As we get closer to the final match between Spain and Holland, the attention of the world shifted to two new unexpected star of the World Cup. Paul the octopus has a track record of 6-0, its predictions on the winners had been spot on so far. Not to be left behind, Mani the parrot suddenly made its appearance in Singapore, predicting Holland to be the next world champion.
Would Paul or Mani eventually prevail?
Although at the early stages of the World Cup teams from South America were the hot favourites to advance to the final, the fight to be the world champion would be between two European teams, its present champion, Spain, and the team which played in World Cup finals before but never wins the championship, Holland.
Judging from earlier performance, the final should be explosive and exciting. while Holland has been scoring many goals, even against the mighty Brazil, the Spanish team had few scary experience in the earlier stage, especially when it lost to Switzerland. However, judging from how Spain was able the overwhelmed Germany in the semi-final would certainly set the expectation that Holland should not feel too confident of winning.
Coming back to Paul and Mani, the focus on their predictions could also reflect the disgust people have on the bookies, football gamblers who could be influencing the outcome of games from behind the scene. Although no serious allegation has been made against them so far, concern voices regarding the invisible hands of bookies tainting outcomes of sports matches is definitely not unheard off.
Perhaps greed has turned people into beings who are too focus on money and wealth and willing to do anything without bothering the consequences. Unfortunately, these sort of people do go around in suits and ties, pretending to be honourable people in the public eyes.
Disgusted with the behaviour of corrupt human beings, it is not a surprise that octopus and parrot like Paul and Mani are seen as more credible! At least they are not pretending that they really know the result. We are they ones who are making the claims!
No comments:
Post a Comment