So are England world champions now? No!

After England beat Spain 1-0, they could lay claim to being world champions. Well they could if Spain hadn't already lost since the world cup final to Argentina.

The unofficial world champion works in the same way as boxing match, in that the winner takes the title.  Its surprising how many times though the title has changed hands in the World Cup Final.  Also maybe its the only chance Scotland have of being "World Champions" holding the title 86 times!

For the record, Argentina then went and lost to Japan who are the reigning unofficial champions

1966 World Cup Final - England vs West Germany

1966 World Cup Final - England vs West Germany ITV Style

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pDOwqLx1Jo

The Doggy World Cup Final

USA vs England in the Doggy World Cup Final. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLlQbesE9VE

First set of Round of 16 appointments

FIFA have announced the first set of officials for the round of 16 games this weekend.  I seem to be struggling to find the full refereeing teams on the FIFA site at the moment, however these are with thanks to DutchReferee

Match 49: Uruguay – Korea with Wolfgang Stark.
Match 50: USA – Ghana with Viktor Kassai.
Match 51: Germany – England with Jorge Larrionda.
Match 52: Argentina – Mexico with Roberto Rosetti

The person with the potential to be the scapegoat come Sunday evening is Jorge Larrionda who has the pleasure of Germany vs England.  He has so far officiated 3 games at the tournament.Ivory Coast vs Portugal, Cameroon vs Denmark, Serbia vs Australia.

World Cup Referee's Profiles

With a sense of perfect timing, I yesterday got hom to find this months FIFA magazine through the letter box.  Flicking through it I noticed they have a focus on the World Cup Officials (Jump to Page 150)  Each Referee is profiled.   Some good profiles and better than the ones on the FIFA site itself.

The magazine is free to dowload each month and you can request the magazine to be sent to your home address for free.