASTRO, the news, tabloids, magazines, games, Internet, conversations and even gossips. Generally everybody is comfortable with football. In fact no one has ever been reported to go into great lengths to suppress the game of football.

Take a good look at the World that we live in today.Our Beloved Planet Earth. There is civil unrest, terrorism, inept leadership, political problems and the Bush Administration. Why can't we just agree or come up with an amicable solution to problems like terrorism. The world has been battling terrorism for years now since 9/11 and I don't see any end to this in the near future. Why must the world's superpower monopolise on the issue of terrorism as if by default they should be the World's only police force, to maintain peace and introduce democracy when it seems to me they have now become the world's terrorist....

Take football in comparison, nearly 1/6 the world's population watch football. NO ONE fights over football. At the end of the day, losers embrace their opponents and the fans continue to cheer and support them. The winning team walks out tall and yearns for more while for the losing team, it is good education for their flaws and failures will lead to future victories. Why can't we apply this form of understanding in the world today? It seems that problems never get ironed out.






Most of them gets worse. Let's take something more generic. THE UNITED NATIONS.

To tell you the truth, are all the countries united? It seems that the United States of America is more powerful than the organization itself using it's veto power to go against any decision or consensus which may cause harm to their own self-interest. Has the United Nations been effective throughout this years other then some notable achievements like eradicating smallpox and the Cuban crisis. It is interesting to hear from Kofi Annan stating that the United Nations need to learn a lot from football to make the United Nations more effective and more unified from an issue of The Star recently. He even confesses that he didn't know much about football other than knowing that his home country, Ghana is playing in the World Cup. The United Nations is made up of 191 members. In contrast the FIFA organisation is made up of 205 members. So what happen to the 14 more in UN?? Angola has always been a country embattled with civil wars and political unrest but their qualification into the World Cup, their first ever World Cup was greatly cherished by all their people. Even warmongerers, put down their guns and their differences aside to celebrate their "victory" into the world's stage of football. It was sort of freedom for them. I really wander if the World Cup were to stay forever, will Angola be a peaceful country......

How about other organisations like G8, G77. Even religions like Christianity and Islam seems to have problems internally and Islam is often associated with the terrorism. Everyone seems to have their own self- interests going about to achieve their objectives, uncompromising and it has always been difficult to have an agreement on matters pertaining to global warming, food supplies and healthcare. Take for example the Kyoto Protocol, it has been stated that all developed countries must reduce c02 emissions by the year 2009. This cannot proceed because US claims that it will affect it's economy considering that there contribute about 1/3rd of the world's CO2 emmision.

It is sad to see the world's current condition which I believe will be extremely difficult to change. But much can be learned from football itself. The impact of football can't be greater than what it is now during the World Cup. Football will continue to persist and the game will never change until the end. So once more,

FOOTBALL GETS THE WORLD TALKING..