…..until someone loses an eye!

(I’ve just read a book by that title and loved every word.)

I am sick to the back teeth of greed and commercialism at the moment. This time, it’s reared its ugly head in the worst of ways. The beautiful game has been tainted by FIFA and/or the host nation of this year’s footie World Cup’s screaming commercialism. I hate that.

Two things have brought this on. The first was DM getting emailed by a company who makes some of his tee-shirt designs saying ‘if you have anything in your portfolio that says ‘world cup 2006’ or ‘Germany 2006’ then we can’t print it anymore because FIFA are taking people to court after they trade marked the words so no-one else can use them’. Er – excuse me, does this mean that if the World Volleyball Cup is this year and they want tee-shirts saying ‘world cup 2006’ then they are in breach of FIFA’s copyright because of this? What about if someone goes on a Stag weekend to Germany in November and wants to have tee-shirts made up with ‘Germany 2006’ then they too will get sued? Apparently so, if FIFA have anything to do with it.

The second thing is this malarkey with Bumwiper. Apparently a big American corporation who has VERY deep pockets has bought the rights to be the only beer served in the World Cup. Er? The event is in GERMANY – a land where beer better than the aforesaid Bumwiper is available in every bar at about two Euros a litre. In fact, a land where beer is valued for more than the fact that its brand name is famous. A land where beer is of high quality.

So, anyone travelling to Germany for the World Cup (don’t mention the World Cup or FIFA will be down on you like a tonne of bricks) will be subjected to an American brand of beer, whether they like it or not….whether they thought their trip will be full of delicious German beers. Except that the good folks of Germany have rebelled, big time. They’ve put their foot down with a firm hand and said ‘we want our own beer’. After many shenanigans, FIFA/the host nation (I’m not sure who gets to decide this one) has said that it’s OK to serve German beer as long as no-one knows they’re drinking it because it must be served in unmarked glasses so that those nice chaps from New Jersey don’t get upset that they’ve spent all that money on blocking out the competition and some little German company has snuck in the back door.

Somehow, hearing these things has soured the whole thing for me. Not that I’m a lover of international Footie anyway, supporting Cyprus as I do. I simply think that this is success (of a sort) for the greedy, money-grabbing corporations who think that they can buy anything of thing if they pay enough dosh. Perhaps one of these days, someone will wake up to the fact that there is more to life than great wadges of money and that the laws about competition should apply to events like the World Cup too.

Do you think that by the time of the next World Cup it'll be illegal to drink anything but Coca-Cola or one of their sub-brands if you want a soft-drink?

So – World Cup 2006, Germany 2006 and Long Live German Beer is what I say…..

…….come and get me FIFA/Bumwiper……..you know you want to…..

(and please feel free to look like a bunch of complete twats for doing so)

Last year, I was getting some pleasure after a long day!