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World Cup 2010 Anthem
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FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010 Official Theme Song
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2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa – Game Introductions
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Production process of the official 2010 FIFA World Cup match ball Jabulani
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Like it or not, World Cup fever is back
KUALA LUMPUR: With the 2010 World Cup set to kick off in South Africa tomorrow, football fever has started spreading across Malaysia like an epidemic.
In villages, schools, shops, offices or city, the main topic of discussion is the World Cup even though the Malaysian team is not one of the 32 finalists.
The excitement, which started two months ago, has reached fever pitch as the opening match between hosts South Africa and Mexico draws closer.
In the capital, restaurants, mamak stalls, bistros, pubs, hotels, shopping complexes, petrol stations and clubs have all joined the bandwagon, with various campaigns to add to the excitement.
Big screens have mushroomed at various locations as entertainment outlets clamour to offer their patrons the best choice of viewership.
“Even before the World Cup, I had already installed a big screen at my stall to cater to my customers who wanted to watch live English Premier League matches and the response was very good.
“During the World Cup, I expect the response to be even better,” said Marzuki Hashim, who runs a food stall in Pantai Dalam here.
According to Marzuki, he would have to follow guidelines set by Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur.
Along Jalan P. Ramlee and Bukit Bintang, almost all the entertainment outlets have decorated their premises with various themes to coincide with the World Cup. Some outlets have even gone to the extent of displaying flags of the 10 best footballing nations in the world while others have displayed giant replicas of the World Cup at their premises.
“Jerseys are a must for fans. For the World Cup, my favourite team is Brazil because they play with a lot of skill. However, I remain a true fan of the Malaysian team,” Mohd Azhar Latif, a football fan, said.
The sale of jerseys has been brisk.
Using the social Internet network as a means of selling World Cup merchandise has also become a popular medium for those selling souvenirs with many setting up blogs to showcase their stuff.
“I sell jerseys on Facebook on a part-time basis. I did not expect ads that I displayed on Facebook to receive overwhelming response. Jerseys that I sell are from Thailand and China and I sell them at reasonable prices, including cost of delivery.
“For a numbered jersey with a name of a player, it is RM80 and those without numbers are sold at RM60,” said Rosli Ahmad.
fr:thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/6/10/nation/6421535&sec=nation
My World Cup runneth over
SHUT UP ABOUT ADVERTISING
HERE we go! Here we go! Here we go! World Cup fever is upon us again. And, as usual, quite suddenly, and often not too wisely, vast amounts of cash are flying around. And the competition amongst the advertisers becoming at least as hotly contested as the games themselves.
To kick-off, in Ad Age we hear that Trevor Edwards, Nike’s VP-brand and category management, feels “It’s the No. 1 event in all of sports, viewed by half the world’s population.”
If he’s right, that would explain another report in Media magazine that CCTV supposedly paid in excess of the US$292.7mil for coverage of the 2002 tournament.
If they and others are still spending that kind of money, and there’s every indication they are, then that’s a lot of moolah for a recession-struck world.
And there are, as usual, a lot of “official” advertising sponsors who are obviously handing over huge sums to FIFA and spending equally large bundles on advertisements.
Regular sponsor Coca-Cola are out there with a quite cute, 60-minute spot that features the story of Roger Miller, the first player, appropriately an African, to do a goal-scoring victory dance. So they trace the evolution of the football victory dance ever since. Lots of money on stock footage, all probably handed over to Russian club owners.
Campaign magazine picks the Adidas’ Star Wars Cantina spot as a standout. In the commercial they have assembled a team of celebrities such as David Beckham, Franz Beckenbauer, Snoop Dogg, Noel Gallagher, Ian Brown, Ciara, Jay Baruchel, Daft Punk and DJ Neil Armstrong.
These folks have been magically incorporated into the cantina scene from the original 1977 ‘Star Wars’ movie (nerd alert; Episode IV: A New Hope).
It must have cost a mint for both the celebrity’s fees and for George Lucas film rights (all of whom really need the money).
And it may be a little bit of a stretch to use the theme line Celebrate Originality, with a bit of old film and stars that are not all fully match-fit.
AdWeek likes the Nike Write the Future spot (and so do I). It shows many prominent soccer stars at pivotal, win or lose moments in a football game.
In a flash forward they imagine how their lives might turn out should they not perform too well. The sight of Wayne Rooney as bearded and down and out and living in a caravan is wonderful. And the cameo by Homer Simpson is a blast.
The director is Alejandro G. Iñárritu, who made the movies Babel and 21 Grams.
The spot debuted on TV but has become a big viral hit; being talked about, passed around and celebrated on Facebook and YouTube.
Again, it probably cost the national debt of Greece, but it certainly proves the actual worth of a well-written, brilliantly executed TVC.
Yet not everyone plays by the ‘official’ rules it seems.
FIFA are getting a bit edgy as some people are realising that paying for the right to call yourself “official sponsor” isn’t worth as much as FIFA and Trevor Edwards maybe think it is.
In fact FIFA are trying to stop people using other anthemic songs about football as opposed to paying FIFA, I guess, to use the “official” World Cup songs; Waka Waka. This Time for Africa (written by Fozzi Bear one assumes and performed, oddly, by that not-at-all African hip-swinger Shakira) and Waving Flag (an infinitely better song with real African feel and sing-a-long zeal).
Campaign magazine again reports another sponsorship foul. It seems that Mars (the very sweet, caramelly chocolate bars) paid a heap of dosh for official sponsorship of the English footy team.
Then they made a fairly dull spot that shows old sportsmen and women reliving past glories.
But then Kit Kat, (the greenly-challenged chocolate biscuity fingers) which didn’t fork out great heaps of cash for sponsorship, is being advertised using a football theme too, and with a far more imaginative spot to boot.
So Mars are talking about suing Nestle. I’m told this is called “ambush marketing”. But hey, anyone who can afford it (and it seems they can) is advertising using football as a theme.
Pepsi have a neat ad where a bunch of soccer stars, en route to a game in South Africa, are waylaid by a bunch of kids who challenge them to a soccer match for their cans of Pepsi.
Problem is the crowd, who form the goal mouth and the boundary, keep moving. So the stars lose. People have been saying it portrays Africans as cheats.
The Cup may be big, but minds remain small. Carlsberg beer has an ad featuring creaky old timers like Bobby Charlton, Alan Shearer and the ilk playing an afternoon pub game.
Old pros again, but this time done with immense charm. Optus, the Australian telco have an excellent spot where a team is training and playing against African animals like rhinos and elephants. Jolly exciting, beautifully made and quite relevant.
And, as a penalty shootout, Malaysia has old makciks dancing about, more old football players and football players turning into what appear to be African animals. A yellow card I suspect.
There it is, the final whistle. Another great result for the World Cup and its sponsors. It provokes many excellent creative ideas, which is very good indeed. But within days it’s all over and will be quickly forgotten.
Advertisers who have plead poverty for three years have turned up with surprise money, as if suddenly and miraculously discovered down the back of the sofa, and they’ve blown the lot.
The lack of moderation and the feeding frenzy that accompanied the event does tend to end with one asking whether it was all really worth it.
In the rush to participate did they all take their eye off the ball (boom tish!)
For me it’s all a bit too much, so I think I’ll lock myself in the dressing room for the duration. And ask myself: “Is the cash more beautiful than the game?”
Wake me when it’s over.
fr:biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/6/12/business/6436352&sec=business
Less work, more sex and leisure during WCup?
IT’S the FIFA World Cup season. The world’s a stadium and everyone’s having a ball of a time. The football fans at least.
Does work productivity actually nosedive during this period? Do fans really fake stomach upsets to get a day off? Are you reading this column with bleary eyes because you stayed up to watch Germany play Australia in the wee hours this morning?
Every four years, we get all excited over a tournament that is so rich in history and drama. We forget the problems of the world, the stress at work, and the antics of our politicians.
Even the Greeks will forget about their bankruptcy woes each time their team take to the field. Some of us may even forget our spouses.
Last week, Sin Chew Daily cited a report in Singapore that said the World Cup fever could affect the sex lives of couples. It quoted a urologist in Singapore who said men would secrete more testosterone and adrenaline as the tournament progressed.
The doctor said there was a higher chance of husbands having sex with their wives if the team they support win and after they had had a few rounds of beer.
I am not sure if the medical council would haul the doctor up to back up his comments but we can be sure that this is the season when anything and everything can be linked to the World Cup.
Corporate Malaysia will be no different. CEOs will certainly be talking football before they talk business. For South Africa, hosting the World Cup will provide a massive boost to the economy though much of it will be short-term.
According to one business report, the decision in 2004 to award the World Cup to South Africa sparked the biggest infrastructural investment boom in more than 30 years, though the question needs to be asked as to whether these new stadiums will be put to good use after the tournament ends.
Personally, I believe we should designate certain capital cities as permanent hosts of major events like the World Cup and the Olympics.
There is far too much politicking in choosing the host venue. Even small and developing countries want to play host as they see it as an opportunity to showcase themselves to the world.
They hardly think through the economic and social costs of hosting such an event.
Take the Olympics, for example. Host cities have to spend billions for the privilege of bringing in tens of thousands of guests for just 17 days. Many host cities are still paying off debt taken to finance the games.
Los Angeles, which made a profit of US$200mil, is seen as the notable exception. But that was because LA already had most of the facilities in place and the organising committee head Peter Ueberroth knew how to milk the corporate dollar to fund the games.
But no one really wants to chew on these figures for now. I am not a diehard football fan but for the next month or so, I will certainly be talking more football than politics.
My wife will remind me to use the headphones if I intend to watch the late matches, and she will not appreciate me waking her up just to tell her Brazil had won.
After 24 years of marriage, I have come to terms with the fact that the only time my wife was remotely interested in football was during our courting days. And the Hand of God, to her, is definitely not Maradona.
# Deputy executive editor Soo Ewe Jin wishes that Brazil would play with real flair and lose rather than play mechanically and win. He finds the 75-page report by Goldman Sachs on The World Cup and Economics 2010 to be quite a fascinating read.
fr:biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/6/14/business/6453501&sec=business
Game over for World Cup bookies
KUALA LUMPUR: Police have scored big in bringing to book people, who were involved in football betting syndicates raking in millions of ringgit, with nationwide raids since the World Cup began last week.
Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar said he was pleased with the success against football betting under Ops Soga.
“We have also identified some prominent figures who are behind these syndicates,” he said after a Vehicle Theft Reduction Council meeting in Bukit Aman yesterday.
Ismail said investigations into some of the football bettings syndicates revealed that they were linked to other countries.
On Wednesday, two brothers — both architects — were arrested for operating an online football betting syndicate from their luxury house off Jalan Ipoh.
Police believe the duo took bets from mostly VIPs and businessmen, totalling RM5mil since the start of the World Cup on June 11.
In Ipoh, police smashed a syndicate which had betting slips of between RM2mil and RM5mil following the arrest of five men in the city and in Taiping on Thursday.
In Selangor Bernama reported that police busted a major betting syndicate believed to have received bets worth RM15.1mil and arrested 23 suspects since Tuesday.
Selangor acting CID chief Asst Comm Omar Mamah said the suspects, including nine Indonesian women, were detained at houses and restaurants in Petaling Jaya, Subang Jaya, Klang, Ampang and Kuala Langat.
The syndicate accepted bets through the Internet, over the telephone, and from bookies and agents.
It used restaurants as centres for accepting the bets.
“The restaurant owners knew that some of their customers were carrying out betting activities in their premises,” he said.
Initial investigations also revealed that there were bookies who offered loans to encourage prospective “clients”.
Police seized five desktop computers, eight laptop computers, 10 handphones, a printer, six modems, three betting slips, a cheque book, a pager, a fixed phone and RM1,295.
fr:thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/6/19/nation/6506340&sec=nation
Food outlets cashing in on World Cup fever with round-the-clock operations
PETALING JAYA: It’s football fever round the clock! Many restaurants and kopitiam are remaining open throughout the day to cater to football fans craving for live World Cup action.
And operators have taken the competition among themselves a notch higher, with some installing Astro’s high-definition B.yond service to get an upperhand.
“It’s not just cable TV but high-definition service. We decided to install B.yond to give our customers the added high-definition advantage,’’ said a staff member at the OldTown White Coffee outlet at Jaya One here.
OldTown White Coffee has six outlets installed with the HD service while installation for another 15 outlets will be completed by the weekend.
Original Penang Kayu Nasi Kandar managing director Burhan Mohamed, who runs a chain of restaurants, said the atmosphere at his outlets was “unbelievable” during World Cup matches.
“It is especially so when England, Brazil, Argentina and Portugal are playing. I hear shouts of ‘goal, goal, goal’ throughout the night!” he added.
His main Wisma Kayu outlet in Kota Damansara has been installed with about twenty 42-inch LCD and Plasma TVs.
“People are staying up into the wee hours of the morning to watch the games live,” he said.
Station 1 Cafe’s executive director and marketing head Jason Ng said 10 of its 43 outlets in the country would be open till 5am for football fans to enjoy the 2.30am matches.
“We are trying to accommodate the needs of our customers during this ‘hot’ period,” he said.
Ng added that its outlet in Bukit Tinggi, Klang, would be installed with a giant LED TV screen for football fans to enjoy the World Cup final on July 11.
“We expect 2,000 fans to turn up that day,” he said.
The PappaRich restaurant in Bukit Bintang is also enjoying brisk business, with the outlet open till 4am daily.
fr:thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/6/19/nation/6505986&sec=nation
Winning start to Star Cup fever
PETALING JAYA: Local football fans are not only busy catching up with the World Cup 2010 matches each day but have also developed an interest in football-related games.
The launch of The Star Cup Fever 2010 redemption yesterday at Studio V in 1Utama, saw not only readers redeeming exclusive shoe bags with every two different copies of the newspaper’s World Cup pullout but also trying out their luck at the Super Sepak Penalty Shootout.
The game, which required participants to score as many penalties as possible within 30 secs, also saw women including those who came in high heels, signing up for the task.
Winners of The Star’s World Cup pullout daily SMS competition also took the opportunity to collect their prizes consisting of either a Jabulani mini-ball, non-woven bag, keychain, digital clock, notebook or a cap.
The Star Cup Fever 2010 redemption was launched by its Deputy Group Chief Editor I David Yeoh, RedFM and SuriaFM chief operating officer Azrullah Mohd Nor together with Adidas Malaysia senior brand manager Jessica Lim and Adidas Malaysia country manager Ng Chee Loon.
fr:thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/6/20/nation/6509509&sec=nation
No buzz – but for vuvuzelas
THE big surprise of this World Cup – other than Spain 0 Switzerland 1, France 0 Mexico 2, and Germany 0 Serbia 1– is that the wife is not a football widow.
Before World Cup 2010 kicked off on June 11, I thought that I would dump my wife Vera and 20-month-old daughter Apsara for Lionel Messi, Fernando Torres and Jong Tae-se – the North Korean whom they call the “Asian Wayne Rooney”.
So far, though, the likelihood of my being married to the flat screen television is as high as Frank Lam-pard and Messi appearing at my front door.
Except for a few must-watch matches like Brazil vs North Korea and Argentina vs South Korea, the World Cup has been a big yawn.
The biggest sporting event in the world has hardly been as titillating as a WAG (wives and girlfriends of players).
Then again, Coleen Rooney (Mrs. Wayne Rooney, pic) and Olalla Do-minguez (Mrs Fernando Torres, who is not so ‘ooh la la’) aren’t all that ti-tillating, either.
Probably. it is just the first round – Slovenia and Slovakia, what’s the difference? And I’d rather watch Barney, the Purple Dinosaur, with my girl than England vs Algeria.
“The World Cup really starts after the first round, then you have the real World Cup. As the competition prog-resses, the standard will get much better,” says South Africa coach Car-los Alberto Parreira.
Hopefully, once we say adios to minnows like New Zealand, Hon-duras and England, the world cup will be more watchable.
However, the first round has had its moments.
> Mystery: the mysterious team from the Hermit Kingdom which almost drew against the Brazilians.
> Beauty: Brazil defender Maicon’s near-impossible-angle strike against North Korea.
> Funny: England goalkeeper Rob Green fumbling a simple shot at goal allowing the ball to roll over the line.
> Farcical: Ivory Coast Kader Kei-ta’s Oscar-winning collapse after the slightest contact with Kaka who was red-carded.
> Controversial: Malian referee Koman Coulibaly disallowed an 86th minute goal in the United States vs Slovenia match which ended in a 2-2 draw.
> Fast and furious: the Jabulani ball which is “rounder than any ball Adidas has ever made, more aerodynamic and moves faster”.
However, the big buzz in World Cup 2010, is the in-your-ears vuvuzela. The trumpet or horn – which a dailychilli.com reader likened to a nagging wife (it is a pain in the ear and … well, you get the idea) – is making the World Cup come alive with its buzzing likened to a swarm of angry bees.
Of course, technology helps. Now, you can actually monitor a match on your telephone via Soccernet.com. The flip side is: when you go “hooray” while pushing a shopping cart, people do stare.
The World Cup has been more dramatic off the pitch than on it.
There’s more drama in watching Al Jazeera and French striker Nicolas Anelka (also known as “Le Sulk”) calling his coach Raymond Dome-nech a “dirty son of a whore” than watching France vs Uruguay.
Since the French team is imploding, I will definitely watch France vs South Africa.
And it is much more fun to read in The Star about John Terry’s failed mutiny against England coach Fabio Capello. Or that Rooney “boo-ed” England’s boo boys after his team drew against Algeria.
The last 16 phase begins on Saturday and – as Parreira promised – the real World Cup starts.
Looks like World Cup 2010 will finally take over my life and marriage. Here’s hoping my wife does not turn into a vuvuzela.
fr:thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/6/23/nation/6524531&sec=nation
Can M’sia host the WCup? M’sia boleh
Eugene Mahalingam
ON June 11, 2010, South Africa made history when it became the first African nation to host the FIFA World Cup.
Similarly, in 2002, Japan and South Korea also made it into the history books when they co-hosted the tournament.
Prior to 2002, the World Cup was only hosted in either Europe or South America.
However, countries from other continents have been eager to hop on the bandwagon to host the prestigious event, and it’s not difficult to see why.
Occuring only once in four years, the World Cup is the most widely-viewed sporting event in the world. According to FIFA (football’s global governing body), an estimated 715.1 million people watched the final match of the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
As a football fan that switches on every four years, I can’t help but wonder – can a country like Malaysia host a major event like the World Cup?
Given its scale, hosting an event like the World Cup can be an extremely costly affair. Expenditure would mostly be for construction and upgrades of stadiums and infrastructure, accommodation, transportation, on-ground promotions and security.
According to a paper by Korean World Cup Organising Committee co-chairman Lee Yun-Taek, South Korea had built 10 new stadiums at an approximate cost of US$2bil (RM6.4bil) in preparation for the 2002 finals.
Total costs including construction, organising committee budget and other expenditure were estimated at US$2.67bil (RM8.54bil).
According to a report by the BBC in May, South Africa was estimated to have spent £3.5bil (RM17.2bil) on building and redeveloping 10 stadiums, creating a new transport infrastructure and security to host this year’s event.
Unlike South Korea, South Africa has never had any experience in hosting a major sporting tournament, which probably explains the higher cost of organising a major sporting event.
South Korea hosted the Olympics in 1988, another sports event that occurs once in four years.
According to FIFA guidelines, around 12 stadiums with a minimum capacity of 40,000 are needed to host the tournament. The stadium for the final will need to have at least 80,000 seats.
Its website, worldstadiums.com, lists that Malaysia has at least eight stadiums with a capacity of 40,000 and above.
The Bukit Jalil Stadium in Kuala Lumpur has a maximum capacity of 100,200.
This means Malaysia would need to upgrade just four more stadiums, which it has ample supply of. There are six stadiums with a capacity of at least 30,000 and above, according to worldstadiums.com.
To minimise costs further, it could go the Japan/South Korea route by co-hosting the event with a neighbouring country. However, this would mean any profits attained during the event were also likely to be halved.
Malaysia is no stranger to hosting global events. To date, the biggest sporting event it has organised was the 16th Commonwealth Games in 1998, which saw 70 competing nations.
In terms of returns for hosting the World Cup, firstly, there will be direct revenue from ticket sales.
For Germany in 2006, there were 3.2 million tickets available for the 64 matches (minus seats for VIP guests and the media), ranging from 35 euro to 600 euro.
On top of that, millions of ringgit from tourists will be injected into various businesses, hotels, food and beverage outlets, souvenir stores, tours and transport from hosting the month-long event.
The return on investment for the construction of new stadiums, other infrastructure or new modes of public transportation also does not stop once the World Cup ends.
Organisers can continue to host events at their (new or upgraded) stadiums, which should accommodate larger crowds (long after the World Cup.)
New modes of transport, which were not available initially (and created specifically for an event like the World Cup), can continue to be utilised after the tournament is over by commuters.
In February, Bloomberg reported that the South African World Cup Committee had predicted that the country’s gross domestic product would receive a 0.5% boost this year an as estimated 450,000 visitors flock to South Africa for the world’s most-watched tournament.
More than 130,000 jobs were also created in the construction of the stadiums between 2007 and 2010 in South Africa.
Hosting the World Cup is also a great image-booster for the organising nation. It creates heightened awareness and can build both local and investor confidence in the country.
Lee noted in his paper that (despite other factors coming into play) when France hosted the World Cup in 1998, the French stock market doubled in two years.
Similarly, when Seoul hosted the 1988 Olympics, its stock market doubled in less than 16 months.
Personally, however, the main reason that I would like to see Malaysia host the World Cup is that it allows the host nation to get a free entry into the tournament!
● The writer knows that watching the World Cup in high-definition doesn’t come close to watching it live in the flesh.
fr:biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/6/28/business/6514398&sec=business
With so many nations in WCup what language do refrees use?
Monday Starters – By Soo Ewe Jin
English is not just a language, it’s also a survival tool
THIRTY referees from 28 countries, including our very own Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh, are officiating at the World Cup in South Africa.
Have you ever wondered what is the language they use to keep all the players, plus the coaches on the sidelines, in check when things get a bit fiery?
The lingua franca is English. Of course, this is not to say that everyone on the pitch speaks the language. In the heat of the moment, more colourful language, in all sorts of tongues, will invariably come out.
But the authoritative language is English.
The reason I bring this up is to illustrate the point on how widely English is used, and the consequences of not giving due attention to it.
At the English Language Teaching Association conference held in Kuala Lumpur recently, Raja Zarith Idris, consort of the Sultan of Johor, lamented on a problem we can no longer ignore – that most Malaysians cannot speak or write well in English, compared with the ability and ease with which older Malaysians speak and write it.
And while countries such as China and Indonesia are fast catching up on becoming more proficient in the English language, Malaysia is moving in the opposite direction.
“The English language has unmistakably achieved status as the world’s lingua franca through globalisation. English is now the official or dominant language for two billion people in at least 75 countries. According to the British Council, speakers of English as a second language probably outnumber those who speak it as a first language, and around 750 million people are believed to speak English as a foreign language,” said Raja Zarith.
English is used widely in science and technology, on the Internet, in commerce and industry, as a business language, as the language of air and sea control, as a language of social intercourse, as a diplomatic language… the list goes on.
Working in the English media, and having come from that dinosaur age when we were still fully schooled in English, it may not be fair to compare the standards then with the standards now.
However, one must still not ignore the fact that in many areas where English is predominant, Malaysia is now at the losing end.
I have a friend in China working with a small outfit that gives students an intensive course in English before they head to other countries for their studies.
This is in addition to them having already passed the various English proficiency tests. It is a lucrative business because they train the students to function socially in an English-speaking world, not just to cope with their studies.
I have interviewed quite a number of people who want to work in The Star and it is amazing how low their English proficiency can be, even if they have an A in the subject at the SPM level.
Raja Zarith is spot on in identifying the need to fix the problem at the school level, and to allow our young Malaysians more opportunities to openly use the language on a daily basis.
At Pulau Langkawi recently, I noticed how the locals struggled to communicate in English with the predominantly foreign visitors at the resort.
The guide who took us through the mangrove swamp had the right attitude and was able to share his knowledge in a very interesting way. It was a shame that his English, at times, was understandable only to my wife and I.
Imagine, if he had a good command of the language, he could make a fortune as a tour guide anywhere in the English-speaking world. Or maybe even referee in the World Cup.
# Deputy executive editor Soo Ewe Jin loves how the commentators use English so beautifully and extensively while our local commentators seem to be restricted to common phrases like “sayang sekali!” each time the ball fails to find the net.
fr:biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/6/28/business/6540813&sec=business
W-Cup punters spending millions at illegal gambling sites
Now that the high-profile World Cup is in the knockout stages, illegal bookies have stepped up their activities and are raking millions of ringgit in bets.
Apart from the outcome of a match, bets can also be placed on the number of offsides, yellow and red cards issued, fouls committed and corner kicks awarded, among others.
Even daily raids on illegal betting syndicates throughout the country have not deterred punters – the Starprobe team found out that Malaysians can even bet from the comfort of their homes.
Locally-run betting websites, declared illegal by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, are accessible to the public via these bookies.
There are also more than 500 sports betting websites, operating mostly from the United States and United Kingdom
fr:thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/6/29/starprobe/6565987&sec=starprobe
Sex lives not affected by World Cup matches
By TAN KARR WEI
PETALING JAYA: Staying up late to catch the World Cup has apparently not taken a toll on the sex lives of Malaysians – this was among the findings of The Star-Adidas Loudest Noise Survey.
Only 2% of those who answered “Yes” said they quarrelled with their spouse or partner because of the World Cup telecasts and 1% said their sex life was affected.
This is in contrast to a news report in Singapore last month where a urologist said the World Cup fever could affect the sex lives of football fans.
The urologist stated that men would secrete more testosterone and adrenaline as the tournament progressed.
He also said there was a higher chance of husbands having sex with their wives if their team won.
In The Star-Adidas Loudest Noise Survey conducted between July 1 and yesterday to find out how the World Cup was affecting them, 61% of the respondents said they stayed up to watch the 2.30am matches, 32% watched only the 7.30pm and 10pm matches while 7% did not watch any matches.
From those who did, 17% watched all the matches and 37% only picked the interesting ones.
Asked if their family relationships or personal lifestyle had been affected because of the matches, only 13% answered “Yes” while the rest either watched it with their family or planned around the family schedule.
Some who answered “No” gave comments like “They understand how important it is for me”, “It’s only once in four years” and “It’s the World Cup-lah”.
On sleeping habits, 5% said they woke up late for work while 7% actually slept earlier to catch the 2.30am matches.
Employers would also be somewhat relieved to know that only 7% of the respondents took leave, days off, sick leave or emergency leave to watch the matches.
Almost 70% of the respondents watched the matches at home while 31% watched it at food outlets.
A total of 3,135 people took part in the survey with 71% being in the 21 to 40 age bracket while 42% said they were married.
fr:thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/7/9/nation/6635578&sec=nation