The World Cup and Dundee United – http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2010/06/25/the-world-cup-and-dundee-united/

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2010/06/19/one-week-into-the-world-cup-of-nonsense/

Very sad news with the death of Sebastian Horsley who’s Dandy in the Underworld is one of the best memoirs I’ve ever read. Here’s some footage of Horsley charming an initially cynical Irish panel show.

Unusually exotic news from the Scottish Parliament where Labour MSP Frank McAveety has had to resign from a committee after a microphone picked up his comments on a female member of the audience. Amongst the highlights of McAveety’s learned appraisal of the woman was that “she’s got that Filipino look” and that she was “the kind you’d see in a Gauguin painting. There’s a wee bit of culture.”

You can hear his comments here along with the po-faced BBC Scotland coverage

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2010/06/15/super-ally-stars-as-america-celebrates/

The link between Super Ally McCoist and Sheena Easton – Revealed.

A 79-year-old man has sadly died after an incident at Edinburgh’s Scorpio Leisure as reports the city’s Evening News newspaper. Scorpio Leisure may sound a innocent enough title but as the paper makes clear, there’s very little sports equipment on the premises and anything that falls under that category may not be used purely the purpose intended. It’s sad news for the family but you have to admire the old boy’s ambition. As exits go, there have to be worse options.

New post on the Indy blog – Tony Hayward and Clint Dempsey

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/author/neilforsyth/

Fascinating article from the New York Times showing the evolution of the official World Cup balls. The first synthetic ball came in for Mexico 86, no wonder Terry Butcher was able to score this innocuous own goal. Incidentally I just found that on Youtube and presume it’s from Irish TV, but that has to be the worst English language commentatory recorded on the best goal ever scored. A faint cry of “different class” as he skips by Peter Reid seventeen times hardly does justice to the footage.

Through this link

The one thing that should never, ever be underestimated in football is the importance of loyalty. It’s a quality that many in the game like to talk about but very few show any genuine adherence to it in their subsequent actions. I, however, like to think that my own life has shown a dedication to loyalty that is virtually unsurpassed. On that front, I hereby announce that for the duration of the World Cup all football posts on this site (my own site) will be migrating to The Independent. There will be plenty of weak gags popping up here on other topics but I have agreed a short-term Bosman with Britain’s finest newspaper. All blog postings to the Indy site will be linked from here so make sure you keep returning in your, em, droves.

The Independent, it should be noted, is the only club I ever wanted to play for. If you cut me open, I’d bleed Independent…..