All in the game

A world cup miscellany

"I apologised to England and Mexico. The English said 'thank you' and accepted that you win some, you lose some, and the Mexicans bowed their head and accepted it."– Fifa president Sepp Blatter apologises. No, seriously.

FORWARD THINKING

KAKA TOOK time out from his World Cup schedule yesterday to post a photo on Twitter supporting actor Ashton Kutcher’s campaign against prostitution and sex trafficking. Presumably he wore his shirt backwards so any one who didn’t recognise his face would at least see his name. Or else he got dressed in the dark.

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

HAVING WATCHED as the French, Italian and English press vied for the most withering headlines to describe the end of their World Cup campaigns, the front page of Chile's Las Ultimas Noticias, after their side was knocked out by Brazil, was a bit of a shocker: "Thanks for the happy days."

Aw.

Need it be said, the Sun's welcome home for the English squad wasn't quite as warm, its front page weather forecast reading: "Sunny outlook in many areas but depression over Heathrow as shower drifts in from South Africa."

You shouldn’t laugh, but . . .

The Star, meanwhile, was hopping mad over the sight of Ashley Cole and Ledley King being less than distraught about the whole business, while the London Metroreported, with no detectable sorrow, that the squad's underwear had been stolen by cleaners from their hotel rooms. Lovely.

Elsewhere, the Brazilian press was celebrating the 3-0 win over Chile, O Tempo modestly declaring “That was easy”.

While in Spain, in the build-up to last night’s game against Portugal, Marca was hinting at who it thought might be the main threat to Spanish hopes - all 46 eyes in the Spanish squad focused on himself.

PUNDIT OF THE DAY

"FOR WHAT it's worth, I'd go for Glenn Hoddle . . . he's available, he's English, so why not consider him?" – The BBC's Mark Bright on his choice for replacing Fabio Capello. It's the way he tells 'em.

Pearls of wisdom from Down Under: World Cup bids bring out generous natures

YOU'D REALLY want to like jewellery, handbags and the like if you were the beloved of a Fifa executive committee member, because over time they've been showered with this class of stuff – divil an Apple iPad in sight.

First England's 2018 team got into a spot of bother for sending designer handbags to the wives of the Fifa men.

Now the Australians, who want to hold the 2022 finals, have been caught out gifting the same women pearl necklaces.

In fairness, they also gave their husbands pearl cufflinks, so there was no discrimination.

But the Sydney Morning Heraldwas none too impressed with Football Federation Australia's generosity, which they discovered after browsing through "secret" files, nor were they chuffed to learn that one-quarter (€8 million) of the funds provided by the taxpayer for the bid will go in fees and bonuses to "two controversial European lobbyists" should it prove successful.

Another €5 million of Australian money is going to football bodies in Africa, Asia and Oceania, as part of the FFA's "bid strategy", with more spent on an all-expenses-paid trip to Australia for South American Fifa executive committee member Rafael Salguero and his wife, to mark his birthday.

What else? Oh yeah – FFA paid for Trinidad and Tobago's under-20 team to travel to Cyprus last year, a decision that must have been welcomed by Fifa's famed vice-president Jack Warner, of, eh, Trinidad and Tobago.

The committee, resplendent in their pearl cufflinks, will decide in December if Australia's bid is successful.

Watching brief: Record TV figures for soccer ball in US

GOOD NEWS from the US where ratings service Nielsen has revealed the viewing figures for the second round game between the US and Ghana: an audience of 19.4 million made it the country's most-watched football match.

The figure is the combined audience that tuned in for the game on ABC and Univision.

And the Spanish-language channel picked up the biggest figures in its history the next day when the clash of Argentina and Mexico attracted an audience of 9.3 million, making it the channel's most watched programme.

"This record viewership proves that soccer is as popular as it's ever been in the United States," said Nielsen's Stephen Master.

But when you take a look at the figures for February's Super Bowl you'll see there's a bit of work to be done yet before soccer takes over: that game, between the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts, drew a record 106.5 million viewers.

Most watched soccer games in the US:

1 US v Ghana (2010 World Cup)

19.4 million

2 Italy v Brazil (1994 World Cup final)

18.1m

3 US v China (1999 Women's World Cup final)

18m

4 US v England (2010 World Cup)

17.1m

5 Italy v France (2006 World Cup final)

17m