What is rubbish about the World Cup is that everyone is interested. Does this make sense? Let me explain. Believe it or not, but not everyone likes football. It's true. Obviously I'm not one of those people, the prospect of watching Partick Thistle on a wet November night genuinely appeals to me. Well, not genuinely, but it's better than what will be on BBC Three that evening.
Not everyone likes football, but most people take an interest in the World Cup. It is one of the few things that can unite a nation; South Africa, as a fine host, has gathered much pride from this tournament and the World Cup winning side of 1998 helped race relations in France with a team that contained many of immigrant descent - the most notable being Zinedine Zidane.
Therefore public interest in football, albeit for a month, is heightened somewhat. TV ratings for England matches during the World Cup were roughly 20 million, compared to six million viewers ITV would expect for a Champions League match involving an English team. Ultimately, three times as many people care about football, but this means they also have opinions, and their opinions are pretty much pointless. How can they honestly care about Rob Green's form when they don't have a clue what team he plays for? Infact, how dare they have an opinion on my sport? This feeling of disgust (and snobbery, awful, sporting snobbery) is similar to that I felt during the General Election, politics and football are exclusively my things, so go away please. For people not interested in football, the only thing I can compare it to is when your favourite band makes it big. They are no longer your band as such, but everyone likes them, making yourself slightly less unique. And that, my friend, hurts.
Thank God then, for Paul the Octopus, who has guessed the results of Germany's World Cup matches correctly every single time. He even guessed Germany would lose to Serbia (highly unlikely following Germany's opening 4-0 victory) and that they would beat England and Argentina. Sadly for the Germans, he predicted that they would lose to Spain. What I really like about this is that it highlights how worthless everyone's opinions, including my own, have been in this unpredictable World Cup. Why bother with your say when an octopus can predict what is going to happen?What does slightly concern me however is the thought process behind Paul (have I just referred to an octopus by his first name? Oh my). Seriously, when and how did they think this up? Who thinks an octopus can predict results with his tentacles? It's stupendous, but almost charming, and ultimately it proves a penny for your thoughts are really all they are worth.
DC
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