Pepe Les Bleus
Things couldn’t get much worse for the French national team. First, Les Bleus barely qualified for the World Cup, needing a controversial hand-ball goal from Thierry Henry to eke out a last-minute victory over Ireland. Then, in a friendly against Spain on March 3, they were trounced so badly that Henry said he was “embarrassed” and that his team “has a lot of work to do.”
Now, two of their star players—Franck Ribéry and Sidney Govou—are wrapped up in a sex scandal involving a posh Parisian nightclub and underage prostitutes. (To pile on the problems, Ribéry saw red on Wednesday afternoon in Bayern’s Champions League semifinal match with Lyon.)
Representatives for both players have confirmed that the men testified before a judge this week as part of an ongoing police investigation, along with a third player who has not been named. According to some reports, Ribéry acknowledged that he was a regular at the Champs-Élysées-area nightclub, but denied having sex with an underage girl. The French Football Federation has stated that Ribéry and Govou should be presumed innocent until the investigation has run its course. Not surprisingly, many news outlets are doing the opposite.
Whether Ribéry and Govou are found guilty or not, one thing is clear: This scandal won’t help the fortunes of the already disjointed French team. Nor will it improve the reputation of these Pepe Les Bleus.
Kewell confident about World Cup chances
Harry “the Aussie Jewel” Kewellis confident about his chances of making the Australian World Cup team, despite not having played a competitive match since December. The former Liverpool striker has been sidelined with his current club, Galatasaray, for over more than four months following groin surgery.
“I just needed a little rest to get my body back into shape, and now it’s back into shape and it’s nearly there,” the 31-year-old told Australian television. “So I’m really looking forward to this World Cup. I still feel like I've got more in me to produce better football now than what I did when I was younger.”
Torres hitches a ride to Barcelona for surgery
Current Liverpool striker Fernando Torres has shaken off criticism that he put country before club by electing surgery that will put him out for the remainder of the Reds’ season. Because of flight cancellations caused by the Icelandic volcano, the star striker traveled by car from Liverpool to Barcelona to have minor knee surgery this week.
“The meniscus was damaged and the doctors all agreed that I needed an operation on my right knee,” Torres explained on his website. “I have been waiting four years for this [World Cup] and, if all goes well, I do not anticipate missing it. My road to recovery has already started.”
The availability of both Kewell and Torres would be an exciting development for all World Cup fans. Except, of course, those of their opponents.
Yes, tickets are still available
The fifth and final World Cup ticket sales phase began this past week, and FIFA widely publicized the large number of tickets sold. Centers were opened in ten South African host cities to sell Category 4 tickets -- the most inexpensive -- to South African residents for as low as 140 rand ($20). Within the first 24 hours, more than 100,000 tickets were sold. Sales to international fans also resumed, with buyers given the option of immediate purchase.
Despite these sales, tickets for many matches are still available, partly due to the large number of international fans who are canceling their trips. Officials will soon have to decide how to handle unsold and returned tickets. Figuring out the right balance of domestic versus international sales is the organizers’ next major challenge. Capitalizing on those decisions is the scalpers’ next major challenge.
Check out this brand new terminal!
In the latest celebration of South African World Cup readiness, officials unveiled a brand new central terminal at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport this week. South African president Jacob Zuma attended the ceremony and praised the development.
“Our vision of a truly international airport has been realized,” Zuma told reporters. “The stadiums have been completed and match tested. The host provinces countrywide are ready for the tournament and preparing for the flow of tourists. You can see that when we say we are ready for the tournament it is not just rhetoric, we mean what we are saying.
