Paranoid FIFA probe Press hotel booking
THE English Press continue to worry FIFA, who wanted to know why a party of journalists were staying in the same hotel as the Belgium team in Kaliningrad.
FIFA’s travel organisers asked the FA why the booking had been made and told English football’s ruling body to remind journalists not to upset the Belgians. The organisers claimed there were 90 English reporters in the hotel when it was around half that number.
The FA told FIFA that the journalists would not cause the Belgians any fuss and it later transpired that the Press booking was made by sports tour operator BAC a long time before Belgium were allocated their hotel.
Never mind journalists, hordes of Belgium fans disturbed the squad’s match-day walk around Kaliningrad’s beautiful Verkhneye lake and the outing had to be aborted after five minutes due to the players being mobbed.
And despite claims that some of the Belgium team didn’t want the English media in there, the players showed no sign of being concerned when in the public areas of the heavily guarded hotel.
FIFA’s paranoia since the fall of Sepp Blatter extends to briefing the legends involved in the World Cup draw in Moscow last December that the dreaded English media, whom they claimed hated FIFA, were waiting to talk to them.
IT SEEMED England had missed out on their own lakeside stroll on the morning of the match after being allocated another hotel which isn’t on the waterfront. But it transpires that manager Gareth Southgate has scrapped the match-day walk that Roy Hodgson (above) always tried to make part of the routine for his England team. Southgate prefers his players to head to the training ground to go through the set pieces that are so important to his game plan.
WHEN it comes down to the inevitable penalty kicks in the knockout stages, manager Gareth Southgate looks to be better prepared than any previous England manager.
Back in May, when Southgate was giving the FA board an update on his blueprint for Russia, he could already tell them what members of his likely squad had the best psychological profile for taking spot kicks.
IT’S not just the English who delighted in serial champions Germany not qualifying for the knockout stages of the World Cup. Judging by Eden Hazard’s animated conversation with his family in the hotel foyer about Germany’s exit, the Belgians enjoyed it, too.