World Cup Warm-up Week: The Montenegran Question

Now that it is offically World Cup Warm-up Week at Gen X 40 HQ (meaning the Morris dancers have come and gone) it is time to roll out the new logo and start analyzing what is what...and can you believe I whipped up that logo in under three hours? [Let me just say the intenet is a fantastic! resource.] But, to the news, there is a story today of a potential crisis of sneakiness, the likes of which the fitba world has never seen - but which (of course) the MSM is paying no attention to. None. Consider this:

Montenegro's parliament declared independence from Serbia for the tiny Balkan republic Saturday, forming Europe's newest country and dissolving the last vestiges of the former Yugoslavia. The assembly adopted a declaration of independence, verifying the results of a May 21 referendum in which Montenegrins supported a split from Serbia by a slim margin. The document envisages Montenegro as a "multiethnic, multicultural and multireligious society ... based on the rule of law and market economy."

All very fine and good. Yet if one has a look at Group C in the first round of play, it is clear that one vestige is hanging about...

Now, independence is all very well and good but what does this mean for next Sunday's opening game again the officially adopted team of GX40, The Netherlands. Will there now be three teams playing? Does this mean Holland will face a team of 22 players? Will Alan be able to fit into his Dutch jersey or will he look like some sort of Orange Crush flavoured sausage for the next five weeks? We deserve answers.

Comments

Arthur - June 4, 2006 10:26 am

Wasn't there a precedent, a case not unlike this one, where the country was automatically disqualified?

Arthur - June 4, 2006 10:31 am

(I was actually thinking of Yugoslavia (international santions), Sweden 1992)

alfons - June 4, 2006 2:07 pm

http://hoogervorst.dyndns.org/~alfons/wordpress

Well, for one I'm not really optimistic about the Dutch team. The only name which stands out is the name of the coach.
But we'll see...

Brother Iain - June 5, 2006 1:39 am

I believe the rulebook states that the Serbs and Montenegrins CAN continue to play on the same team. However, if they attempt to pass the ball to one another, they will always be offside.

Hans - June 5, 2006 9:15 am

Surely one of the reasons for the Montenegrin independence initiative was that ethnic Serbs had rigged the national soccer program effectively shutting out the aspirations of generations of Montenegrin footballers.

ALan - June 5, 2006 9:40 am

Ah, the Summerside question arises in the Balkans.

Hans - June 5, 2006 9:35 pm

Always drawing the PEI parallel, eh? You know, there's a big world out there beyond the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Alan - June 5, 2006 9:40 pm

I thought all you all were too insular to be xenophobic. Do you know for sure that there is a big world out there?

Hans - June 6, 2006 10:57 am

I've heard there is. Some people down the road had a son that went away once. He was different after that. He came back to visit once in awhwile, si it was assumed that he actually lived away too most of the time. Weird.