Olympic Football Farce

[+DoofersDad]

I see the Olympics got off to a great start at Hampden this evening when a video during the warm up showed the South Korean flag instead of the North Korean one. The North Korean women's team duly walked off the park and the match was delayed by nearly an hour.

Considering that:-

a) Football should not be in the Olympics in the first place and

b) It is a disgrace that the Olympic authorities will not allow the Scottish flag to fly at Hampden as Scotland is not an Olympic nation

I find it highly amusing that there should this "genuine error" at Hampden on the first day of action. I think a gold medal should be awarded to whoever put that video together.

[Charles Bannerman]

http://www.bbc.co.uk...otland-18991619

You could not make this up! Very first day of Games competition too, but the error seems to have originated with the London organisers. It's a wee bit like Celtic walking out on to the pitch at a Champions' League match to the strains of The Sash or the printers accidentally placing the image of Bendict XVI on Ibrox season tickets!

On the question of the Scottish flag, if there's resentment at that then I'm beginning to wonder if Mr Salmond's policy of picking fights with London/ Westminster/ England IS actually having the infectious effect he wants.

This is an Olympic Games and the member entity of the IOC is the Great Britain and even though London is the host city, its application was made through GB's membership of the IOC.

Scotland is NOT an Olympic nation per se, but in this situation is a region of one. End of. I can't, for instance,imagine that Barcelona in 1992 was festooned with Catalonian flags either.

In an environment where "brand police" have even been employed obsessively to protect the image of Ronald McDonald, Coca Cola, the Five Rings etc etc, a blue and white flag at Hampden Park really does seem like a side issue.

Agreed, though, that football at the Olympics (and tennis for that matter) is a waste of time!

Edited July 25, 2012 by Charles Bannerman

[Yngwie]

I see the Olympics got off to a great start at Hampden this evening when a video during the warm up showed the South Korean flag instead of the North Korean one.

Extremely unfortunate!

Apparently the source of the North/South Korean hostility is that they just can't say sorry.

[bauhaus]

Good start from the London organisers. Glad SFA were not at fault, but you wouldnt put it past them

[Charles Bannerman]

Apparently the source of the North/South Korean hostility is that they just can't say sorry.

In fact a state of war still technically exists between North and South Korea even though the Korean War ended in 1953, because a treaty has never been signed.

I also heard the theory on the radio this morning that the North Korean team were obliged to react very strongly for fear of repecussions from the "Little Fat Leader with the Very Silly Haircut" when they weny home.

I really don't think the SFA would have had a great deal to do with this game at all.

Apparently the crowd was something of the order of 19,000. They had sold about 7000 tickets and given away over 30,000 but even dishing out freebies doesn't seem to make people want to watch football at the Olympics.

Interestingly, someone was also saying that in the immediate Olympic environment, people will only be able to eat and drink McDonalds and Coke (and pay by Visa). Can you imagine a fortnight of packing that disgusting transatlantic muck down your throat!?

Edited July 26, 2012 by Charles Bannerman

[buckett]

Apparently the source of the North/South Korean hostility is that they just can't say sorry.

Yeah - they have great difficulty with that one - it comes out more like "solly"

Surely no reason for years of hostility though!

[Charles Bannerman]

Surely no reason for years of hostility though!

What we have to remember is that North Korea is basically an ultra Stalinist Lunatic Dictatorship where 60 years of oppressive brainwashing of the population means that there's effectively nobody left who has any experience of what "normality" is.

Unlike other (former) Communist states, North Korea has managed to be so isolationist (at the expense of the welfare and human rights of its population) that it has not been subject to many of the internal and external pressures which led to the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and to its significant modification in China when China began to give GDP priority over the principles of the Red Book.

The North Korean brainwashing machine also possibly needs a natural enemy in order to focus loyalty to its regime of a succession of strangely geeky looking overweight, but nonetheless inherently vicious individuals with hilarious hairstyles which make me wonder whether Shane MacGowan of the Pogues' dentist is still alive and well working as a barber in North Korea!

[NormaStitz]

Good start from the London organisers. Glad SFA were not at fault, but you wouldnt put it past them

Can't believe nobody's said it yet. It wasn't a good Korea move for whoever was responsible.

[Charles Bannerman]

It wasn't a good Korea move

SUNREADER!!!! :lol:

That was their front page headline today!

Edited July 26, 2012 by Charles Bannerman

[NormaStitz]

Pleased to say I'd no idea Charlie. I didn't realise that you could buy the Sun in Inverness.

[PaderbornCaley]

Why can‘t the media refer to the Olympics as the Olympics?! Instead it‘s London Twenty Twelve. Or the London Twenty Twelve Diamond Jubilee Games!

[buckett]

And how long until the commentators refer to the GB football team as "England"?

Mind you, they wouldn't be far wrong!

[Charles Bannerman]

Pleased to say I'd no idea Charlie. I didn't realise that you could buy the Sun in Inverness.

BUY the Sun??!! "Yerjokeenmun!" as we say in these parts. I wouldn't BUY the Sun.... I merely caught sight of the front page of a copy wedged in the dashboard of a White Van in the car park at the new Asda store

Seriously though I do tend to take a read.... well OK, a look since there's nothing much to read apart from Bill Leckie.... through a copy if there's one lying about in Cobbs excellent cafe at Highland Industrial Supplies to whose bacon rolls I am especially partial.

But there's a job for you Norma... headline writer for The Sun. I already have my application in to them to become one of these people who seem to spend their entire existence hanging about in bedrooms in their underwear in Deidre's Photo Casebook. Or alternatively they could let me write the "Dear Deirdre" letters from people claiming to be the likes of benefit cheats having sex with their wives' best friends while their wives are out at work etc etc....

Got to say.... I'm fed up with the Olympic football already. The only interesting bit has been and that was the Korean flag gaffe.

[Yngwie]

The only interesting bit has been and that was the Korean flag gaffe.

Referred to rather provocatively by the Sun as a "dog's breakfast!"

[Charles Bannerman]

Referred to rather provocatively by the Sun as a "dog's breakfast!"

Are you quoting from the menu in a North Korean restaurant there?

[CaleyD]

And how long until the commentators refer to the GB football team as "England"?

Mind you, they wouldn't be far wrong!

They already did that on the intro to the warm up game v Brazil!!!

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

^{Loved all the Welshmen zipping their lips whilst God Save the Queen was being sung !!}

[Yngwie]

Referred to rather provocatively by the Sun as a "dog's breakfast!"

Are you quoting from the menu in a North Korean restaurant there?

Maybe the cause of the North Korean walkout was the Hampden "hot dogs" not meeting their expections!

[ilpadrino]

Referred to rather provocatively by the Sun as a "dog's breakfast!"

Are you quoting from the menu in a North Korean restaurant there?

Maybe the cause of the North Korean walkout was the Hampden "hot dogs" not meeting their expections!

I think you're barking up the wrong flagpole there.

[SMEE]

^{Loved all the Welshmen zipping their lips whilst God Save the Queen English national anthem was being sung !!}

Quite bloody right too!!

Edited July 27, 2012 by SMEE

[+DoofersDad]

Referred to rather provocatively by the Sun as a "dog's breakfast!"

Are you quoting from the menu in a North Korean restaurant there?

Maybe the cause of the North Korean walkout was the Hampden "hot dogs" not meeting their expections!

And the Colombians joined them when they discovered the coke was something you drank.

[Heilandee]

^{Loved all the Welshmen zipping their lips whilst God Save the Queen English national anthem was being sung !!}

Quite bloody right too!!

Cannae agree with this nationalistic nonsense,In the Olympics they are representing Britain and like it or not thats the GB national anthem.If they feel that strongly nationalistic surely they should say "no thanks" I'm not representing GB. Different story if it were in the Commonwealth games or any event they were representing Wales/Scotland/Ireland when i would agree with there stance.

As for Wee Eck's Scolympians!!

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

The official match programme had Joe Allen down as being English !!

They showed respect by standing feckin still and not singing in Welsh.

[Alex MacLeod]

^{Loved all the Welshmen zipping their lips whilst God Save the Queen English national anthem was being sung !!}

Quite bloody right too!!

Cannae agree with this nationalistic nonsense,In the Olympics they are representing Britain and like it or not thats the GB national anthem.If they feel that strongly nationalistic surely they should say "no thanks" I'm not representing GB. Different story if it were in the Commonwealth games or any event they were representing Wales/Scotland/Ireland when i would agree with there stance.

As for Wee Eck's Scolympians!!

That'll be why they dropped this verse then.

Lord, grant that Marshal Wade, May by thy mighty aid, Victory bring. May he sedition hush, and like a torrent rush, Rebellious Scots to crush, God save the King.

[Heilandee]

^{Loved all the Welshmen zipping their lips whilst God Save the Queen English national anthem was being sung !!}

Quite bloody right too!!

Cannae agree with this nationalistic nonsense,In the Olympics they are representing Britain and like it or not thats the GB national anthem.If they feel that strongly nationalistic surely they should say "no thanks" I'm not representing GB. Different story if it were in the Commonwealth games or any event they were representing Wales/Scotland/Ireland when i would agree with there stance.

As for Wee Eck's Scolympians!!

That'll be why they dropped this verse then.

Lord, grant that Marshal Wade, May by thy mighty aid, Victory bring. May he sedition hush, and like a torrent rush, Rebellious Scots to crush, God save the King.

They didn't "drop" any verse, there's no "official" version just a traditional anonymous version which became an anthem of the union of Great Britain. In modern times only the first 2 verses ever get sung and the sentiments at the time of writing were not "anti Scots" but anti "rebellious Scots" when it was relevant.

The point i was trying to make though is the hypocrisy of those who are "proud" to be representing GB but refuse to participate in the national anthem of the country they are representing.If you don't believe in the union fair enough, but why accept the invitation to represent Great Britain then partake in political posturing to show how nationalistic you are.

edited to add, there was nothing about crushing rebellious Welshmen!

Edited July 27, 2012 by Heilandee