Post by Daedalus on May 18, 2010 10:34:50 GMT
This article made me chuckle this morning: www.wsc.co.uk/content/view/5298/38/
Especially the following parts:
Most of us have enjoyed that moment of excitement when we decide that it would be a great idea to have a party. In the first full flush of eager generosity, we invite everyone we know. It's going to be such fun! That's pretty much the best part over for the host. Then you have to cope with the expense, the preparation and the worries about who's going to turn up. During the party, you fret about whether or not everyone's having a good time. Then when they've all gone home, you have to clear up the depressing mess, wash the stains out of the carpet and pay for all the damage. But if you think that's bad, imagine hosting a World Cup.
Hosting the World Cup is a much worse scenario. FIFA is not only your outside caterer, it also becomes the self-invited control freak that tells you exactly how to run your own party. At huge expense, it bullies you into remodelling and renaming all your rooms ("This bog is now the Coca Cola Personal Hygiene Facility"). It moodily threatens to move the party somewhere else if you don't get your act together and finish the preparations on time. It dictates which beer and food to serve. It makes sure that it will be the guest of honour, quaffing vintage champagne in an exclusive VIP room with its best corporate friends, and you'll only be allowed in wearing a butler's uniform.
[...]
From the home fans' point of view, going to World Cup games would offer the chance to fork out for excessively priced tickets, all the while listening to the media shriek that the whole country's hyper-thrilled to be welcoming the world to our grey and rainy island. If it wasn't such a bloated, sponsor-soaked event, they might feel differently, but watching from another country in front of the TV with a beer and a Panini album on your lap has become the least bothersome way to experience the World Cup.
;D
Especially the following parts:
Most of us have enjoyed that moment of excitement when we decide that it would be a great idea to have a party. In the first full flush of eager generosity, we invite everyone we know. It's going to be such fun! That's pretty much the best part over for the host. Then you have to cope with the expense, the preparation and the worries about who's going to turn up. During the party, you fret about whether or not everyone's having a good time. Then when they've all gone home, you have to clear up the depressing mess, wash the stains out of the carpet and pay for all the damage. But if you think that's bad, imagine hosting a World Cup.
Hosting the World Cup is a much worse scenario. FIFA is not only your outside caterer, it also becomes the self-invited control freak that tells you exactly how to run your own party. At huge expense, it bullies you into remodelling and renaming all your rooms ("This bog is now the Coca Cola Personal Hygiene Facility"). It moodily threatens to move the party somewhere else if you don't get your act together and finish the preparations on time. It dictates which beer and food to serve. It makes sure that it will be the guest of honour, quaffing vintage champagne in an exclusive VIP room with its best corporate friends, and you'll only be allowed in wearing a butler's uniform.
[...]
From the home fans' point of view, going to World Cup games would offer the chance to fork out for excessively priced tickets, all the while listening to the media shriek that the whole country's hyper-thrilled to be welcoming the world to our grey and rainy island. If it wasn't such a bloated, sponsor-soaked event, they might feel differently, but watching from another country in front of the TV with a beer and a Panini album on your lap has become the least bothersome way to experience the World Cup.
;D