BootsnAll Staff Going to the 2010 World Cup

When I started working at BootsnAll in 2006, I was not a soccer fan. I didn’t hate it, I just didn’t care about it. The only sport I was interested in at that point was cycling, and I was by no means a hard-core cycling fan, either.

But when half the office left for Germany to work from Berlin for the duration of the 2006 World Cup - attending and live-blogging games - I started to pay attention. It helped that back at BootsnAll HQ we had a big TV set up in the main room (AKA my office) where we watched all the games…

This year, with the 2010 World Cup looming, the office won’t be clearing out the same way it did back in 2006 - but that doesn’t mean BootsnAll won’t be represented in South Africa. In fact, two staff members will be in South Africa for a month and they already have tickets to several games.

(Nevermind that they haven’t booked their flights to South Africa yet, or secured a place to stay. They’re going. We’ve already rented out their desk space for June 2010. I’m kidding. Mostly.)

Chris (BootsnAll co-founder and Community Manager) and Ian (Project Manager and tech guru) are the BootsnAll staffers who’ll be in South Africa this June, and although I’m a bit envious that they’ll be attending such an amazing event I’m equally excited for them.

Ian’s a Scotland fan, and in addition to being annoyed that the Scotland team didn’t make the tournament he’s now also irritated that Ireland was so cruelly robbed of their chance at a spot by Thierry Henry’s handball. To my knowledge, he hasn’t yet decided who he’s rooting for - although it’s pretty fair to say he’s rooting against France.

Chris, one of the crew who went to Berlin in 2006, is Australian - so you’ve got three guesses who he’s rooting for, and the first two don’t count.

Unfortunately for me, I came to love the sport itself through a team that I later found out is one of the teams soccer fans love to hate - Italy. It would take some pretty bizarre outcomes for there to be a matchup where Italy was playing and Ian and Chris weren’t cheering loudly for an Italian demise, so I’m expecting to hear about it if Italy crashes out of the tournament.

On the other hand, if they do well - like they did in 2006 - I plan to make everyone learn the words to the Italian national anthem.

And really, no matter who wins, I think all fans of the beautiful game are hoping for just that - beautiful games.