At the opening ceremony of Euro 2020 in Rome, Andrea Bocelli sang the popular anthem “no-one can get any sleep…”

Never a truer word was sung, especially from Australia, where the matches start at either 11pm, 2am or 5am.

But I am sorry, Andrea, Luciano Pavarotti is the king of Big Canto, as you can hear in the first few minutes of this summary of World Cup 1990:

There was so much to remember from 1990, as well as Salvatore, super sub Roger Milla from the Lions of Cameroon, St Jack Charlton, patron saint and coach of the Republic of Ireland, some final fireworks from Maradona etc, etc

In 2021, the summit of the “Group of Seven”, plus India, South Korea and Australia is being held in Carbis Bay in Cornwall.

This is 50 miles from Port Isaac, where the TV show Doc Martin was filmed.

Maybe Boris Johnson likes Cornwall because he feels a connection with Doc Martin?

Victory Day parade in Moscow, 9th May 2021

Maybe a desirable by-product of the Israel Folau debate will be fewer sponsors for games.

I once saw a baseball game in Yankee stadium and it was a great experience. I was surprised how little advertising was on the jerseys of the players compared to here (see photos below for a footballing comparison)
Someone told me a reason was conflicts between sponsors of the stadium, teams and individual players. In any case it made the whole game more picturesque.

Incidentally, many of the sponsors names on jerseys here represent some of the other reasons in Galatians and other places in the Bible for going to hell. I haven’t seen the names of many alcohol, gambling and usuary institutions written on the shirts of Italian football players. They tend to be manufacturers of things like mineral water, cars, or milk.

Are we becoming the addicts’ country, not the lucky country?