The football press never won a World Cup

273 days left until the kick-off in South Africa and 11 teams have already qualified for the World Cup: Australia, Brazil, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Ghana, Netherlands, England, Spain, Paraguay and of course the host squad. On the other hand, some of the other big national teams such as France, Portugal, Argentina or Germany haven’t got their tickets yet – something which won’t ruin the whole scenario that WC offers every 4 years.

Back to the qualified teams, we have Brazil, England and Spain, which have had great performances in the last months – e.g. Seleçao‘s victory over Argentina in Rosario or the eight wins out of eight matches for both European teams in their respective groups.

Are those the big achievements they need to be considered favourites in the tournament?

I don’t think so, but reading Harry Redknapp‘s think piece in today’s The Sun entitled “Now we’ll win the World Cup” it seems he doesn’t agree with me.