World Cup Round up: Bafana Bafana no more, Nike buy Umbro, Scotland hold Firm

Spanning the list of nicknames of national teams from around the world, one sees that Africa is the home of many cool nicknames including the Bafana Bafana from South Africa. Meaning ‘The Boys, The Bouys,’ the moniker has a nice ring to the ears, except to the ears belonging to the country’s president Thabo Mbeki. “What kind of a name [Bafana Bafana] is it? I don’t think it is fit for a senior national team or for the hosts of the 2010 Fifa World Cup,” Mbeki told a South African radio station. “We need to revisit the names of teams like Bafana Bafana, Banyana Banyana, Amaglug-glug [the under-23 football team].”

While he is at it, Mbeki might want to revisit the players who play on his national team. At the moment they look like they will face in early exit in the 2010 World Cup, new nickname or not.

From the world of business today, we learn that Nike has bought Umbro for the price of a small country. Nike is intent on dominating the global football scene and making sure we all see plenty of the Swoosh at the next World Cup. What this means in terms of international teams is that England and Sweden will likely have their kits changed. Some other countries impacted include: Norway, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown will meet with Sepp Blatter on Wednesday and they will likely discuss something other than which brand of adult diapers works best. They will talk a bit about the 2018 World Cup and England’s desire to host the tournament. Blatter will then ask Brown for a small check made out to his personal name. Oh wait, that is Jack Warner and not Sepp Blatter. So easy to get them all confused.

Club comes before country except when country faces a critical Euro 2008 qualifying test. The Scotland Premier League has announced that it is postponing the Old Firm clash between Rangers and Celtic in November so that the national team can be fully rested and prepared to face Italy in a do or die game.

In addition to learning how to play boring, methodical football, young players coming up through the German national team system will learn their country’s history. Presumably this will include more than just watching film of the Mannschaft’s past triumphs

Where should Juan Roman Riquelme play next? Clearly his future isn’t at Villareal but clearly he has a lot of game left, at least when he plays for Argentina he does. Diego Maradona thinks Riquelme should head to Italy to play for Juventus. He might be right.

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