Brunei, a World Cup free country?

On uk.MSN travel, I found this article written by Owen Adams, an MSN Travel Contributor and posted on 24 June 2010. The original article is here.

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World Cup-free countries
BRUNEI

This oil-rich rainforest sultanate on the island of Borneo is not widely regarded as a sporting nation - basketball and rugby union associations were formed only in the past decade and the soccer league drawn up in 2002. Fifa took a dim view of the government disbanding the football association in 2008 and banned the Wasps (the national squad) from playing internationally.

As a result, the World Cup is likely to be shunned by the sultan-controlled TV broadcasters in favour of Brunei's own children's "football carnival". The country will also be preoccupied with preparations for his very wealthy majesty's 64th birthday, on July 15. The main tourist sights in Brunei revolve around the almighty monarchy, including the world's biggest palace, Istana Nurul Iman, and Jerudong Park Playground, a giant amusement park built for the royals.

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What do you Bruneians think of this article?

With a separate RTB channel specialising in broadcasting the World Cup games and not to mention the 4 channels on ASTRO, world cup football is coming out of our ears. I am sure that there are msny housewives out there who wanted to live in this fantasy Brunei written by Owen Adams.

When I was studying in the States, I could not even find travel agents who knew where Brunei was. I am not surprised to see articles like this coming out. At least this guy knew where Brunei was even if he has no idea what soccer fanatics Bruneians are despite being suspended out of FIFA.

Come to think of it, I would like to have his job. Write about things I don't know about, get it completely wrong and have it published on a worldwide website like MSN.com and most importantly get paid for it!

Comments

Anonymous said…
We are not a sporting nation. We may WATCH lots of sport, but DO NOT PLAY sport well. Brunei's performance at international competitions is abysmal.

We are not in FIFA & we were not in the last Olympics because the application was not submitted on time. Disgraceful! I hang my head in shame. We should be ashamed.

The American's comments are factually correct. Swallow this bitter pill Brunei & learn from it.
Anonymous said…
I rated it 'poor'!
Anonymous said…
Come to think about sports in Brunei, just look at the local TV and media. They usually pay very very special attention to sports whenever so so... Some of the sports are not even popular with the general public. So i guess, 'sports' here is not just any sports but also to a large extend who likes and take part in the particular sport.
baz said…
According to FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, we r same as afghanistan at 189th spot, at least we r better than St.Lucia and Guinea Bissau, wherever you are, thank you hehe
Anonymous said…
Brunei is promoting sports but yes have to agree that lots of work to be done to improve its performance.

anyway, almost everyone we know watch the world cup and thanks to Radio Television Brunei its awesome to watch it on High Definition (HD)RTB3 !!
Anonymous said…
France was threatened with sanction by FIFA for interfering with its soccer federation. So Brunei was not an isolated case. In our case however however the Government did interfere. And that is why FIFA had to take that action. It wouldnt have any other choice as had it not taken some action against Burnei, it would have set a very bad precedent for FIFA in ensuring that no Government should ever interfere and politicise football. The Brunei Govt may have a legitimate excuse for interfering in the running of BAFA for possible irregularities by the previous office holders but why do they need to disband BAFA and remove the office holders? indeed if there were some possible irregularities committed by the previous office holders, how come until now no criminal actions were ever taken? that begs some answers!
DB said…
well, not only BAFA yang kana disband tapi banyak lagi association yg kana disband...therefore, government didn't interfere nor ada political interventio, but more of legal intervention...legal by all means (intervensi mengikut undang-undang)...andang udah undang-undang RoS disband persatuan yang inda mengikut peraturan...FIFA banarnya inda paham...
Anonymous said…
Written by an American. What do they know about Brunei? Do they even know about Football? Opps i should said Soccer.
ungkayah said…
This is usual lah sir, they came here for a night or even transit or two, or even mimpi about Brunei, then talk about our country as if they were born here and lived here. SI TAUUUU... boooo. what a shame!
nikki said…
did not realise some one is still living in a cave in the US of A

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