Goddamn Italy

by Kieran Healy on October 10, 2009

That is all.

{ 19 comments }

1

geo 10.10.09 at 11:45 pm

Moved and seconded.

2

Jacob Christensen 10.11.09 at 12:07 am

And here I thought CT courtesy of Google Reader would bring me a late Saturday Night post about Berlusconi. Well…

But in any case, you are welcome to support Denmark next June.

:-D

3

Brian Weatherson 10.11.09 at 12:50 am

Shouldn’t the real damning be aimed at FIFA for changing the rules about how the play-in games will go in order to make it harder for teams like Ireland to qualify? Even if Ireland had held out today, they would still likely be 2nd in the group, and still likely have to play a team from the FIFA top 10(!) in the second round of qualification. Changing the rules that way in the middle of the game is really shocking.

4

P O'Neill 10.11.09 at 12:57 am

I wonder Brian how much of the rule change had to do with FIFA realizing that France, Russia, and Portugal will almost certainly be in the pot for the playoffs.

5

Kieran Healy 10.11.09 at 1:21 am

The answer to P O’Neill’s question is “everything”, of course.

6

Substance McGravitas 10.11.09 at 1:29 am

7

Cagliaritana 10.11.09 at 1:40 am

She did already.

8

geo 10.11.09 at 2:09 am

Oh, you were talking about soccer.

9

P O'Neill 10.11.09 at 2:22 am

Of course, FIFA’s brilliant management also resulted in a situation where neither England or the USA could be watched on TV in their home countries. So they might have screwed up the playoffs as well.

10

Fred 10.11.09 at 2:27 am

Here’s hoping Italy has a whopper of an estate tax.

11

Glen Tomkins 10.11.09 at 3:08 am

The Place of the Damned

For one thing, God’s been all over that one for a long time. No need for further advice/admonition on that score.

More interestingly, the British have a long history of close identification with that particular advice/admonition to the Almighty. At the time of the Hundred Year’s War, ordinary Frenchmen so associated that phrase with British soldiers that they started referring to them as “les goddams”. Sort of like the advice from the old man in “El Norte”, that you’ll know you’ve made it to Mexico when every sentence you hear contains the word “cingada” (Can I print that in a family blog?), you have to presume that every sentence spoken by the British of the day must have had a “goddamn” somewhere in it.

Swift narrows it down further, to Ireland, in his famous, “The Place of the Damned”:
“All folks who pretend to Religion and Grace.
Allow there’s a Hell, but dispute of the Place;
But if Hell may by Logical Rules be defin’d,
The Place of the Damn’d, — I will tell you my Mind.
Wherever the Damn’d do chiefly abound,
Most certainly there is Hell to be found,
Damn’d Poets, Damn’d Criticks, Damn’d Block-Heads, Damn’d Knaves,
Damn’d Senators brib’d, Damn’d prostitute Slaves;
Damn’d Lawyers and Judges, Damn’d Lords and Damn’d Squires,
Damn’d Spies and Informers, Damn’d Friends and Damn’d Lyars;
Damn’d Villains, Corrupted in every Station,
Damn’d Time-Serving Priests all over the Nation;
And into the Bargain, I’ll readily give you,
Damn’d Ignorant Prelates, and Councellors Privy.
Then let us no longer by Parsons be Flamm’d,
For We know by these Marks, the Place of the Damn’d;
And Hell to be sure is at Paris or Rome,
How happy for Us, that it is not at Home.”

12

Nick Valvo 10.11.09 at 7:31 am

It’s “chingada.”

13

Becky Grant 10.11.09 at 8:09 am

Yup Italy… bit of a disappointment!

14

stostosto 10.11.09 at 11:56 am

Yes, the Italians are such sore losers, innit!

15

Glen Tomkins 10.11.09 at 1:16 pm

You mean I spelled it wrong?!

Ai, chingada!!

16

mollymooly 10.11.09 at 2:23 pm

Stop complaining, Healy; after a litany of glorious 0-0 wins and 1-1 victories, the Boys in Green have gone one step further with a glorious 2-2 triumph.

17

Ken Houghton 10.11.09 at 7:25 pm

mollymooly – Are you sure you’re not just watching a tape of the Stallone/Pele flick?

18

Mrs Tilton 10.11.09 at 9:23 pm

That seems a bit of a harsh judgement on Italy, Kieran. Their winning of yet another wooden spoon shows only that their side is weak; in no way do they merit moral condemnation for it. And I should have thought Ireland still basking in the afterglow of the grand slam.

Wait, was there a match played under some other code recently?

19

dsquared 10.11.09 at 10:25 pm

what on earth are you talking about, Tilton? Kieran’s clearly angry at Ireland not taking part in the county game next year, though I’m not quite sure why he’s blaming Italy for it.

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