England World Cup 2006 - The draw has been made!

Friday 9th December 2005 saw football fans across the world clinging to the edge of their seats, waiting to find out who they would play in the group stages of the World Cup 2006 in Germany. The ceremony contained all the usual fanfare and build up that one would normally associate with modern sporting events. In other words, the interested sports fan was subjected to hours of mindless drivel whilst waiting for the real action to begin. Whoever puts these events together cannot possibly think that the sports fans who have tuned in to see such an event can be in any way interested in the flaky magic shows and dancing troops they trot out. One can only imagine that large amounts of cash in brown envelopes changes hands in order to give some below par performers their chance to be on global television. The experience was made slightly more bearable with a good looking blonde in a revealing dress co-hosting the program.

When the draw did finally come it was dragged out, with a host of footballing celebrities selecting balls to choose the teams. Again, one has to assume that the presenters and celebrities were being paid by the second as they struggled to make this non-event into a television spectacular. This should have taken no more than 15 minutes to accomplish, but no, sky sports coverage went on for a full 3 hours! If this is an indication of things to come it is no wonder that the tournament will take an entire month to complete.

When the dust settled on the over dramatised proceedings in Leipzig, England came out of it rather well. Despite having traditional rivals for Sven's loyalty, Sweden, in the group, Paraguay and Trinidad & Tobago are surely there just to make up the numbers. With the top two from each group progressing to the second round, England are favourites to move into this stage with out too much upset. Depending on the positioning in both England