Politics at the World Cup

Watching the Ghana-Czech Republic match on Saturday we were all a little perplexed when one of the Ghanaian players pulled out an Israeli flag at the end. Was he taking a stand against the fact that Israel is considered Europe for FIFA purposes? Is he an Ghanaian Jew? Has the Zionist Occupation Government expanded its reach to football?

Marty-loo was on the case and has just sent me this article. It seems John Pantsil plays for Hapoel Tel Aviv and was just thanking his Israeli fans who were there to support him. How nice. No big deal right? Well, the Ghanaian Football Association doesn't seem to think so. They have issued an apology saying that he didn't mean to take sides in the Palestinian-Israeli dispute and that he is "naive" and "unaware of international politics". Because not hating Israel is a political statement that Ghana does not feel comfortable making (why couldn't Ghana have been in Iran's group?).

While we're on the topic of being naive when it comes to international affairs, is it really appropriate to apologise for displaying the Israeli flag when playing in Germany? "We apologise for seeming to be pro-Israel, we understand you have had some problems with the Jews in the past."

Update: It seems that the Zionist Occupation Government has reached the World Cup. There was outrage in Egypt about Pantsil's display of the flag. The Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram knows that there is more to the flag display than mere gratitude to Israeli fans:

“The real reason,” sports analyst Hassan el-Mestekawi wrote, stems from the fact that many Ghanaian players go through football training camps set up by an Israeli coach who “discovered the treasure of African talent, and abused the poverty of the continent’s children” with the ultimate goal of selling them off to European clubs.

“The training program for these children starts every morning with a salute to the Israeli flag,” Mestekawi claimed.

And then the Israelis connived their way in to the European Zone so that they would never make it to the World Cup. Those Zionists sure are devious!