Football Fever Next: The Much-Awaited FIFA World Cup-2022 Kicks Off from November 20 in Qatar!

The FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) World Cup-2022, the quadrennial international football tournament, is set to begin from Sunday, 20 November till Sunday, 18 December in Qatar. The much-awaited event, coincidentally the 22nd version on 2022, has several other features: the first time ever it's being held in the Arab world or in the Middle East; the first time it's being organized during the northern autumn season (winter in India) instead of the usual summer months of May, June and July, and this decision was taken considering the intense heat conditions in Qatar during the summer; the FIFA World Cup event returns to Asia after 20 years and only the second time it's being hosted entirely in Asia; and it is the last tournament to be held with 32 teams, the decision finalized in 2017 to expand it to 48 teams from FIFA-2026 to be hosted by USA, Canada and Mexico. The inaugural match will be between host Qatar and Equador at 9.30 PM IST on 20 November, 2022. 

FIFA World Cup-2022 will have 8 Groups with 4 teams each and at the Group stage teams in each group will clash with each other on a round robin basis during November 20--December 3. The top two teams in each Group will progress to the last 16 or the pre-quarterfinal stage with each match on a knockout basis during 3--7 December. The quarterfinals are scheduled during 9--11 December; the semifinals on 14 and 15 December; the third place playoff match on December 17; and the Final on 18 December at 8.30 PM. Barring the first two days and an occasional day thence all days will have 4 matches a day--the first match starting at 3.30 PM and the next three till past midnight that is 12.30 AM the next day. These timings are for India only. There will be 64 matches in all and channel Sports 18 has bagged the telecast and streaming rights in India. This time the tournament has a reduced timeframe of 29 days. 

Therefore, in India this time the football fever will start from the afternoon hours every day instead of mostly the late night hours which had always had special effects of lightening, thunderstorms and pounding rains. France are the defending Champions of 2018, and it's time for you now to fix your favorite nations, teams and superstar players to cheer for all the way. Over to super soccer! 

Politics And Sports In The Time Of Pandemic!

It was cruelly insensitive on the part of the Government of India to declare in Parliament that there had been no COVID-19 deaths during the second wave due to lack of medical oxygen in the country, when not only the thousands of the affected families but also millions other anxious or someway related families just cannot erase the nightmarish images of people dying gasping for breath on hospital beds, in the hospital passages/corridors/lounges, on the outside courtyards or on the streets, in the parked cars, within the four walls of homes; hospitals sending SOS for oxygen, desperate doctors even breaking down; and round-the-clock media reports and most disturbing visuals.

 

The reason given by the government is even more ludicrously insensitive: that the states did not report the deaths due to the lack of medical oxygen. Well, most of the states, particularly the ones ruled by the same dispensations would hardly advertise their failure or the stark lack of preparedness. The government is talking about the worst affected state of Maharashtra that too did not audit oxygen-related fatalities; the ruling party should know that it is the only state in the country that was adequately prepared with enough stocks of all requirements including medical oxygen cylinders. Instead, why don’t they talk about Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh or Karnataka? If they think this is some kind of image-building then they should rethink and concentrate on damage-control, because apart from being cruelly insensitive this act represents the lowest low of politics.

 

The Government of the union territory Delhi has made a most horrible claim: they constituted a  panel to audit oxygen-related deaths, but was disallowed by the all-powerful Lieutenant Governor to go ahead. Besides, what about the highest-level meets discussing desperate measures to streamline the supply of 02 or somehow increase its production, sanctioning setting up of numerous oxygen plants even within hospital complexes and to receive plane-loads of oxygen concentrators by several foreign countries including the UK and the US? Were all these sham? On the top of it, the denials about shortage of vaccines and the gross under-reporting of COVID-related deaths continue unabated. Normally insensitive people are compared with having rhino-like thick skin; however, on this inhumane count even the rhinos would turn their backs on them most disdainfully.

 

If  COVID-19 infections were not enough Israel’s NSO-Pegasus spyware, the legacy of 2019, has arisen again to re-infect the mobiles of a whole lot of journalists, activists, opposition political leaders and even existing ministers of the central government. While the NSO has been maintaining that it sells the spyware only to governments, the Government of India has not been giving convincing replies or arguments, and this is accentuated by the fact that there are many other governments in the federal union of India. Therefore, this is some politics or mystery that many never see the light of day unless the NSO closely inspects clients’ misuse and it finally destroys the software itself as somewhat indicated by them lately. The spyware is extremely difficult to detect and only it can self-destroy its traces within the mobile phones if it so desires.

 

In the sports arena all the matches of either football or cricket or tennis were played with no or limited-capacity crowds. Only the Euro Cup-2020, postponed last year, created quite a lot of excitement allowing crowds increase gradually to reach 60,000 or 75% of the capacity at the Wembley stadium, England from the semi-final stage while COVID-19 cases of the Delta variety increased by leaps and bounds on a daily basis there. The hosts England was much expected to win the Cup once they reached the finals creating history, but Italy’s penalty-shots victory generated a racial abuse at the stadium marring the reputation of the tournament. Meanwhile, England lifted all COVID restrictions and decided to coexist with virus, because with most of the citizens fully vaccinated hospitalization and fatality rates have been almost eliminated. Although this seems to be a practical solution, God forbid, it is fraught with dangers as more lethal variants can achieve vaccine-escape or immunity-breakthrough anytime.

 

The Indian cricket board (BCCI) has proved its insensitivity to the pandemic dangers time and again. Of course, it had to participate in the World Test Championship Final between India and New Zealand in Southampton, England during June 18-23, 2021 with very limited crowds, and India lost that match due to colossal batting failure, all the euphoria it created when India qualified defeating England in the home series before the deadly second wave (then the BCCI had to suspend the IPL-2021 midway). However, the Indian team continued to stay in England to play a five-match Test Series against England starting August 2021, while COVID had infected a few members of staff including the most-favored Rishabh Pant. So much was the urge to get on with game that a second Team India was created under the captaincy of Shikhar Dhawan to take on Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka, and the visitors have already sealed the three-ODI series leading 2-0.

 

And finally, the Tokyo Olympics, postponed since 2020, is starting tomorrow, the 23^rdof July 2021 as quite a few athletes have already been infected and some of them ruled out which is very unfair as it deprives them of achieving medals. The World Health Organization has warned that infections are bound to increase as the Games goes on. We don’t see any reason why the biggest tournament of the world having all the countries on board should be held at this juncture. How many of a COVID-ravaged India with the Third Wave feared to hit at any moment would have the spirit to celebrate the possible medal winners, except of course, the hordes of insensitive Covidiots or clones?           

 

But of course, as sports enthusiasts and optimists we do wish all success for the Games, the Indian contingent and all the participating athletes, and fervently hope that more waves of the pandemic are effectively prevented everywhere on planet earth.

The Benefits Of Indoor Soccer

If you are a fan of North American soccer, you probably hate it when October rolls around and the Major League Soccer season is finished. However, at this point the NFL and NBA seasons are firing up, which tends to take your mind off the problem. However, if you actually play the game, winter is a pretty desolate time, since there is little or no outdoor soccer activity – especially in northern states, where there is snow on the ground. You can feel all your training slipping away from you, and just know it is going to be a tough job to get back in form next year.

Therefore, this comes as one of the biggest benefits of indoor soccer. It’s a perfect place to keep your ball skills honed to perfection – or as close to perfection as they ever are. No longer do you have to relearn half of what you know in the spring – instead, you can be pretty close to match shape after a couple of weeks. Of course, indoor soccer isn’t the same as playing outdoors, but in the absence of the real thing, it’s a pretty good substitute.

Actually, indoor soccer is a good place for people to learn about the game in general. Playing indoors can be a more casual and less intimidating affair than getting out on the field, and so it tends to attract more casual participants who then often evolve into full-fledged players. The same applies to kids – indoor soccer is a good introduction, and the timing lines up well with the school year. In fact, it would be interesting to know how many kids that ended up playing pro soccer started out playing indoors.

The other nice thing about indoor soccer is that it makes reuse of existing sports facilities. There are essentially two variants of this. The first is when the game is played on a larger arena which is about the same size as an ice hockey rink – and often is an ice hockey rink covered with artificial turf. The other variant is when it is played on a basketball court, although this can be a bit difficult to do on a traditional hardwood surface. On the other hand, a high-performance polymer surface works well both as a basketball court and as an indoor soccer venue.

If you are interested in playing indoor soccer, then here are a few things that you should know. First of all, a normal indoor soccer game has 6 players per side, as opposed to 11 in outdoor soccer. Second, the game isn’t played over two 45-minute halves – instead, amateurs play two 25-minute halves, and the pros play four 15-minute quarters. Third, you’re allowed to bounce the ball off the boards around the arena – this isn’t out of bounds. Last, there is no offside rule, although in some games it is illegal to loft the ball from one penalty area to another. If you understood all that, then you know enough about indoor soccer to give it a go ahead – so why don’t you?

Euro Cup-2012: World Champions Spain Creates History! Italy Demolished!

World Champions Spain dominated the Euro Cup-2012 football Final right from the start of the match and produced a result that beat the most one-sided Final in the history of Euro Cup football when Germany beat the Soviet Union 3-0 in 1972. On Sunday the 1^st of July, 2012 Spain trounced Italy 4-0 perfectly dividing the match scoring two goals each half. Spain created history by winning the Euro Cup consecutively in 2008 and in 2012 and equaled Germany’s record of three Euro Cup wins. Spain also maintained its record of not conceding a single goal in a knockout match since 2006. 

Much was expected of Italy after their terrific 2-1 victory over Germany in the second Semi Final with Mario Balotelli emerging as the new Italian hero. But yesterday Italy failed to cope with Spain’s perfectly coordinated passes, pace and persistent attack from the very first minute. In the first half David Silva and Jordi Alba scored in the 14^th and the 41^st minute while in the second half Fernando Torres and Juan Mata scored the third and the fourth goals in the 84^th and the 88^thminute.

After halftime Italy tried desperately to level the score and created a few opportunities inside the Spanish box, but the Spanish goalkeeper defended stoutly as ever in a knockout match. To worsen Italian chances their midfielder Thiago Motta had to be taken out of the ground due to hamstring injury and since Italy used up all its substitutes by then the team got reduced to ten men from the 64^th minute. As the game progressed the Italian team started looking tired and utterly demoralized as their body language clearly showed. Balotelli who failed to do any magic looked to be furious when he left the field at the end. 

Spain won again due to its attacking spirit and for that spirit only we enjoyed their matches in the FIFA World Cup-2010 and supported them wholeheartedly. They also silenced their critics who say Spain’s endless passing strategy makes the game boring, but one fact that emerged in yesterday’s match was that Spain kept possession of the ball most of the time and this fact showed their superiority, definitely not boring strategy. In fact, many other soccer teams increasingly show the ‘boring’ trend of playing for penalties thus restricting the game to midfield action. It was not for nothing that Octopus Paul became a great fan of Spain predicting its final triumph in 2010 World Cup!

Spain and all Spain supporters the world over are celebrating! We join them in the ecstasy too for a deserving victory.