Germany Will Win 2010 World Cup. Fact!

Totally unbiased and only coincidentally German, a man called Metin Tolan has devised a formula proving that Germany will win the 2010 World Cup Final. The other 31 teams shouldn't even bother to turn up.

Tolan, who is a physics professor so surely should know better, explained his formula thus:

"The last time we won the World Cup was back in 1990 and there have been four tournaments since. The average finishing place of the Germany team is 3.7 and the German team wins the title every fourth or fifth World Cup."

"Nobody can beat us this year and you can already put the champagne on ice."

Words fail me. I pity any student at the University of Dortmund who is taught by Professor Tolan.

I also truly hope that Germany don't win the 2010 World Cup Finals or this post is going to come back to haunt me.

Coca-Cola : More Sponsor Silliness

That bastian of American corporate culture, Coca-Cola are launching a bunch of ridiculous promotions ahead of the 2010 World Cup Finals.

My personal favourite, though, has to be the limited edition Coca Cola cans featuring, and I think you're gonna like this, members of the France football squad.

Like who, you ask? Well, I'm glad you asked that because among others, there's Franck Ribery, Sidney Govou and Karim Benzema, all of whom are under investigation for allegedly sleeping with an underage prostitute.

Even worse is the Coke World Cup Trophy tour, whereby a huge international corporation gets to co-opt the world's most famous sports trophy in order to sell more teeth rotting fizzy drinks. Fantastic. FIFA: I hope you're proud of yourselves.

French Squad In Prostitution Scandal

I usually try to keep this blog fairly wry and lighthearted, but occasionally I have to blog about something more serious.

And it doesn't come much more serious than allegations that Franck Ribery and a number of other French internationals have been sleeping with underage hookers.

The allegation is that Ribery, Sidney Govou, along with Karim Benzema and Hatem Ben Arfa all had what are euphemistically described as 'relationships' with one girl who worked at the Zaman Cafe, a legal brothel.

Personally, I am agnostic about the rights and wrongs of prostitution, but what I really don't like to see is the kind of lurid headlines that the Daily Mail and the Sun ('£40m Star Ribery in Kid Hooker Probe') are using.

This makes it sounds as if Ribery has been messing with 11 year old kids or something, when the facts are very, very different.

You see, while prostitution is legal in France, it is also a legal requirement that sex workers have been 18 or above. It appears that this girl wasn't, although from the story, it appears that Ribery believed she was.

However, this seems to have got buried in the story because, well, kiddie h***kers make for better headlines and sell more newspapers, don't they. The Sun, Mail and others should be ashamed of themselves.