Fifa will censor match action being shown on giant screens inside the stadium after replays of Argentina's disputed goal against Mexico on Sunday fuelled arguments on the pitch. Angry Mexico players protested to the referee after the screens in Johannesburg's Soccer City showed Argentina forward Carlos Tevez was offside before he scored the first goal in a 3-1 Mexico defeat. Nicolas Maingot, a Fifa spokesman, said yesterday that replaying the incident was "a clear mistake" which "will not happen again". Maingot said Fifa have not yet received feedback from officials at the match about a mass confrontation between coaches and players behind the Mexico bench as the teams left the field at half time.
British newspapers have savaged England's squad and called on Fabio Capello to quit as coach after the team's elimination by Germany. The Sun summed up the mood, devoting its front page to a banner headline: "You let your country down." The back page of the mass-circulation tabloid read: "Time's up Fab," and printed a photograph of the players alongside the statement: "Go -and take these losers with you!" The Daily Mail exhumed wartime references, mangling a famous speech by Winston Churchill to compare the players' poor performance with the spirit of British fighter pilots during the Second World War. "If The Few had defended as badly as England we'd all be speaking German now," they said.
England's Football Association told Fabio Capello yesterday it will take two weeks to decide whether to retain him as coach.Capello, who has two years left on his contract, said he met with FA board member Dave Richards and told him he "absolutely" wants to stay on despite England's elimination by Germany. "He told me that he needs two weeks to decide," Capello said. "I said I can be for the next season the manager of England."
The game of football was the target of media criticism in the tabloid New York Post. A back-page photograph showed Maurice Edu lying on the ground in exhaustion after the US lost 2-1 to Ghana in extra time, and the headline read: "This sport is stupid anyway".
Some 26.6 million Germans, from a nation of 82 million, watched their team defeat England 4-1, and the nation's newspapers were giddy. "Boys, we love you!" read the front-page headline in Bild. The Berliner Kurier opted for a single-word English headline: "Yes!" - but couldn't resist adding "That was the revenge for Wembley," a reference to Germany's 1966 World Cup-final loss to England in London in which England was credited with a controversial goal. "Now the English know how we felt the whole time," Bild wrote.
Cleaning staff at the luxury hotel where England stayed during the tournament stole uniform shirts, a medal and even underwear from players, police said yesterday. Junior Mersi, a police spokeswoman, said little cash was taken - about £500 (Dh2,700). The thieves instead seemed interested in souvenirs, such as a US shirt an England player received in the customary post-match trade. Metsi said police solved the case within a day, searching the homes of hotel staff. "Everything that was stolen was recovered and [the thieves] are now behind bars," she said. Five hotel workers were convicted in the thefts in a special court on Sunday and sentenced to three years in prison and fined 6,000 rand.
After Mexico saw their streak of exiting in the last 16 extended to five consecutive World Cups, Javier Aguirre, the coach, urged fans to be optimistic. "We have to recover," he said. "There are boys willing to fight for Mexico."
The carnival rolls on in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, but in South Africa's smaller host cities the party is over, the flags are being lowered and even the vuvuzelas have fallen silent. Nelspruit, Polokwane, Rustenburg and Bloemfontein have all played host to their final matches; Pretoria will join them tonight. In Nelspruit, the odd fan can still be seen wandering the streets in search of a big-screen TV, but the crowds are gone. On Sunday, around 300 people gathered in the Fifa Fan Fest to watch Germany beat England, in contrast to the scene two weeks ago, when around 7,000 expectant South Africans packed the same area for the opening match. Still, the World Cup has left an indelible mark. "It's exceeded our expectations," said Greg Cruse, a trader in Nelspruit.
After Mexico saw their streak of exiting in the last 16 extended to five consecutive World Cups, Javier Aguirre, the coach, urged fans to be optimistic. "We have to recover," he said. "There are boys willing to fight for Mexico."
The carnival rolls on in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, but in South Africa's smaller host cities the party is over, the flags are being lowered and even the vuvuzelas have fallen silent. Nelspruit, Polokwane, Rustenburg and Bloemfontein have all played host to their final matches; Pretoria will join them tonight. In Nelspruit, the odd fan can still be seen wandering the streets in search of a big-screen TV, but the crowds are gone. On Sunday, around 300 people gathered in the Fifa Fan Fest to watch Germany beat England, in contrast to the scene two weeks ago, when around 7,000 expectant South Africans packed the same area for the opening match. Still, the World Cup has left an indelible mark. "It's exceeded our expectations," said Greg Cruse, a trader in Nelspruit.
