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!
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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
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.
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 !!