This is a momentous event. It would have been more momentous, of course, if the U.S. had gone on to win the championship — and not in a good way. A U.S. World Cup championship would have posed a far more ominous threat to national security than a dozen al-Qaidas. A British journalist friend of mine warned me before the Germany match: “Personally I wish the U.S. well too — though as a friend I feel obliged to tell you what I’m sure you already know, that if USA wins outright it will mean Americans can’t travel safely anywhere except possibly London and Dublin.” For fans in Buenos Aires and Paris and Berlin and Sao Paulo, already chafing under a Sisyphean load of Britney CDs and Rumsfeld declarations in the Pax Americana, the prospect of the Big Bully triumphing in a sport it doesn’t even give a damn about would be intolerable. The untrammelled rage of 2 billion nationalistic, testosterone-spewing males, directed at Uncle Sam? Osama bin Laden is a kindly, retired Sunday school teacher by comparison.

But we didn’t win, and by the time we do, the rest of the world will have had time to get used to the idea. The way we carry ourselves, the way we understand what just happened here, matters, too. If we are wise, we will greet our ascension as serious competitors onto the biggest sports stage in the world not with chest-thumping patriotism but with a kind of joyous humility. The significance of the U.S. team’s remarkable achievement — we played the mighty Germans straight up, a finer performance than we gave in any of our victories — isn’t that “We’re No. 1!” or even “We’re No. 6!” The rest of the world has had far too much of that boasting, and it must be growing old for even the most rabid flag-waver. No, it’s about finally joining the global brotherhood of athletes on equal terms — no better, no worse.

The beauty of the World Cup is that theoretically — and, to a greater degree than in any other sport, also in practice — any country, no matter how tiny, impoverished or geopolitically insignificant, can beat any other country. China may have more people, the U.S. may have more money, Brazil may have the proudest tradition — no matter. Little Cameroon can smoke ‘em all. (This year, Senegal could take the prize.) Uruguay, best known for being the place where the German pocket battleship Graf Spee was cornered and sunk in World War II, has won two World Cups, for God’s sake. Forget your GNP — all that matters is what your 11 ordinary-sized men can do with a ball on a field against my 11 ordinary-sized men. The line starts over there — Tunisia and Italy and Russia and Ireland and Israel and Morocco and Jamaica and Turkey and Japan and Kazakhstan. And America, too. No cutting in.

There is something satisfying and oddly species-affirming in watching the athletes of the world all playing the same game. That’s one of the joys of the Olympics, and it’s one of the joys of the World Cup. Soccer is the simplest game in the world: It involves extraordinary skill in controlling, dribbling and passing the ball, but there’s one thing that holds it together, the most basic thing in all of sports: running. Soccer is the running game. You run fast, then you run all-out, then you lope, then you stride, then you run fast, then you trot, and you do this for 90 minutes, and not once is a run ever exactly like any other run.

So when Landon Donovan breaks out, streaking down the left sideline, it’s all the runners in America going against all the runners in the world, it’s Jerry Rice running a slant against a 170-pound cornerback from Belgium and Rickey Henderson taking off for third against a guy from South Africa.

And it’s your kids against our kids, your long summer afternoons against ours. In the rest of the world, soccer is what you do — period. I’ve watched guys playing soccer on the beach in Jamaica, Brazil, Indonesia, Italy, England, Mexico, with the speed and Gale Sayers moves and Dr. J virtuosity you see in a hot game of city hoops or a serious pickup football game. It’s the global yardstick of athleticism. In the U.S. we play different sports — which makes measuring ourselves against the world’s standard even more satisfying.

One of these days, we’re going to win the World Cup. When that day arrives, the rest of the world will no doubt be outraged. Too bad. We will have paid our dues. We will have earned the right to hold that trophy aloft and exult like everyone else. And as our athletes hold that trophy up, if we have learned anything from the World Cup we will celebrate not our God-given superiority as Americans who have now extended our sports hegemony into the last enemy redoubt, but something very different: our ordinariness. We will celebrate the way the sport cut us down to size. We will celebrate the way it took away our advantages — our money, our facilities, our college gladiator-training factories — leaving us face to face with our competitors. We will celebrate the sheer dazzling equality of this sport, and our membership in the community of nations, and our humanity.

And somewhere inside we will remember where it all started and all it will ever mean: a boy running along a beach, kicking a ball forward, running on ahead, kicking a ball, until he vanishes out of sight.

Thanks for letting us play, world. We’ll see you in four years.

“I think they should come out with a strong statement and not just wash it away and hide behind it with some wishy-washy comments,” Lavrikovs told The Associated Press. “We are talking about a very basic human right that is being violated.”

Blatter, speaking in South Africa on Monday at the launch of a post-2010 World Cup legacy project, was asked if he could foresee any cultural problems with the tournament being held in Qatar.

“I’d say they (gay fans) should refrain from any sexual activities,” he said, smiling.

Lavrikovs noted the situation “is not a joke.”

“This is a matter of life and death to people,” Lavrikovs said. “Qatar and more than 70 other countries in the world still criminalize individuals for homosexual relationships, and some countries even punish them by death sentence.

“It’s disappointing to see that an organization that is promoting the game, which in its statutes condemns discrimination of any kind, is coming out with comments like this.”

Qatar beat Australia, Japan, South Korea and the United States in the FIFA vote on Dec. 2.

Since FIFA made what is widely regarded as a surprise decision, concerns have been raised about Qatar’s hosting such a major tournament while it has stringent laws that are seen by many to violate basic human rights.

“Sepp Blatter jokes about the risk to gay visitors in 2022, but Qatar’s anti-gay policies are no laughing matter,” British human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said.

Also condemning Blatter was John Amaechi, a former NBA player from Britain who revealed in 2007 that he was gay.

“The statements and the position adopted by Sepp Blatter and FIFA regarding LGBT (Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender) fans who would pay the enormous ticket and travel prices to attend the World Cup in 2022 should have been wholly unacceptable a decade ago,” Amaechi said on his website.

“Instead, with little more than an afterthought, FIFA has endorsed the marginalization of LGBT people around the world,” he added.

Amaechi also demanded an apology from FIFA and urged other associations to distance themselves from Blatter’s comments.

“Anything less than a full reversal of his position is unacceptable,” he said.

The worst part is, not only was America snubbed, but terrorists won. The 2022 World Cup will be held in Qatar, a tiny Persian Gulf state. Behold the wrath of Mike Allen:

TOP STORY – “Russia and Qatar take World Cup to new lands” – Reuters/Zurich: “FIFA gave its ultimate recognition to emerging markets on Thursday by awarding the 2018 and 2022 editions of the prestigious and lucrative World Cup soccer finals to Russia and Qatar, both new hosts. Russia won the right to put on the 2018 World Cup, the first time it will have been staged in Eastern Europe after 10 editions in the western half of the continent. Qatar, which has never qualified for the World Cup finals, will stage the 2022 tournament, a first both for the Middle East and for an Arab country. It will also be the smallest nation ever to host the World Cup.” http://reut.rs/hz0k7t

–The U.S. inexplicably lost to Qatar, which is two-faced in the war on terror and full of radical sympathizers. A Ben Smith reader points out a WikiCable “in which Mossad chief Meir Dagan briefed Bush homeland security aide Frances Fragos Townsend: Dagan characterized Qatar as ‘a real problem.’” http://politi.co/f0kcmq

–International Herald Tribune p. 1: “FIFA tilts soccer’s future toward the East.”

–Brits push for FIFA reform – BBC: “England 2018 bid chief executive Andy Anson has warned his country against bidding for the World Cup again until Fifa reforms its voting process.” http://bit.ly/gyKAhC

PLAYBOOK FACTS OF LIFE: These obviously absurd choices are the product of a corrupt process that includes no accountability. These organizations (FIFA, IOC, etc.) are Eurocentric, if not blatantly anti-American. As a wise young friend e-mails, “These bids are like a modern day ‘Concert of Europe.’ And we certainly aren’t Prince Metternich, despite what we may think.”

Lots of people consider Qatar a poor choice for the World Cup, but not because it’s not America. Or because they are secretly pro-terrorist! Or because Mossad said something bad about them in a secret cable! It’s considered a poor choice because it is a tiny nation with no soccer team of its own. Also it’s a desert with high summer temperatures and they pump absurd amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. And it’s full of foreign-born indentured servants with very few rights. And you’re not allowed to drink booze in public. But “being two-faced in the War on Terror” is pretty far down the list of reasons why this might be a bad idea.

Also, FIFA is a Zurich-based international organization, so calling it “anti-American” is pretty much a non sequitur. As for “Eurocentric,” much of Europe is very disappointed in FIFA for awarding a World Cup to Qatar. (Qatar is not in Europe.) And Russia, despite its own problems, is not an “obviously absurd choice,” because it’s a massive world power that loves soccer. Also, your “wise young friend” sounds insufferable.

The other nations bidding for 2022 were the U.S., Australia, Japan or South Korea. All would’ve been fine choices, though the fact that Japan and South Korea co-hosted it in 2002 probably disqualified them, and the U.S., unlike the rest of those nations, is not a country that cares about soccer. So if Mike Allen could put aside the jingoism and Islamophobia for a moment, he would perhaps see that he should really be outraged on behalf of Australia, which has never hosted a World Cup and which put together what was, by most accounts, a pretty good bid.

[Via Peter Feld]

The invertebrate was stepping “back from the official oracle business,” Tanja Munzig, a spokeswoman for the Sea Life aquarium in Oberhausen, told AP Television News at the time.

“He won’t give any more oracle predictions — either in football, nor in politics, lifestyle or economy,” she said. “Paul will get back to his former job, namely making children laugh.”

Paul correctly predicted the outcomes of all seven of Germany’s World Cup games. He made his predictions by opening the lid of one of two clear plastic boxes, each containing a mussel and bearing a team flag.

After his World Cup soothsaying skills were revealed, the English-born Paul was appointed an ambassador to England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup. He had English roots, having been hatched at Weymouth Sea Life Center on England’s south coast in 2008.

Imitators sprang up all over the world, including Mani the Parakeet in Singapore and Lorenzo the Parrot in Hannover, Germany.

The latest was a saltwater crocodile named Dirty Harry, who predicted Spain’s World Cup final win and called the result of Australia’s general election by snatching a chicken carcass dangling beneath a caricature of Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Paul became so popular in Spain that a northwestern Spanish town tried to borrow him.

In response to hundreds of requests to bring Paul to Spain, the Madrid Zoo asked Sea Life if it would be willing to make a deal to bring him in as a tribute to the Spanish team’s victory, either temporarily or for good. But the German aquarium turned down that offer, too.

Paul also had an agent and his name was used to help endangered turtles on the Greek island of Zakynthos.

——

David Rising in Berlin contributed to this report.

The soccer world governing body’s ethics committee also will investigate whether two countries bidding for either the 2018 and 2022 World Cups engaged in collusion.

“Today is a sad day for football and for FIFA,” Sulser said.

FIFA’s ruling executive will select the two World Cup hosts in a Dec. 2 secret ballot in Zurich. The 2018 tournament bidders are England, Russia and joint bids by Belgium-Holland and Spain-Portugal.

FIFA launched investigations after British newspaper The Sunday Times alleged Adamu and Temarii offered to sell their votes for funding toward soccer projects.

Amadu was filmed requesting $800,000 to build four artificial soccer fields in Nigeria, and for the money to be paid to him directly.

“The decision to provisionally suspend these officials is fully justified and should not be put in question,” Sulser said. “The evidence that has been presented to us today has led us to take this provisional measure, as we considered that the conditions were definitely met to take this decision and we deem that it is crucial to protect the integrity of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup bidding process.

“We are determined to have zero tolerance for any breach of the code of ethics.”

Countries bidding for the 2022 hosting rights are the United States and four Asian confederation countries, Australia, Japan, Qatar and South Korea.

FIFA barred bidders from making agreements with other candidates, and insisted they must act with “integrity, responsibility, trustworthiness and fairness.” FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke issued a reminder of the rules last month after rumors of vote-swapping deals being struck.

The Sunday Times allegations kicked off a dramatic week as FIFA seeks to maintain the integrity of the bid process.

Temarii, the Oceania Football Confederation president, met FIFA president Sepp Blatter on Sunday and asked to clear his name before the ethics committee.

The 43-year-old former professional player was filmed asking for $2.3 million to fund a soccer academy in Auckland, New Zealand.

“I’m confident about my integrity, but I made a mistake by talking in that way,” Temarii told The Associated Press on Sunday.

The newspaper also quoted Temarii saying backers of two other unidentified bidders offered $10 million to $12 million to Oceania.

FIFA does not have power to fire members of the 24-strong executive because they are elected by their continental bodies.

However, its code of ethics for officials says those who “severely fail to fulfill, or inadequately exercise, their duties and responsibilities, particularly in financial matters, are no longer eligible and shall be removed from office.”

Adamu’s four-year term ends at the Confederation of African Football’s congress on Feb. 23 in Khartoum, Sudan. The 57-year-old former physical education teacher joined FIFA’s executive in 2006, succeeding Ismail Bhamjee from Botswana, who resigned after a ticket scalping scandal at the World Cup in Germany.

Temarii, who has led 11-nation Oceania since 2004, is scheduled for re-election at a Jan. 21-23 congress on his home island.