As Long As You've got that map out...

Steve Davis on the near-certainty for the United States to host either the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cups, and assessing the viability of the other bids.

Davis thinks it is a slam dunk that England will host the 2018 World Cup, but then says of dark horse Qatar's bid...

"Qatar: The oil-rich Arab emirate has the world's highest GDP per capita, according to some estimates. Although money isn't an issue, physical size could be. Qatar occupies only about 4,400 square miles, roughly the size of Pennsylvania."

So if physical size is a major obstacle to hosting a World Cup, then we wouldn't want to have it in a country like...England, which is roughly the size of North Carolina, and only slightly larger than Pennsylvania.

If anything is going to kill the Qatari bid, it will be the average triple-digit temperatures that are routine in the Persian Gulf in June and July, when the World Cup is held.

Read more...

fans vs. Fans

With no disrespect to our fine blog's educated and not immature target audience, I'm willing to bet few of our readers even know where the hell the Faroe Islands even are. Hell, if I didn't follow soccer like some people follow religion, neither would I. As the map illustrates, the Faroes are essentially just a cluster of rocks sticking out of the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of nowhere between Iceland, Norway, and Scotland. The national dish is whale blubber, and the entire population of the Islands could fit in Soldier Field with about 12,000 seats to spare. (Angry Faroese, you can send your hate e-mail to yellowchairsports@gmail.com, but that won't make any of it less true).

When English club Manchester City was drawn against a club from the Faroes for a home-and-home series in the first round of the UEFA Cup, the prospect looked bleak for fans. Then again, Man City fans have spent most of their lives playing Clippers to Manchester United's Lakers, so I suppose it wasn't too big of a change.

Upon learning of the series, fans with a small f would have checked the airfare from Manchester to the Faroes, seen it was too expensive, and thought "Ah, we'll just watch the home leg then."

Fans with a capital F like these 12 Man City Fans drive 8 hours from Manchester to Aberdeen, Scotland. From there, they catch an overnight, 12-hour ferry boat to the Shetland Islands, off the Northern coast of Scotland. Once there, they rent out a fishing trawler ...IN MAN CITY COLORS, NO LESS and command it on the 26-hour sea voyage to Torshavn, in the Faroe Islands, site of today's UEFA Cup tie between Man City and EB/Streymour.

No word at press time on whether these people are employed.

Not only did the Fans manage to arrange all this, but they also arranged for soccer magazine FourFourTwo to pay for their booze . Now, I don't want to question these Fans' wisdom, but of all the places where I would want to have a boatload of free beer at my disposal, the high seas is closer to the bottom of that list than the top.

Looking at the picture, I also have to imagine that the boat may have been chosen for its relative inexpense rather than its seaworthiness. Just a thought. Hats off to 'em though.

Read more...

Ummm....Not for 8 seasons at the stadium several miles away

Baseball Tonight: Covering the highlights of the Padres-Giants game, Barry's last in San Francisco.

"Boats out in McCovey Cove, and boy did they become a familar sight over the 15 years Bonds spent in San Francisco."

Even more remarkable since more than half those seasons were played at Candlestick. And steroids or no steroids, you'd really have to whack the hell out of the ball to A) clear the upperdeck, and B) clear the parking lot to get to San Francisco Bay.


Sorry. Little things like that bother me.

Read more...