Q&A with David Beckham
World Cup Countdown - Mexico
Mexico Squad
This Week In Football's Past
Where Are They Now? Jeff Astle
'Interesting' World Cup
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'Interesting' World Cup
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 Features 6 
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INTERESTING...VERY INTERESTING!
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Fascinating(ish) Facts About the France 98 Finalists
GROUP A
MOROCCO
1) Leading up to the World Cup, Morocco played a friendly with Angola which was attended by around 80,000 people. Spectators were let in free because the game took place during the holy festival of Ramadan.
2) The green Silayman star on the Moroccan flag was put there during French protection in 1912 to distinguish it from all the other plain red flags in existence.
3) Morocco is not a country for squeamish vegetarians. The greatest honour any Moroccan household can render to a guest is the sacrifice of a lamb or chicken for a main meal.
BRAZIL
1) Brazil is the biggest country in South America and has a border with every nation except Chile and Ecuador.
2) Brazilian restaurants are dirt cheap. In many of them, you simply pile the food on your plate from a buffet. Then it's weighed and you are charged by the kilo.
4) The average Brazilian male is only expected to live for 56.7 years, nearly 20 years less than his European counterpart.
NORWAY
1) Norwegians Vikings were the last group of people to successfully invade England, nowadays they content themselves with invading the Premiership. There are so many Norwegian players in England that they held one of their World Cup warm-up sessions in Blackburn!
2) A popular winter sport in Norway is Bandy. It is only played in a few countries around the world and consists of several men running around on ice trying to hit a ball, with a stick or their feet, into a goal. The sport originated in England and is named after the Welsh word for ''curved stick''.
3) Norway ended Brazil's 27-game unbeaten run in 1996. They won 4-2 in Oslo the world champions' first loss in two years.
SCOTLAND
1) Alex Ferguson was caretaker manager following Jock Stein's death and led Scotland in the 1986 World Cup before taking over at Manchester United.
2) Scotland have qualified for the World Cup eight times - a huge achievement for such a small country. However, the team has never progressed beyond the group stages, largely because of defeats by other minnows such as Peru and Costa Rica.
3) Scotland's forests and woods cover 1.2m hectares, which is more than half of Britain's total woodland.
GROUP B
ITALY
1) Italian women live to an average age of 81.5 - nearly eight years longer than their male counterparts.
2) The Italians introduced ''the libero'' into world football. The sweeper or ''free man'' has become an important figure in many tournament-winning sides.
3) Newcastle striker Ian Rush said of his time with Italian giants Juventus: ''It was like playing in a foreign country.''
CHILE
1) Chile has 16m inhabitants, but is set for a population explosion - the birth rate is three times higher than the death rate.
2) The country is definitely suited to the long-ball game. It is 2700 miles long, but only 150 miles wide.
3) Chile qualified for the 1974 World Cup when the USSR were disqualified in their play-off match. The first leg ended 0-0, but the USSR refused to play in Santiago, because a military coup had removed Chile's left-wing government. Chile kicked off - as Scotland would in Estonia over 20 years later - with no opposition, scored and the game ended.
CAMEROON
1) In the 1994 World Cup, the Indomitable Lions fielded the oldest and one of the youngest players ever to appear in the tournament. Roger Milla was 42, while Rigobert Song was 17, marginally older than Norman Whiteside when he played for Northern Ireland in 1982.
2) There are 64,500km of road in Cameroon, but only 2500 are paved. The other 62,000 ensured a bumpy ride to France 98.
3) Cameroon are the first African nation to qualify for three consecutive World Cups. Milla seriously considered making a comeback at the age of 46 for this year's tournament, but eventually decided against it.
AUSTRIA
1) Around 4.5% of the workforce is unemployed, a remarkably low figure. It may owe something to the fact that around 200,000 Austrians work abroad.
2) Much of the classic musical 'The Sound of Music' was set in Austria.
3) Austria is landlocked and bordered by two of the world's football heavyweights - Germany and Italy.
GROUP C
FRANCE
1) The French are very protective of their own language - they even have government committees to weed out foreign-based and ''Franglais'' words.
2) France is the largest country in Western Europe, covering almost one fifth of the total area of the European Union. However, size isn't everything - they've never won the World Cup.
3) France ranks first in the world in magazine readership figures, with 1350 copies sold per 1000 residents.
SOUTH AFRICA
1) Two countries, Swaziland and Lesotho, are surrounded on all sides by South Africa's main land mass.
2) South Africa has 11 official languages - Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu.
3) Nelson Mandela is a massive Liverpool fan and used to get videos of games sent to him in prison. Since his release from jail, the Reds have been in decline.
SAUDI ARABIA
1) The country has two-thirds of the world's reserves of oil and natural gas - 315 billion barrels of oil and 235 trillion cubic metres of natural gas, to be exact.
2) Carlos Alberto Parreira, the coach who led Brazil to victory at USA 94, will call the shots in France.
3) At mealtimes, it is the Arab custom for the host and his son to start eating last as a mark of honour for their guests. If the host happens to finish first, he must pretend that he's still eating so as not to rush the other guests.
DENMARK
Denmark won the 1992 European Championships, having failed to qualify for the tournament. They were allowed in at the 11th hour when UN sanctions against Yugoslavia meant the war-torn country could not take part.
2) Danish has three additional letters compared to the English alphabet: æ, ø and å.
3) The Danish League formed a brand new team in the capital six years ago. FC Copenhagen promptly went out and won the title in their inaugural season.
GROUP D
SPAIN
1) A popular sport in northern Spain is Pelota. The only two countries in the world that play are Spain and France. The game consists of two teams. Each player has a scoop attached to their hand. They hurl a ball against a wall and attempt to keep possession within the team. Several people have been killed after being hit by the ball.
2) The word orange originates in Spain. It dates back to the days when oranges were first available in England. In Spain they are called 'naranjes,' so when English stallholders shouted ''who wants a naranje?'', People thought they were saying ''an orange'' and the name stuck.
3) Spain is famous for bullfighting. It was first mentioned in the Bible and was originally meant as a sport for the aristocracy.
NIGERIA
1) Nigeria clearly rate English football because they offered the job as coach of the national team to both Bobby Robson and Terry Venables. They eventually appointed Bora Milutinovic.
2) Nigeria won football gold at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. They did it the hard way, though, beating Argentina 3-2 in the final just days after a thrilling 4-3 semi-final victory over Brazil.
3) Nigeria has two capitals - an official capital and an acting capital. The official capital city is called Abuja and has a population of 15,000, while the acting capital is Lagos, which has 7m inhabitants.
PARAGUAY
1) In 1865, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay attacked Paraguay, wiping out almost the entire population.
2) Paraguay has a navy, even though it has no coastline.
3) Driving in Paraguay can be a dangerous occupation. Laws in general are pretty sparse and the Highway Code is not required reading, so drivers jump red lights and park where they like.
BULGARIA
1) Their number one footballer, Hristo Stoichkov, has had a Bulgarian village named after him.
2) The modern digital computer was created by a Bulgarian called John Atanasov over 50 years ago.
3) Bulgarian football is home to some of the more bizarre names in world football, including Getov, Balakov and Popov.
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GROUP E
SOUTH KOREA
1) The name Korea comes from the early dynasty name of Koryo, which means ‘high and clear'. The name symbolises the country's rugged mountains, clear blue skies and rushing streams, which have earned Korea the nickname ‘the Switzerland of Asia'.
2) The population is 41m and more than a quarter of them live in Seoul.
3) South Korea finished above Japan in the qualifying groups of the World Cup despite being 13 places behind them in FIFA's world rankings.
BELGIUM
1) Belgium has an amazingly well-lit road system. It is so bright that it provides a spectacular landmark for astronauts.
2) Durbuy, in the Ardennes, is the smallest town in Europe. From the castle at the centre of the town you can see all the houses of the 700 people who live there.
3) Belgium produces more than 400 different beers, while its national dish is mussels with chips.
MEXICO
1) Mexico have appeared in 10 previous World Cups and hosted the event twice. However, out of the 33 games they have played in the final stages, they have only won seven. Five of those came when the finals were held in their country.
2) The Aztecs who used to inhabit northwest Mexico are said to have come from the mythical city of Aztlan, which means paradise. Their impressive temples are now magnets for tourists.
3) The oldest human remains in Mexico date back 12,000 years.
HOLLAND
1) There are 28 small towns in the United States called Holland. The Dutch people were so excited by this that they wrote a book about it and have dedicated websites on the Internet to the fact.
2) The Dutch football team has been hit by a series of racism rows. The squad, which is evenly split between white and black players, were photographed at a team meal before Euro 96 - the black and white players were at separate tables.
3) Thanks to the miracle of the EC, British fans can now buy cans of Coca-Cola with all the writing in Dutch - ‘Limonade met platenextracten' - and bearing photos of Holland squad members. So far, Football365 has collected Dennis Bergkamp, Jaap Stam, Clarence Seedorf, Ronald DeBoer and Giovanni Van Bronckhorst.
GROUP F
IRAN
1) Iran set a few records on their way to France. Karim Bagheri was the world's top scorer in the qualifying stages with 17 goals. Iran also beat the Maldives 17-0 in qualifying, which is a world record.
2) The Iranian New Year is called Now Ruz. It lasts 13 days and involves many ancient ceremonies and customs.
3) Petroleum makes up 85% of the country's total exports.
YUGOSLAVIA
1) The unemployment rate in Yugoslavia is high - around 26%.
2) Yugoslavia had to go through a play-off to get to France 98. They were drawn against Hungary in a two-legged tie but comfortably progressed with a 12-1 aggregate victory. They won the first leg 7-1 in Hungary, with Predrag Mijatovic scoring five.
3) Red Star Belgrade's hardcore fans are known as the ‘Dieselistas' because they all turn out dressed in Diesel designer gear.
GERMANY
1) All locally produced German beers must comply with a 450-year-old purity law that prevents the use of chemical substitutes.
2) The Germans brought in Mike Batt, the man who wrote ‘Remember You're A Womble', to record their 1998 World Cup song. Their official tune for USA 94 was performed in conjunction with the Village People.
3) Germany has land boundaries with nine different countries - Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, Holland, Poland and Switzerland. The longest of these boundaries, with Austria, is 784km long.
USA
1) America really is a nation of couch potatoes. In 1993, there were 265m people in the USA - and 215m TVs.
2) The word soccer is widely assumed to have been invented by the Americans but it was actually first coined by a student at Oxford University.
3) America is still home to a huge number of immigrants - a 1990 census showed that more than 14m people aged five and over in the USA couldn't speak English properly.
GROUP G
ROMANIA
1) Romania is one of the few countries in the world where the death rate is higher than the birth rate. There are 9.8 births per 1000 and 12.3 deaths per 1000.
2) Romania is located exactly halfway between the Equator and the North Pole.
3) The Romanians took part in the first three World Cups but never got past the first round. The first time they entered, King Carol of Romania picked the side.
COLOMBIA
1) Colombia is responsible for around 20% of world sales of PCs.
2) In 1996, more than 17,000 people were killed in Colombia. Human rights organisations blame the country's armed forces and paramilitary groups, but the ongoing drug wars have also had a massive effect.
3) The equator splits Colombia is two.
TUNISIA
1) The ‘English Patient' was shot in Tunisia because the film makers felt the cities of Tunis, El Mahdia and Sfax resembled Cairo in the 1930s. They can't have been far wrong - the film won nine Oscars.
2) Human life in Tunisia dates back two million years.
3) Tunisia topped a group including Egypt, Liberia and Namibia to qualify for France 98 and climb to 24th in FIFA's world rankings.
ENGLAND
1) The country was so stunned by the team's 1-0 defeat against the United States in the 1950 World Cup that some newspapers thought the scoreline had been typed incorrectly and changed it to England 10 USA 1.
2) England's hopes in the 1958 tournament were dealt a severe blow by the Munich air disaster. However, they also left out forward Nat Lofthouse and took only 20 players to Sweden even though they were allowed 22.
3) The World Cup was not the only 'trophy' Jack Charlton lifted in 1966. Big Jack was also presented with a plastic hat inscribed ‘the Jimmy Riddle Trophy' by doctors for giving a urine sample after the final.
GROUP H
ARGENTINA
1) Polo, where the use of the hands is legitimate, is hugely popular in Argentina. Strange that Diego Maradona hasn't taken the sport up.
2) Argentina is the eighth largest country in the world, but one third of its population - 11m people - are crammed into Buenos Aires. The country's literacy rate is the highest in South America at around 95%.
3) The region of Patagonia in the icy south of Argentina is one of the few other places in the world where Welsh is spoken.
JAPAN
1) If you are walking down a Japanese road and you feel the urge to blow your nose, don't. It is considered extraordinarily rude.
2) It is a great honour to be invited to a Japanese person's house. You should show that you respect the custom by bringing a gift and taking your shoes off before you enter.
3) When you are taken somewhere by car in Japan, you should sit directly behind the driver in the seat known as the ''place of honour''.
JAMAICA
1) Jamaica's first inhabitants were the Arawak Indians. The name Jamaica comes from Arawak words for ''the land of wood and water''.
2) At 146 miles long and 51 miles wide, Jamaica is the third largest island in the Caribbean.
3) Prime Minister PJ Patterson declared a national holiday after the 'Reggae Boyz' qualified for the World Cup.
CROATIA
1) Over the last few generations, Croatia's emigration rate has been the highest in the world after Ireland's.
2) The Croatian town of Zadar was bombed 72 times during World War II by the Allies, even though it had no military value.
3) The necktie originated in Croatia. In the 17th century, the French army had a division called the Royal-Cravate which was made up entirely of Croatians. They first started wearing ties and the French adopted the word 'la cravate' meaning 'tie.'
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