Football and Politics

1.30.00pm GMT Sun 11th Jun 2006

Many would argue that football is more important than politics, they may even be right! England has gone football mad, including me - I have seen four of the five games so far (the one I missed was due to being in a work meeting). The next match features the Serbia and Montenegro team, which brings me back to politics - the country no longer exists but the team does - fortunately the winners of the World Cup no longer qualify as right (not that I thought Serbia and Montenegro would win).

A few weeks ago Montenegro held a referendum on independence and it was won (and passed the threshold passed) this was no real surprise. The EU has recognised Montenegro and the Serbia Parliament has accepted the result. The Balkans has been utterly transformed since the demise of Yugoslavia and I expect some more changes to still come - mainly the future status of Kosovo.

But back to the football, I watched yesterday's three games at Faye and Ian's in Coventry where they had a barbecue and had a large group of us round. England didn't play particularly well and really need to improve, Paraguay didn't either, Sweden were really not very good but Trinidad and Tobago did really well especially with ten men for most of the second half. My current predictions for the group are England to top it with Paraguay second, Sweden third and Trinidad and Tobago in fourth - I would really like to see Trinidad come second but not sure that will happen.