Brazilian politicians and football officials were predictably jubilant after their country was awarded the right to host the 2014 World Cup.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, part of a huge delegation which went to Switzerland for Tuesday’s vote, went for some good-humoured provocation, promising, ”Brazil will put on a World Cup which no Argentine will find fault with.”

There were promises of the best World Cup in history — a difficult one to keep as this depends more on the players and referees than the host nation — and, back home, official celebrations were organised in places such as Rio de Janeiro’s famous statue of Christ, which sits atop Corcovado mountain.

Television stations and most newspapers toed the official line that hosting the World Cup is a good thing, will force Brazil to improve its infrastructure, cut down on crime and maybe even give the country a helping hand in solving its social problems.

But most Brazilians, while also welcoming the World Cup, have strong reservations, especially about possibly over-spending and misuse of public funds. They also fear that the Cup could deflect attention from other issues.

“The Cup is good for Brazil, for tourism. Visitors will find out there are good people here,” said Renato dos Santos Alves, a 25-year-old musician in Sao Paulo. “But on the other hand, having the Cup in a country with loads of hungry children is a distraction from the problem.”

For many, the fact that the governors of 12 of the country’s 27 states all nipped over to Switzerland for the vote was a bad sign.

“The giant caravan of politicians who travelled to Zurich was just a foretaste of what’s coming,” wrote Renato Mauricio Prado in the newspaper O Globo.

Juca Kfouri, writing on the Folha de Sao Paulo’s online edition, echoed the sentiments. “Let’s hope this party is not the preview of a worse one, with public money, to organise the World Cup,” he wrote.

Tostao, the 1970 World Cup forward who is now a successful newspaper columnist, took a similar view. He wrote on Wednesday: “Brazil is capable of holding a beautiful and organised World Cup. That’s one thing. Another is to say that, with the World Cup, the country will solve its serious social and infrastructure problems, as they claimed during the FIFA ceremony.”

PHOTO: A fan waves a flag in front of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro October 30, 2007. Brazil, the only bidding country, were named as the host nation of the 2014 World Cup finals by FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, on Tuesday. REUTERS/Bruno Domingos

SLIDESHOW: You can see further photos from the FIFA announcement and the reaction in Brazil by clicking here

Sometimes the men in suits get it right and FIFA’s decision to open up the World Cup bidding process is right on the money.

Well, of course, money had a lot to do with the decision, but FIFA’s call to end rotation and give the finals to what they consider the best candidate makes sound footballing and commercial sense.

The only restriction is that countries from the confederations that hosted the previous two tournaments are ineligible.

Therefore the bidding battle to stage the 2018 finals will be a worldwide contest excluding only countries from Africa, who are hosting 2010, and South America, whose bid from Brazil was rubber-stamped on Tuesday. African nations can bid again for 2022, while South America can re-enter the fray in 2026.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter may have many critics, but he’s an astute politician and on Tuesday he as good as admitted FIFA had made a mistake by rotating the bidding process around the continents.

FIFA did not really anticipate that a confederation would only nominate one country like South America did for Brazil. FIFA thought there would be an internal competition, but they were wrong.

The bidding process will become more like the Olympics bidding process now, but there is nothing wrong in that. It creates excitement, generates interest and gives more countries around the world a chance, at least, of hosting the world’s greatest sporting tournament.

Mike Collett, who saw his first World Cup match in England  in 1966 and would like to see the tournament return to England in 2018.

PHOTO: October 29, 2007. FIFA’s executive committee has voted unanimously on Monday to end its policy of rotating the hosting of World Cups through its six continental confederations. REUTERS/Michael Buholzer

Napoli striker Marcelo Zalayeta has become one of the few players to be condemned by video evidence and later cleared by … new video evidence.

The affair has given a new twist to the debate about the usefulness of technology, especially in a country still wary of referees following the famous match-fixing scandal involving officials.

Zalayeta fell over Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon to win a penalty in Saturday’s 3-1 win over Juventus. Immediate television replays showed no contact between Buffon and his former Juve team mate, incensing Juventus fans and leading to a two-game ban for the Uruguayan for diving.

However, footage from a different camera angle came to a light a day later showing Juve defender Nicola Legrottaglie had clipped Zalayeta as he approached Buffon and Napoli successfully argued at an appeal that this had contributed to Zalayeta’s fall.

So where does all this leave video evidence? Is it as reliable as advocates suggest? If immediate replays were brought into soccer like in other sports,  then on this occasion the video ref would have been wrong if he had only seen the main footage.

This all follows from the disputed England try in the Rugby World Cup final defeat by South Africa. The video referee had about 20 looks at the pictures before disallowing the try, a decision which England fans still believe was incorrect.

They say video killed the radio star. Let’s hope it doesn’t kill football as well.

When you cover as much soccer as we do in the UK and read countless stories in the papers about footballers only being in it for the money and ruining the "beautiful game", which isn't anyway the game it used to be..... it is refreshing when players do something which in some way redresses the balance.

Covering several soccer matches every week it can be easy to slip into a formula of action, goal and celebration pictures and while these images are our bread and butter, they are not the only 'key moments'.

This weekend's Liverpool v Arsenal clash at Anfield was a case in point.

The two teams played a thrilling game resulting in a 1-1 draw with both team's star players, Steven Gerrard of Liverpool and Cesc Fabregas of Arsenal not only scoring the goals but also driving their their sides through the fixture.

Our photographer at the match, Darren Staples, will have been deeply frustrated that both goals were scored at the end furthest from him, but for me he nailed the key image from the match - the moment when the final whistle blew and Gerrard and Fabrigas shook hands and embraced in a gesture of sportsmanship and mutual respect.

Not technically challenging maybe, but these two frames encapsulate the spirit of the game perfectly. 

In 1955, Germany’s Football Association (DFB) rejected a plan to set up a women’s league on the following grounds:

“In battling for the ball, female loveliness disappears. Their bodies and souls will suffer inevitable damage and the public display of their bodies will offend decency and modesty.”

Wow.

Women’s football in Germany has clearly come a long way in the last 50 years and it was no surprise on Tuesday when the double world champions were given the nod from FIFA to host the 2011 World Cup.

What can we look forward to from a women’s World Cup in Germany? It goes without saying that it will be a lower key event than the 2006 men’s tournament that was such a success but if the DFB can be believed it will still be a pretty big party, and anecdotal evidence suggests they may be right.

Around 20,000 people turned out in Frankfurt at the start of the month to welcome the players back to Germany after they successfully defended their world title in China (see the picture above).

I was in Stuttgart covering the world cycling championships at the time and plenty of people were crowded round TVs at the event craning for a view of the final as the riders zoomed past unwatched. As my colleague Catherine Bosley notes in her survey of the women’s game, the German TV audience for that final was around nine million, for a share of well over 50 percent.

It’s a fair bet that Germany’s games will be well attended, probably even sell-outs, but will the public get motivated to watch, say, a group game between Denmark and New Zealand on a wet afternoon in Wolfsburg? Maybe so. This will be the first time since 1995 that the women’s World Cup will be held in Europe and we can assume that European teams will bring a lot of fans.

But will we see a return of the Fan Miles, the singing and the flag-waving, the public consumption of beer and sausage on such a staggering scale? Five years on from possibly the best World Cup ever staged, let’s hope so.

Kevin Fylan, Reuters sports correspondent in Berlin, who wishes the World Cup was always in Germany

PHOTO: Germany striker Birgit Prinz holds the World Cup on the balcony of the Frankfurt city hall during the welcoming ceremony of the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup winners in front of thousands of fans October 1, 2007. REUTERS/Boris Roessler/Pool

It will probably come as no surprise that there are more Brazilian footballers registered to play in the Champions League than any other nationality – 98 of the 770-odd players in the present edition of Europe’s elite club competition according to a survey that appeared in Spanish sports newspaper AS.

But a quick glance at the rest of the list may cause a raised eyebrow or two. France, with only two clubs in the competition, are the second biggest suppliers with 64, while England, who have four teams in the group stage, are back in ninth place with just 26, 11 fewer players than Turkey and only one more than Scotland.

Look a little further down the list and you’ll notice that aside from Brazil and Argentina, the next biggest provider of players outside Europe is Ivory Coast with 14.

For the anoraks amongst us the figures certainly makes interesting reading, but what conclusions can we draw from this latest league table? France to win Euro 2008?

• Brazil 98
• France 64
• Italy 55
• Spain 53
• Portugal 41
• Germany 38
• Turkey 37
• Argentina 32
• England 26
• Scotland 25
• Romania, Ukraine and Netherlands 23
• Serbia 22
• Czech Republic 20
• Norway 16
• Russia 15
• Ivory Coast 14
• Greece and Poland 10
• Denmark 8
• Sweden, Uruguay and Nigeria 7
• Croatia, Slovakia and Mexico 6
• Switzerland and Cameroon 5
• Belgium, Colombia, Ghana, Finland, Australia and Senegal 4
• Bosnia, Chile and Mali 3
• Albania, Paraguay, Israel, Belarus, Ireland, Peru, Northern Ireland, Austria and Georgia 2
• Wales, Macedonia, Montenegro, Lithuania, New Zealand, China, Honduras, Japan, Iceland, Togo, Congo, Uzbekistan, Morocco, Cyprus, Guinea, Ecuador and USA 1

PHOTO: Ronaldinho, one of 98 Brazilians in the Champions League, gestures after a missed chance for Barcelona against Rangers in Group E at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow, October 23, 2007. REUTERS/David Moir

After FIFA scrapped its traditional rotation system for awarding the World Cup finals, it looks like football’s finally going home. Or is it?

Just about every news report following the unanimous decision by soccer’s world governing body to ditch its policy of rotating the hosting of World Cups through its six continental confederations from 2018 pointed to England’s attempt to rekindle the flames of 1966 when they won the tournament in their own backyard.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown declared: “By 2018, it will be 52 years since England hosted the World Cup. The nation which gave football to the world deserves to have the greatest tournament back on these shores.”

But just in case you missed it, there are a number of other worthy candidates or potential candidates. Australia said it will launch a “serious bid”, the Benelux countries of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg have already put their cards on the table and don’t rule out Italy and Spain or Russia or the United States. An Asian bid is also likely.

Buoyed by the fact they will host the Olympics in 2012, England are confident and why not? They have the history, the infrastructure and the know-how.

But ironically that Olympics success could be their downfall. Brazil hoped to be in the frame to host the 2016 Olympics on the back of their successful 2014 World Cup bid, but as one senior International Olympic Committee member put it: “We don’t want to be the dessert after the main course.”

FIFA officials might just feel the same way in three years’ time when they begin their deliberations in earnest for 2018.

PHOTO: Sepp Blatter attends a news conference at FIFA headquarters in Zurich, October 29. REUTERS/Michael Buholzer

Cup giant-killers such as Scotland’s Gretna or Germany’s St Pauli look set to have their dreams dashed of one day playing the mighty Real Madrid in the Champions League.

UEFA president Michel Platini’s plan to award domestic cup winners a berth in Europe’s elite competition is due to be shelved following opposition from the top leagues and clubs. But did anyone ask the fans what they thought?

Surely for most English fans at least, soccer is all about that boyhood dream of winning at dreadful grounds on rainy Tuesday nights in order to walk out on the hallowed turf at a sun-drenched Wembley in May?

That vision is echoed by Platini in his plan. “Soccer is inclusive and should not be exclusive. It is the game of the people,” the former France international told me recently. But his idea seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

In return for achieving his ultimate goal of allowing more champions and clubs from less high-profile countries into the lucrative Champions League pot, he looks set to ditch his cup winners formula for at least a couple of years.

The decision comes after the likes of the English Premier League and Barcelona said it would “devalue the competition”. Devalue it for who? The sponsors?  The billionaire owners? Or as Roy Keane put it - the prawn sandwich brigade?

Would the innovative idea help a competition that has in some people’s view become stagnant and dominated by the few? The leagues and clubs say the fans are the most important people in the game,  but is this really true? 

Platini has been having discussions with supporters groups and plans to give the fans a seat on his new strategic committee - the inner top table at UEFA - in the next few years. Then they will have to listen.

Darren Ennis, Brussels

PHOTO: UEFA President Michel Platini during a visit to the St. Jakob-Park soccer stadium in Basel October 4, 2007. REUTERS/Michael Buholzer

It took a quick thunderstorm in Sao Paulo on Sunday night to knock Brazil’s entire domestic air system out of joint for the rest of the following day.

The weather forced the city’s Congonhas airport to be shut for 25 minutes and the closure, at a major domestic hub, had a domino effect and was blamed by authorities for the chaos which ensued.

I had the misfortune to be at Congonhas the following morning. The queue for the Gol check in stretched out of the check-in area, down a corridor and around the airport’s shopping centre. TAM, the country’s other major airline, was not much better. There was no information about when flights may depart, if at all, with departure boards simply displaying the word “Previsto” (predicted) next to the scheduled departure times.

Such scenes have become commonplace in Brazil over the last year, where two major crashes have led to enormous worries over air transport infrastructure.

The latest chaos came one week before FIFA decides whether or not Brazil should host the 2014 World Cup and was another reminder of the potential problems involved.

South America is due to stage the event under FIFA’s rotation system and Brazil is the country to have stepped forward. FIFA, however, has warned that it could look elsewhere if the Brazilian bid is not up to scratch.

Stadiums, none of which currently meet World Cup standards, and soaring crime waves are also major worries, but transport could be the real headache. Air travel will be the only viable way to ferry teams and supporters around the vast nation given the huge distances, decaying highways and absence of rail transport. An overland journey from Rio de Janeiro to Manaus, for example, would take 60 hours on a bus to Belem followed by several days on a boat down the Amazon river.

The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) says that its bid dossier contains all the guarantees required by FIFA, and the authors of FIFA’s inspection report seem to agree. You can read a summary of the report here but the key phrase is this: “It is the consensus of the inspection team that Brazil is an appropriate choice to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup.” The inspectors clearly have faith, but recent events heighten the feeling that awarding the competition to Brazil could be an even bigger gamble than South Africa in 2010.

Brian Homewood, Rio de Janeiro

PHOTO: A Brazil fan waits for the start of the World Cup qualifier between Brazil and Ecuador in Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro October 17, 2007. REUTERS/Bruno Domingos

A post-weekend update:

Former World Cup striker Tostao, now one of Brazil’s most respected columnists, summed up Brazilians’ mixed feelings about the tournament in his column on Sunday:

“The most optimistic say that … the World Cup will increase the number of tourists, will bring huge benefits in infrastructure for the population and will improve football by improving and building stadiums, ” he wrote.

“Others, more critical, think that because of the violence, the problems with air transport, the terrible highways, the absence of railways, the bad structural conditions of the cities and the areas around the stadiums, the enormous government spending, the political interests and the people who take advantage, that Brazil is not prepared for such a task and would not be able to meet the demands of football’s top authority…

“The discourse that nearly all the expenses will be funded by private enterprise is a lot of hot air. Apart from being responsible for the public and non-sporting works, the government will spend the possible and the impossible. The Pan-American Games were an example of this.

“The biggest suspicion is that in Brazil it appears almost impossible to hold a World Cup without wasting public money. There’s a generalised habit of wanting to be more cunning than cunningness itself. Brazil still needs to prove that it wants to be a serious country. The World Cup will be a good chance. I want to see the World Cup in Brazil, but without pulling a fast one.”

BH, Rio

Tottenham Hotspur find themselves at yet another crossroads.

A month after celebrating their 125th anniversary and 14 games into the season, Spurs have not only sacked manager Martin Jol, but the cack-handed manner of his dismissal has left their fans hanging their heads in disbelief.

Of course it is the board’s prerogative to sack and fire as they like. But Martin Jol was Spurs’ most successful manager since Keith Burkinshaw left after winning the UEFA Cup in 1984.

Jol didn’t win any trophies but he restored the club’s faith in itself and gave them their self-respect back. In my book, that’s success too.

Burkinshaw is famous for saying, as he walked out of White Hart Lane for the last time, “There used to be a football club over there.” He didn’t know how right he was. What there is now, like almost everywhere else in the Premier League, is a brand name, a merchandising hub, a machine for creating revenue streams. A multi-million pound industry.

That’s all fine. That’s football today and we, as fans and media, buy into it if we want to.

Spurs, though, do far better than most. For the last two seasons they have been the fifth best club in England and that was down to Jol, who led the team out of years of mid-table mediocrity.

They almost got into the Champions League in 2006. They were not far away last season. On the back of those relative successes — big successes in recent Tottenham history — they have made more money than ever before by playing in Europe again.

But UEFA Cup football is not Champions League football and that’s what chairman Daniel Levy demanded. Spurs have not played in Europe’s top club competition since their only appearance in the European Cup in 1961-62.

The clever money before the start of the season was that this was to be their season. They would finally break into the top four, but Spurs have made a very poor start to the season and one win from 10 league games is relegation form.

Still, the fans stood loyal to Jol. They appreciated him. I was at White Hart Lane last night when around 35,000 stood to salute the departing manager, singing his name and applauding him. It was surreal and something I have never seen before.

Sacked managers usually walk out to jeers, boos and catcalls. Martin Jol walked away with the cheers of the faithful ringing in his ears.

Word leaked out about his dismissal during the UEFA Cup match with Getafe. As word spread around the crowd the singing started. Jol waved at the fans. They applauded back. They also sang Levy’s name, but this is a family blog and we’ll not go into that.

Perhaps Levy and his fellow directors will be proved right. Perhaps Jol’s replacement will take the team that stage further and finally bring that coveted Champions League spot. But what if he doesn’t? Does he get three years and the bullet, like Jol.

Here’s a final thought. Arch-rivals Arsenal have enjoyed fabulous success over the
last 10 years and now regard Spurs as little more than an irrelevance. Spurs desperately want to emulate Arsenal’s success and get back to either being their betters or equals.

For much of the last century the clubs enjoyed periods of dominance over each
other. Spurs are unlikely to enjoy that feeling for a long while yet, if ever again.

For since 1996 Arsenal have had one manager: Arsene Wenger. Spurs are about to employ their eighth since Wenger arrived at the other end of the Seven Sisters Road.

The board better be hoping they have finally chosen the right man. Whoever he may be.

Mike Collett, Reuters Football Correspondent, London

PHOTO: Tottenham’s Dimitar Berbatov reacts after missing a chance against Getafe during their UEFA Cup Group G soccer match at White Hart Lane, October 25, 2007. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez