World Cup Round Up: Diouf un-retires, Togo and Mali Violence, Mexico’s youngsters

It is a busy day with Euro 2008 matches, World Cup qualifiers and international friendlies. A round-up of the day’s action to come, but first let’s take a quick tour around the world to see the off-the-pitch World Cup-related headlines.

We start in Senegal where the nation’s football captain El Hadji Diouf has backed away from this talk of retirement from international football. You’ll recall that Diouf said last week that he has had enough of the shoddy treatment from his nation’s football federation, especially after giving so much for his country. Today, he sang a different tune. “The thing I said and which was quite distorted … is that if things continue like that, I would quit the national team to concentrate exclusively on my club,” Diouf said according to the privately-owned daily Sud Quotidien.

Also today we get the first glimpse of the violence at the end of the Mali and Niger African Cup of Nations tilt last week. Freddie Kanoute and his Malian teammates where lucky to escape with minor injuries.

The mood in Mexico is high now that Hugo Sanchez is running the show. More importantly, some of the country’s younger players are starting to get a chance to show their skills. They have a nice collection of youngsters in Mexico. Whether that will translate into an Olympic medal and a strong showing in South Africa in 2010, however, remains to be seen.

They no longer have the “help wanted” sign hanging on the door of the Algerian football federation’s offices. Rabah Saadane is the new boss in charge of the Desert Foxes. He takes over for Jean Michel Cavali who was fired after Algeria failed to qualify for the African Cup of Nations. Saadane is a familiar figure in Algeria. This is the fifth time he has coached the national team. He has more lives than a cat.

It appears that it will be a two country race for the right to host the 2011 Women’s World Cup. Peru has stepped aside from the bidding and that leaves Germany and Canada battling it out. While I have no doubt that Canada would be a fine host, I think Germany deserves the competition. They won the title this year and showed the country is an excellent World Cup host in 2006. Building excitement for the women’s game in the heart of Europe would be a very good thing in my opinion.

More to come once most of the games are over Wednesday…

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