[Leica] World Cup Musings

[douglas.sharp at gmx.de (Douglas Sharp)]

I agree with Nick, (except that I want France to win - a wonderful 
retirement present for Zidane)
I'm surprised at Marc's sudden dictatorial turn of mind - I always 
thought he was one of the list's last anarchists ;-)
Just considering the countries of the Commonwealth we're talking about 
53 football loving countries with over 1.8 billion people, add to that 
the rest of the non-US world and we get a situation where the
population of the USA is suddenly an absolute minority - and even then, 
some them are football fans too. If the world cup is so unimportant for 
the USA, why is it being sponsored by Anheuser-Busch  - in a country 
where nearly all beers are much better - CocaCola and McDonalds? And 
then putting the World Cup in the same pot with  rounders for grown-ups 
and slowed down Rugby... :-)
Douglas


Nick Roberts wrote:

>Well, looks like you missed the points of MY post, Marc.
> 
>First - this list frequently goes off-topic. It's actually one of the nice 
>things about it. If it were limited purely to the discussion of Leicas, or 
>even Leicas and photography in general, it would be a poorer place IMO. Not 
>everybody is going to be interested in all the off-topic discussions, of 
>course - some people aren't interested in fountain pens (me) or Tilley hats 
>(again me) or single malts (absolutely not me) or any of the other subjects 
>that come up time after time, but what would this place be without them? ;) 
>Second, who set you up as censor and arbiter of allowable topics on the 
>LUG? I fully respect your right to do that on the Rollei List, but this 
>ain't that, and it's rather difficult not to resent the apparent 
>implication that only US-based sporting activities should be discussed here 
>- it IS a global list, this is a global sport and the US team has even been 
>involved. It's not some "world series" that's just a national competition - 
>virtually every nation on the planet (well, 207 of them) has been involved 
>in the competition at some stage, a quite remarkable phenomenon.
>Third, this as I have pointed out is THE most popular sporting event on the 
>planet. It has been estimated that 1 in 4 of the world's population will 
>watch the final (1 in 6 watched the last one, and there is far greater 
>coverage in China this time) - is it thus that unreasonable to have a 
>little comment on the later stages? There are only two matches left in the 
>tournament, so you won't have to keep the delete key busy for that much 
>longer, and there's not another one for four years.
>Fourth, I actually provided you with a link to photography related to the 
>world cup - fair enough if it doesn't interest you, but please acknowledge 
>my attempt to introduce photography into the discussion. Even if you're not 
>interested in the football pics, Chung is an exceptional photographer whose 
>work deserves to be seen, even if not shot with a Leica, and it can be 
>accessed from the link.
> 
>Now if you want to discuss baseball, say, fine - it's a cultural thing that 
>deserves respect and to be photographed - I find the sport tedious in the 
>extreme, but am fascinated by the whole mystique and history surrounding 
>what for us in the UK is a game for schoolgirls. I can learn from that, and 
>if you're prepared to open your mind to it, you can learn from football and 
>the global love of "the beautiful game" - a game that unites the world like 
>little else.
> 
> 
>Nick
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