This Week In World Cup Weirdness- Week One
The World Cup has finished the first week of games and Russia has been giving us plenty of weird stories to look at. Here's some of the strangest that we've seen. The first week of the World Cup games are over and the games have been exciting, passionate and full of some of the strangest scenarios. When you have sports fans from all over the world meeting together in one place, things can get a little strange. Here are some of the strangest stories we've seen in the past week:
We've all heard of a lucky rabbit's foot, or a lucky pair of underwear but a lucky chicken?! This story came out right at the beginning of the World Cup when Nigerian soccer fans allegedly tried taking their lucky chickens into the stadiums to help them cheer on their team, but Russians reportedly told them the chickens had to stay home. Or at least back at their hotels.
We all know Mexican soccer fans can be passionate and rowdy, but after their win against Germany many news outlets reported that a small "earthquake" registered because of all the celebrating fans did in Mexico City. After this report came out though, it has now been debunked. Although there's always the next game they can try and move the richter scale again.
When giving out awards at an event that has teams from all over the world, it might be good to make sure that some of the sponsors won't offend certain religions or customs from different regions. Enter Budweiser who sponsored the "Man of the Match" award. Egyptian goalkeeper Mohamed Elshenawy politely declined the trophy because of the Budweiser logo but luckily he got to keep the title of "Man of the Match," which he definitely earned.
When England played against Tunisia the most irritating about the match for the players wasn't the weather, or sun or even the other team but tiny bugs flying around. The teams were warned about them but the players said it was even worse than they imagined and had to play with them flying into their eyes, nose and even mouths during parts of the game. Hopefully there's some protein in those tiny bugs.
When you think of Russians, a smiling friendly face probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind. I personally think of Putin riding a horse shirtless but that's just me. Many Russians workers who are involved in the World Cup as well as tourist attractions in Russians cities are being taught how to look friendly and to smile to foreigners so they can attract more customers. If people are giving you their money, that's a pretty good reason to smile.
Was A UFO Spotted Over The World Cup?
Hey, maybe even aliens are fans of soccer! There were many strange videos posted online of alleged UFO sightings happening in Russia over Nizhny Novgorod where matches were played. My question is what team are they rooting for?
We heard during the last World Cup about Japanese fans cleaning up the stadium after the game and it looks like they were at it again, even bringing their own trash bags to make sure they could clean the stadium spotless. We can't even get people to clean up after going to the movies here!
Party hosting rule #1: ALWAYS make sure you are fully stocked, especially when the entire world is coming over for the party. Earlier this week there was a story about Moscow running low on beer for World Cup fans because according to one waiter they "didn't think they would only want beer." This is where they should have looked at the demographics and seen what were big sellers in the home stadiums of the teams to see what they sell a lot of and they could have stored accordingly. If this was the US, the craft brews would be flowing for days.