Web Site of the Month - World Cup Websites

If you can't wait until June 12th, why not kick off with a knockabout on the World Cup web sites? The spread of material celebrating Le Coupe du Monde is worthy of the greatest of goalkeepers and if you want to know why two Norwegian goalies in particular are ruing the day they came to London, look no further than www.wldcup.com.

Here you can read how Spurs have scuppered the World Cup hopes of Grodas and Baardsen by keeping them on the bench in favour of the newly-returned-from-injury Walker. Noone ever said all's fair in football: we need our potential reserve keeper to get as much matchplay as possible. Wldcup.com is full of such global gems and also has an excellent message board and chat area for those who really feel the need to air their views.

Of course, the original (and surprisingly, probably the best) site to visit is the official world cup web site at http://www.france98.com. This is one to bookmark once the tournament is in full swing and you need to calculate who'll be playing who if so and so loses to Paraguay. The site covers every conceivable facet of the greatest sporting event in the world in your choice of English or French, including a detailed history of the event (there used to be far more tickets) up to the minute news, (stop press! There might be some more tickets) and travel and ticket information. (There are no tickets. Do not attempt to enter France).

France98.com is also the home of the 'Official World Cup Song' sung by Youssou N'Dour (he of 'Seven Seconds' and Neneh Cherry fame) which you can hear a snatch of, if you have a very clever PC. There is also an extensive interview with the man himself, who describes in detail the creative process by which one develops a song due to be thoroughly drowned out at the opening ceremony by beery chants of 'It's coming home'.

Apparently N'Dour was aided in his songwriting by Michel Platini who popped into the studio: "He talked to me about music and I picked his brains about football." Perhaps Ginola would fancy popping round to ours to talk to me about hair care? Anyway, useless song notwithstanding, there's no denying that France98.com is a great source of fabulous football facts to amaze and amuse your colleagues. And by the way, did you know that 72 per cent of Italians think that Roberto Baggio should be picked for their World Cup squad?

Of course if you'd like to plan those sickies ahead of time, then the Sky Sports viewing schedule is already available at http://www.sky.co.uk/worldcup/main.htm. Sky also very kindly list the matches available to view on BBC and ITV, as well as the usual round up of news, event groupings and comment. But where oh where is Andy Gray's World Cup bootroom?

Finally, if you can't face copying the URLs from the top of this page, then head straight for www.stargate-uk.co.uk/jd/world-cup-1998.html, a weasel of a World Cup site, really. On the one hand, James Dean Pottery is kind enough to supply links to all the best World Cup sites, including most of those mentioned above; on the other hand, you have to negotiate a large visual of its special France 98 World Cup Matchball football mug (best quality china, a snip at #7.99). Still, it holds half a pint of liquid, so it only remains to be seen if that will be champagne or tears.