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Kicking Off

Kicking off to Korea
Kick off to Korea

The Ball leaves England – the start of its epic journey to Korea & Japan.

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Written by on Friday, March 29th, 2002

6 comments on this post

  1. So, lads , it’s by plane to Tashkent.Seeing that you are in Amsterdam today and you have to meet Richard on the 11th April, how are you going to spend the intervening time?

  2. the Tour Guide is correct… not only have we got to fly to Uzbekistan – or else descend into visa uncertainty – but I think we may have incurred our first offside for being, er, distracted here in the Dam.

    We’re going to Berlin a day late as a result, but I think the Ref must surely stop short of showing the yellow card for such a minor time-infraction… at such an early stage in the game.

    Intervening time to be spent in Moscow back on visa training – if we get three Kazakh and one Uzbek, it must surely be a goal to us.

  3. Tradition has it that time is wasted at the end of the game, not straight after the kick off. See you by the corner flag.

  4. Please provide more information about the distraction so that we can accurately asess the penalty situation.

  5. I think that a penalty should certainly have been awarded for the infraction, but since we have now regained time in Berlin, and are still on course for Moscow, perhaps it’s 1-1?

    Though it’s more like 2-1 to Time if we include the change of plans from Moscow to Tashkent.

  6. I’ve been thinking about this flying thing, and the ‘purity’ of the journey, and have now come to the conclusion that if FIFA can bend the rules of football to include a 90 second advert, oops, ‘water’ break in the middle of each half, then we’re surely allowed to bend the rules of our trip just this once… if we didn’t, then there would be no trip from here on – the Uzbek, Kazakh and Kyrgyz visas would need the application of several hundred dollars to the right hands, and even then it would be touch and go.

    So better to have a journey (and better to have hydrated footballers) and overlook the infraction than worry about the compromise.

    But still, I do wonder just how much those ad breaks are going to cost…

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The Ball 2018 left England on 25th March 2018 and travelled to the World Cup in Russia.

The Ball 2014 kicked off from England on 9th Jan 2014 and headed to the World Cup in Brazil.

The Ball 2010 left England on 24th Jan 2010 headed to the Opening Ceremony in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The Ball 2006 travelled from London to the Opening Ceremony in Munich, Germany.

The Ball 2002 was carried 7000 miles across Europe and Asia to the World Cup finals in Korea & Japan.