Oh my good Lord!

[Duncer]

I cannot believe they started the final by counting down from ten.

[MarkRae]

Why not? That's how every other match in these finals began...

[Sipowicz]

They've done that a lot throughout the tournament Duncer, though not in every match!

[Duncer]

It is appalling. Are the audience all five?

[ichkeria]

Why is it appalling?

[MarkRae]

It's part of their footballing culture, just as the vuvuzela is in South Africa.

[Duncer]

Counting down from ten is something kids do!

[Duncer]

I'm not sure which I'd rathetr have, the inane countdown or the vuvuzela.

[MarkRae]

So is blowing toy trumpets - what's your point...?

[Duncer]

I've already made it.

[Duncer]

I would bet that the countdown has nothing to do with Ukranian football culture. I suspect some DJ has carefully orchestrated the whole thing, much as they do at most games these days, deafening the crowd with crappy music rather than allowing an astmosphere to build organically.

[Sipowicz]

Vuvuzelas sir, thousands of them!

[Duncer]

God no.

[MarkRae]

Nice one, Sip, but whoosh, I feel... :-)

[Duncer]

I think the whoosh is all yours.......

[Mick-Talbot]

Duncer

Question Author

It is appalling. Are the audience all five?

20:55 Sun 01st Jul 2012




No but no doubt some of them are. some may be 4 even .
Simple choice ... join in or don't



Spain .... what a team.

[bibblebub]

The ref has to delay the kick-off until a specific time so that the tv coverage is be ready and so everyone is hanging around getting bored for a minute or two. The countdown is no different to the crescendo of noise that a tennis crowd make when they view a decision challenge animation as the ball approaches the is it in or out? moment.

[Duncer]

I'm sorry I'm such an old Luddite, but I'd rather we had the anticipation and expectancy of the approaching kick off and the roar of the crowd generating an atmosphere as the ref prepares to blow his whistle, rather than a group of children anticipating the launch of a rocket or some children's entertainer at a birthday party. Or is it a game of hide and seek?

All together now, ten, nine......

[Duncer]

bibblebub, I realised long ago that football had sold it's soul to television and, sad though it is, that's where the money for top players comes from. I can live with that, but the countdown.......

While I'm in full-on whinge mode "referees assistants"???? They are freaking linesmen. This child of Seventies and Eighties football does not take change well.

Still Mick, Spain, what a team.

[Mick-Talbot]

You put forward some very strange analogies. Duncer

How are you with the Mexican wave ?

[AB Editor]

I would find it very hard to get riled by such a thing - although I did think it was a bit odd.

I was really hoping Italy would manage it, Spain had them sewn up from the start though.