Hitting The Bar

Winners

Flavio of Angola has won a special prize for scoring his country’s first ever goal in a World Cup finals. He is now the proud owner of a new house. The house is worth £100,000 and was donated oil tycoon Elias Chimuco. Which is nice.

Pub landlords in the UK expect to pour 32 million pints during the England v Ecuador match. Let’s hope England fans aren’t left crying into them.

Landlord James Banbury has turfed the inside of his pub, the Old Swan in Kibworth, Leicestershire, for the World Cup. “It took me a few hours to do, but the response I’ve had from the punters has been good,” says Banbury. “Everyone who has walked in and seen the grass has burst out laughing.” So keeping it watered.

Losers

The Ghanaian foreign minister has apologised to Arab ambassadors after his country’s footballer John Paintsil celebrated a gaol against the Czech Republic by pulling an Israeli flag from his sock. Paintsil plays for Hapoel Tel Aviv in Israel. Newspapers in Egypt called Paintsil a "Mossad agent", said he’d been paid to do it and branded him “ignorant and stupid”. Painstil says it was “a sign of appreciation to my God and fans in Israel”.

The Costa Ricans performed fairly well at the World Cup. Granted, they did not win a game. Sure, they did not win a point. But they were there. And they tried. But when they arrived back home the team were jeered. “Coffee pickers needed,” read a sign that greeting them at the airport. “The only requirement: lack of shame.”

Posted: 24th, June 2006 | In: Back pages Comment | TrackBack | Permalink