Football pieces - accumulation overload

Having been struggling for days with a very poor internet connection I've not been keeping up with my World Cup links. This is a shame because I keep finding more and more, so this is an over edited edition.

I was disappointed by the way that not a single paper ran with the headline "For you England the Cup is over" but I was cheered up by the fact that David Blaine is apparently quite annoyed because his record of doing nothing in a box for 42 days has been broken by Wayne Rooney.

Anyway, enough of this and on to the last Englishman to keep the World Cup flame alive, Howard Webb, international standard ref.


Not only is he still in the Cup his experience goes all the way back to the Battle of Orgreave. He recalls his experience in Euro 2008 "I had a game in Salzburg and was met by the head of police off the plane. He said: 'Mr Vebb, you will not be killed in Salzburg.'" Reassuring.

• It's not just France that decided to blame black people for their poor performance. We have these guys in the UK too. Liberal Conspiracy.
  
  
• Speaking of which, Back of the net says that France is satisfied now it has beaten France.
  
  
• Everyone was so sure that Fabio Capello was going to be for the high jump, but apparently he's staying with football.
  
  
• Paul Stott reflects on whether Marxists get on with sport. Will they be watching the coverage?
  
  
• Patrick Bond looks at how the Cup has played into xenophobia in South Africa.
  
  
• Corruption in football? Surely not.
  
  
• John Barnes tells us that socialism is the cure for our football woes. Yes he does.
  
  
• Jane Watkinson looks at the fortunes of the US and Latin Americans.
  
  
• Septicisle tells us why England continue to lose.
  
  
• Chris Dillow looks at football and class, and then comes out with the classic line "there’s a difference between IQ intelligence and footballing intelligence; Glenn Hoddle has devoted his life to demonstrating this."
  
  
• Fed up with "soccer" then why not try Quiddich? Adrian.
  
  
• Paul Watson thinks Erikson had a good World Cup.
  
  
• Kate Blagojevic compares Holland and Brazil.
  

Finally just thought I'd flag up how vuvuzelas have entered the protest community in the US as a guy called Adam Quirk is organising a vuvuzela attack on BP's US headquarters and raising money for the oil spill clean up at the same time. Nice.