What's the World Cup like where you are?
- 26 Jun 06, 02:16 PM
readers from all over the world, many of whom are forced to go to all sorts of lengths to watch the action.
There is Beaman in Berlin, The Gaffer in Florida, Wes in Melbourne (he's got Ashes tickets!), Working Nomad (an ex corporate slave trying to pay his way around the world via his blog), England fan in Barcelona and Super Si in Sydney (his wife left him after moving there two years ago apparently) to name but a few.
I asked Steve Ditchburn to tell us what it's like in Malta at the moment. If you would like to tell us about what it's like watching the World Cup where you are, get in touch by email or post a comment with a link to your blog.
Claire S, blog editor.
I'm an expat who has been living and working in Malta for the past 13 years.
Being such a spectacularly unsuccessful footballing nation, the local supporters are much more interested in Serie 'A' or The Premier League and the result is that every four years they show their true international colours.
The Maltese are real football fanatics, to the point where the success of "your" team or the failure of your "enemy" always results in convoys of cars running the streets making enough noise to ensure that everybody knows the result.
With cast-iron ties to both England and Italy, the footballing supporters are split fairly evenly down the middle with maybe 10% spread across the other soccer nations.
Throughout June many cars have been driving around displaying the cross of St George, mainly because a local shark decided to make a killing buying thousands of them very cheaply on eBay and selling them off at one Lira a time (about 1.60 sterling).
For some unknown reason Italian flags are a rarer sight this year, maybe it's because of the pungent odour currently coming out of Italian football.
The World Cup is a hot topic at my office. Peter, my German workmate, who is still going on about 1966 and Russian linesmen, was very insistent that England and Germany had to both win their groups to ensure that they wouldn't meet in the next round.
Well he got his wish although I'd like to be as pleased about the manner of our qualification as he is with his team...
Alan Sunderland, ex England and Arsenal superstar who lives in Malta and is a friend of mine, phoned me after the England/Sweden game for information on a problem he was having with his PC. The discussion inevitably turned to football and we both wondered why Sven hadn't brought on Walcott when Rooney was replaced after sixty-odd minutes.
Alan's view is that if you make a big decision to take an unknown to the World Cup then you must use him or risk the anger of your supporters. He did point out that Sven has achieved something that no other manager has by winning the first two matches but we were both disappointed by the manner in which the two goals were conceded against Sweden.
Now at least we can relax for five days and enjoy the heat of the Maltese summer. It's 33 degrees and summer hasn't really started here yet!
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