Recent posts in my 2010 World Cup Category
July 27, 2010
Preserving the Guardian's digital World Cup archives
Last week I blogged about The Guardian's "Wall of World Cup" archive display, where the information and library team had put together print outs of Manchester Guardian and Guardian coverage of World Cup finals from 1950 up to 2006. It made me wonder if you could do the same thing with our digital content. The answer is "sort of".
July 21, 2010
The Guardian's "Wall of World Cup Archives"
Throughout the course of this summer's World Cup, at The Guardian we had a display of archive coverage of the tournament up in the newsroom. Put together by Richard Nelsson and his library and archives team, it covered the years 1950 to 2006, and showed how the design of the newspaper and the nature of sports reporting had changed over the decades.
July 12, 2010
Pundits and predictions...the World Cup according to the English press
To celebrate the end of the World Cup, I've made a short video which shows English newspaper front pages going from declaring that England had an "E.A.S.Y." draw, to saying that the players have let their country down. Along the way, it seems like a psychic octopus was outperforming the nation's football pundits. And none of them offered to resign either...
June 11, 2010
See you when the World Cup is over...
I'm going to be taking a blogging holiday during the course of this summer's World Cup in order to finish some presentations, develop a couple of training courses, and make some back-end fixes to the currybetdotnet site. See you after the final...
February 27, 2010
The Sun relying on 'copyright thieves' Google and Yahoo! for their Wrightys XI campaign
Despite Murdoch's stance that search engines steal his newspaper's content, The Sun are using search keywords as the main marketing thrust for their 2010 FIFA World Cup competition.
December 7, 2009
Africa in the FIFA World Cup: Part 6 - The noughties and beyond...
Part 6 of this series looks at the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, and the prospects for African teams now that the 2010 draw has been finalised.
December 4, 2009
Africa in the FIFA World Cup: Part 5 - The nineties
Today, preparations for South Africa hosting the 2010 World Cup reach a new peak with the draw for the opening group stages in Cape Town. To mark the occasion, all this week I've been blogging about the history of African nations competing in sport's most prestigious competition - from Egypt in 1934, through the wilderness years, to an increased African presence during the seventies and eighties. Today it is the turn of the nineties, and a focus on the...
December 3, 2009
Africa in the FIFA World Cup: Part 4 - The eighties
With the draw for the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa taking place tomorrow, this week I've been blogging about the history of African teams taking part in the finals. So far I've looked at the thirties, the wilderness years and the seventies. Today it is the turn of the eighties, with a look at the tournaments held in Spain and Mexico. Africa in the FIFA World Cup: España '82 The 1982 World Cup Finals were the...
December 2, 2009
Africa in the FIFA World Cup: Part 3 - The seventies
On Friday, in a no doubt over-long and over-complicated ceremony with lots of mentions of complicated factors like 'national co-efficient', the draw will be made for the 2010 World Cup Finals. Africa will be represented by hosts South Africa alongside Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria. It wasn't always the case that Africa had so many spots in the finals. Over the last couple of days I've been posting about the history of African teams in the Finals,...
December 1, 2009
Africa in the FIFA World Cup: Part 2 - The wilderness years
On Friday, the draw will be held for the first World Cup Finals to be held on African soil. To celebrate, I've been looking at the history of African teams taking part in the world's biggest sporting tournament. Yesterday I started with a look at the 1930s, when Egypt became the first African team to take part in a World Cup Finals in Italy in 1934. When the tournament resumed after the interruption of the Second World War, it...
November 30, 2009
Africa in the FIFA World Cup: Part 1 - The thirties
Africa in the FIFA World Cup
A series of posts looking at the history of African teams appearing in the World Cup, from Egypt in 1934 to South Africa hosting in 2010.
November 20, 2009
"Thierry Henry and the net" piece on Guardian PDA blog
Having gone on and on and on about comments on The Guardian site this week, I was a little bit nervous what might happen 'below the line' on a piece I wrote for the PDA Blog yesterday: "Thierry Henry and the net: Fifa report whitewash and anger on Twitter". In the end I seem to have got away with just a couple of comments along the lines of 'Journalist gets paid to write article that claims people discuss current affairs...
October 6, 2009
Revenue share deal spikes newspaper guns about England's pay-per-view Internet World Cup qualifier
The confirmation that England's World Cup match against Ukraine will only be available pay-per-view on the Internet reminds me of 2000, when an away game against Finland was only available on short-lived and obscure pay TV service u>direct. Perform, the rights holders this time around, have made a shrewd move in allowing newspaper websites to sell the game on a revenue share basis. Whilst I'm not suggesting filthy lucre has unduly influenced editorial decisions, it is certainly a lot...
September 5, 2009
In praise of Wikpedia's football coverage
When the English language version of Wikipedia recently passed the 3 million article mark with an entry about a Norwegian soap star, Andrew Keen was moved to tweet that he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. But there are some things that Wikipedia does much better than any 'real' news organisation. The European qualifying for next year's FIFA World Cup in South Africa includes some complicated maths about teams finishing second in their group qualifying for a play-off, but...
June 13, 2009
Is peer-to-peer streaming of international football showing the game a new revenue model?
When I lived in Greece it was sometimes a bit hit and miss whether I got to see England games. The time difference meant they were on late in the evening, and often there were competing fixtures of more local interest, or featuring Denmark, Sweden or Norway, from where a great deal of tourists to Chania originated. It meant that during England's doomed attempt to qualify for Euro2008 I got used to the UEFA live match centre, and relied...
April 1, 2009
FIFA 2010 World Cup qualifying website review - Ukraine
During the course of the qualifying campaign for the 2010 South African World Cup, I've been reviewing the websites of England and the other teams in their group. I counted Croatia as 'done' by virtue of reviewing their website for Euro2008, and I counted England as 'done' because I reviewed the FA website back in September. It turns out that England have redesigned not just their kit but their website since then, and I suspect the Croatia review is...
March 28, 2009
FIFA 2010 World Cup qualifying website review - Wales
During the course of this World Cup Qualifying campaign, I've been reviewing the Football Association websites of England and their opponents. And when England haven't been involved in competitive action, I've been looking at the websites of the other 'home' nations. So far I've looked at Scotland and Northern Ireland, and today it is the turn of Wales. Wales have a crunch match this afternoon against Finland. Anything other than a win is almost certain to consign the Welsh...
February 11, 2009
FIFA 2010 World Cup qualifying website review - Northern Ireland
Over the course of England's qualifying matches for the 2010 World Cup, I've been reviewing the websites of the FA and those of England's opposition. I've also been looking at the sites of the other 'home nations', using the friendly against Argentina in November as an excuse to peek at the SFA site. Whilst most national teams are playing friendlies this week, Northern Ireland are actually in World Cup action against San Marino, and so I thought I'd look...
November 19, 2008
FIFA 2010 World Cup qualifying website review - Scotland
During the course of this year's World Cup Qualifiers, I've been looking at the FA websites of the countries that England have been playing. With it being an international friendly night, inspired by a comment from 'Uncle Wilco', I thought I'd look at the website of one of the other 'Home Nations'. Earlier in the year, when the Scottish FA were consulting with their fans over whether the expense of bringing Argentina to play in Glasgow was worth it,...
October 15, 2008
FIFA 2010 World Cup qualifying website review - Belarus
With two consecutive emphatic wins behinds them, the English FA must be feeling confident at the moment that the national team will reach the 2010 World Cup Finals. I've been reviewing the FA websites of the countries competing with England in Group 6 of the European qualifying competition. So far I've looked at England, Andorra and Kazakhstan, and I reviewed the Croatian FA site during Euro2008 in the summer. Today, with England facing Belarus in Minsk, I've turned my...
October 11, 2008
FIFA 2010 World Cup qualifying website review - Kazakhstan
As England progress through their Word Cup Qualifying group, I've been reviewing their FA website and those of their opponents. I won't actually be getting to see England's sold out match against Kazakhstan today as I'm actually in Gelsenkirchen for the deciding final round of the World Speedway Championship. That, however, hasn't stopped me trying to get to grips with the Kazakh website. Kazakhstan The Kazakh team has been torn between East and West since they became affiliated to...
September 10, 2008
FIFA 2010 World Cup qualifying website review - England
England started their attempt to qualify for the 2010 South Africa World Cup at the weekend, with an away game against Andorra. Tonight, they face what is expected to be by far their toughest test in the Group 6, an away match in Zagreb, Croatia. Although I can't say I fancy the Ukraine, Belarus or Kazakhstan away matches much either. During the course of the qualifiers, I'm going to be reviewing the websites of the FAs opposing England. However,...
September 6, 2008
FIFA 2010 World Cup qualifying website review - Andorra
England begin their attempt to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa today, with an away game against Andorra, held at the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona. Cue the "there are no easy matches in international football" cliche. England will be trying to qualify from Group 6 which, alongside Andorra, features Croatia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. It has all the hallmarks of a group which England will struggle in, and which they will be berated for by a...
July 19, 2008
2008 Olympic "Spambush" marketing
'Ambush marketing' at major sporting events has become a prevalent phenomena in the 2000s, affecting the Olympics despite the incredibly complex sponsorship rules drawn up by the IOC. The 2002 Winter Olympics saw Sprint running a snowy campaign that associated the brand with sponsoring 'everything fast, new, and really quite amazing', whilst during the 2004 Athens games, beer Miller ran a campaign proclaiming victory in an Athens-based taste test. Athens, Georgia, mind you, but Athens nevertheless. And who can...
December 4, 2007
The lowest ranked UEFA teams should have to pre-qualify for World Cup and Euro Finals
I'd hate to come across as a bitter England fan who has been brooding about their failure to qualify for Euro2008, but I am, and I have. My brooding wasn't helped when I realised that if my ticket application for Euro2008 had been successful, in the summer I would be going back to Salzburg to watch my adopted homeland of Greece twice. I've also been brooding about the way the European section draw works out for the next tournament. Sports...