Roll up, roll up for football’s greatest circus

TO begin with, a handy cut-out-and-keep guide to the 2010 World Cup, a life-saver for those who will not be able to devote their every waking hour to football for the next four weeks.

So here’s all that you really need to know. The tournament kicks off today, June 11, when South Africa and Mexico set the ball rolling in Johannesburg. And the tournament finishes on Sunday, July 11 when Brazil face Spain in the final, the perfect footballing and symbolic conclusion as the old world meets the new world for the first ever World Cup final on the continent of Africa. See you all in Rio in four years’ time!

Or so the bookies, most of the pundits and the partisans of Sao Paulo and Madrid would have us believe. And they might well be right. Certainly, any dispassionate analysis of the runners and riders in South Africa suggests that the five-time World Cup winners and the reigning European champions are the ones to beat.