The World Cup (postscript)....

Biggest winners of the World Cup (besides Italy, obviously):

• The German people for an efficient and smoothly-run finals - Wunderbar!
• The German team - nobody (including me) gave them much of a chance. Coming 3rd was a great achievement...
• The bookies - since posting this entry, London-based bookmakers William Hill announced profits of £17.5 million generated from punters betting on the tournament...
• Ghana - just for making the next round...
• Ivory Coast & Argentina - these teams caught the imagination and their brilliant attacking football was a joy to behold (which made Argentina's exit against Germany and the subsequent fracas between both teams all the sadder)...
• The fans...
• The BBC - 20 million viewed the World Cup final on the Beeb.
• Flatscreen TV - Strong demand for flat screen TVs has helped to lift sales at catalogue-based retailer Argos, its owner GUS has said. Like-for-like sales at Argos rose 7% in the four months to June as football mad shoppers snapped up new TVs for the World Cup (this all changed after England were knocked out, though)...

Biggest losers:

• Footballers with big "reputations" - a few "superstars" left the World Cup looking less than super (ie: Ronaldinho, most of the England team).
• Ah yes, England - what happened to our "Golden generation"? Instead we saw boring football; Rooney getting sent off (regardless if it was an accident or deliberate, his actions were reckless); struggling against teams they were expected to cruise past; inept tactics (Theo Walcott had a great holiday, though) and inept defending (remember how Sweden scored).
• The WAGs - nothing but hype and spin...
• The card-happy referees.
• Cristiano Ronaldo - while some of the press has been over the top, he's done himself no favours and his actions throughout the World Cup were embarrassing.
• Zinadine Zidane - the man is a football genius. Which is why his banishment in the World Cup final for head-butting Materazzi was so shocking. If only he retired in a blaze of glory instead....
• The lip-reading experts, who gave many different versions of Materazzi's jibe which so incensed Zidane into the infamous head-butt. So far we've been told that the insult was based on Zidane's wife, mother, sister, family, race, Islam, terrorism, and sexual preference.
• ITV - only 3.5 million watched the World Cup final on ITV...
• Jose Pekerman, ex-manager of Argentina whose tactics were held responsible for the South Americans' defeat against Germany...
• Football - for the diving and cheating...