No, not the egg-chasers World Cup.Not the Women's World Cup.Not the 'homeless' World Cup either.(Which is a total swizz, because of course all the people playing in it have a roof over their heads. It should be called the 'Formerly Homeless' World Cup. But if they called it that, then I could enter. After all, I spent a night in a skip once. But that's another story.)This is the World Cup for countries that FIFA refuse to recognise.Now, let's be honest here. FIFA's concept of what constitutes a sovereign nation is odd enough to begin with. According to FIFA, Northern Ireland is a nation. According to FIFA, Kazakhstan is a European country. According to FIFA, so is Israel, although they used to be an Australasian country.The 22 nations that take part in the Non-Fifa World Cup include...
Ear to the ground like a spinning break-dancer the SDLP have launched a heartfelt initiative to strengthen Northern Ireland’s Flag laws. With such a catchy title the “Flag Watch” campaign is set to “mobilize public opinion to press for stronger legislation and a co-ordinated police/government approach to intimidatory displays of flags and political or sectarian symbols in public places.”
Deputy Leader Dr Alasdair McDonnell said: “The time has come for all of us to grasp the nettle and do what is clearly necessary to move community relations forward.
“Flags can intimidate, flags can divide. Flags are being used to mark out sectarian territory, to make a statement of community dominance and community exclusion. Paramilitary flags are intimidating by their...
No matter who or where you are, over the next 6 weeks it’ll be difficult to avoid the “greatest show on earth”, the World Cup.
World Cups have always presented a problem to people in our country, irrespective of whether they think that country consists of 6 or 32 counties. There’s the problem of watching an event which is overwhelmingly watched and contested by Roman Catholics, never mind the tricky moral dilemma of watching a British sport which has always allowed members of the security forces to take part.
Yet with all the hype and media interest its hard not to get involved. So how can you stay true to your narrow-minded hate-filled philosophy, yet still enjoy the football? Never fear, for the BelfastBlogger.com Sectarian Guide to the World Cup is...