Bangkok votes and the week’s headlines from London to Lisbon

Um, but there is that lovely article in The Observer today, which is talking, uh, the British paper, talking about how actually people have won the, um, the World Cup.

Yossi, you, you've been following it closely.

Tara, I don't know if you've been staying up till two o'clock or whether you've just been limbering up for your swim with ninety-year-olds.

Um, but that thought that, um, actually, no matter what FIFA has been doing to try and celeb- you know, make everything all about celebrity and indulgence and glamour, glamour, glamour, glamour, the best bit has actually been on the pitch, where teams that never would have thought in a million years that they'd get to go and play in America, hello Cape Verde, um, are just suddenly having the times of their lives, and out in the streets, everybody is finding it super, super fun.

And you can tell when you watch it, can't you?

Well, I, I've been really loving the Norwegian rowing that, that has been-

[laughs]

Uh, they took over all of Times Square, where they sat down and did the row, uh, which is a reminiscence to their Viking heritage.

And they did the rowing motion and the, the, the sort of chant in Parliament too.

It seems to have taken over, and it's spreading.

And so, uh, the, the joy and the enthusiasm of the fans, unlikely fans, I mean, Norway's not a big football coun- country, and, and Cape Verde, and even the Iranians who left charming notes in their, in their changing rooms, uh, for love and peace when they played, uh, in Los Angeles recently.

So the reaching out to non-football people and just fans of good behavior everywhere and friendship everywhere has been wonderful to watch.

A football obsessive, Yo-Yossi, would you agree that this is actually a, a really fun tournament?

So in my kind of football-following life, I have also two separate lives.

The normal life is, as you know, going to Loftus Road as a season ticket holder, watching Championship, and when a championship, those who don't live in the UK, meaning second-tier football in, in, in England, and which is a-

There are excellent pies, though, at Loftus Road.

That is very much worth-- It's actually worth going for the, for the food.

And, and, and, and the wonderful Middle Eastern restaurants outside and, and just in the Shepherd's Bush.

And it's a very s- s-

The traditional post-match falafel.

It's e- even more than that, but also, you know, a lot of g- of, of great food.

But, you know, to, to be honest, it's completely different.

This is very glamorous, and there are always all the celebrity.

It brings people that usually don't watch football day in, day out into something, and they, they, they find something in a world that is so diver- people don't necessarily find things in common.

This brings them.