FIFA President Sepp Blatter has hinted that a new scheme may be introduced for World Cup 2006 to encourage more attacking football.
Mr Blatter is concerned that some games become rather lacklustre when a team is winning comfortably by several goals. The current rules actually prompt the team that is leading to coast through the game’s final stages, and the losing side to just give up. This situation obviously […]

Herr Hippo’s crystal ball has revealed that England will play either Portugal or Holland in the quarter-final of this year’s World Cup. He therefore sent his scouts on a mission to uncover the respective weaknesses of the two sides. Their reports follow:
 
Holland
The main weakness of this side is the left full-back position. Giovanni Van Bronckhorst […]

Reet. When I had 8 days inside in Machida Station, Tokyo, Japan, I spent my time wisely and could think of no other thing than World Cup Hippo and the tournament that the site gets its beef from. So, what I did was predict every match using one of my cellmate’s World Cup books as […]

Humans love football, humans compete to survive, all humans need water to survive, water is a component of virtually every drink in the world - it was therefore inevitable that these elements would eventually meld and mutate into… The World Cup Hippo Drinking Game! You know the score, drink a glass of cherryade* every time […]

In addition to Der Spiel, Herr Hippo is setting WCH’s  readership another fun challenge! We are sure that you’re acquainted with the BBC website’s Live Text coverage of football matches. This service explains the game via a sequence of handy nuggets of descriptive information. In addition to providing information on which players have scored and been booked, Live Text also valuably […]

There was predictable criticism of Sven Goran Eriksson’s inclusion of Owen Hargreaves in his squad. Hargreaves is the player England fans most love to criticise – when England perform inadequately Hargreaves is singled out as an example of England’s lack of purpose and dynamism. This is unfair and inappropriate.
Hargreaves was a Champions League winner with Bayern […]

Below is a possible USA XI as selected by Herr Hippo. Is this the team that Bruce Arena should pick for the USA’s first fixture against the Czech Republic?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

WCH’s Fantasy Football has now been launched! Der Spiel is a unique fantasy football experience. Simply select the nations that you think will be the high performers at this year’s World Cup - then organise them into a transnational über-team. First prize is an amazing Nicky Butt jigsaw! Click on the following link to register […]

A groundbreaking new initiative is set to be implemented by the FA which will improve both football and the broader community. The scheme has been devised by the Government’s Department for Work and Pensions in conjunction with university eggheads. The intellectual architect of the programme, Dr Hilary Lindsay (Clinical Sociologist at the University of Middlesex) […]