WORLD CUP 2010 - HOPE OF PEACE

Hi! Folks, 2010 is very exciting year. Now, most of the people on earth are watching an exciting sport events day and night whenever there is time available for them. Food hawkers in my country  also join in to install big TV for football shows for their fans. Why is this sport so popular? To understand the rationale behind it. It is more appropriate to get an understanding of its international association called FIFA. The FIFA World Cup (also called the Football World Cup, the Soccer World Cup, or simply the World Cup) is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not contested because of the Second World War. You can see it has a short history of  less than 100 years, but its popularity is overwhelming, far exceeded many other sports which has longer history than this. The current format of the tournament involves 32 teams competing for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over a period of about a month – this phase is often called the World Cup Finals. A qualification phase, which currently takes place over the preceding three years, is used to determine which teams qualify for the tournament together with the host nation(s). This qualification phase has been completed prior to 2010. Now we are having the 19th World Cup tournament.  During the 18 tournaments that have been held, seven national teams have won the title. Brazil have won the World Cup a record five times, and they are the only team to have played in every tournament. Followed by Italy, which have won four titles, and Germany are next with three titles. The other former champions are Uruguay, winners of the inaugural tournament, and Argentina, with two titles each, and England and France, with one title each. Which country is the likely champion  this year ? Please let us know your choice and rationale. Thanks for your kind participation. The World Cup is the world's most widely viewed sporting event; an estimated 715.1 million people watched the final match of the 2006 World Cup held in Germany.[1] The current World Cup is being held in South Africa from  June 11-July 11, 2010, and the 2014 World Cup will be held in Brazil. We choose to write this article so as not to miss this popular sport. Secondly it is also becomes a hot topic among the politicians as whether our government has granted a sport betting licence to a company.  No doubt the sport event is held for a good spirit and eventually hope that the world will be united through this ball, which resembles hope of unity to this world. This event also functions like the Olympic games which bring the world together for some healthy games.  However, now you can see this sport has also been commercialised until sports betting become an international event and is so easily accessible. Hence, other questions such as morality issues will be raised.  But, one thing we are very concern is whether such unhealthy betting will eventually affect the quality of the game. We rather keep this question to you to ponder. However, we are very pleased if you wish to share it out your views. You are always welcome here. Thanks for your precious time and look forward to hearing from you, Your Chief Servant, James Oh Founder and Group CEO Skype me at james.oh18 http://liftyouup.blogspot.com