It has been an upsetting time for the sports world's best-ranked players. Sampras and Agassi go crashing out of Wimbledon in the first week, and we all know about the World Cup shocks. But the failure of the top football teams to make it to the latter stages had wider ranging effects then you might think. Goldman Sachs produced a World Cup report, attempting to find links between a nation's economic and football success. The predicted semi-finalists were Argentina, France, Italy and Spain, none of which went far. Nevermind. Perhaps MTNers Andrew Devenport and Alexis Renard should make a report trying to correlate erroneous World Cup predictions with slipping from first to fourth in the league tables... Closer to the football action, everyone has been bemused by the vanishing act of several thousand tickets. Well, Leak has the answer. Banks in Hong Kong stockpiled tickets to use as gifts for preferred clients, but found themselves unable to give them away because of strict anti-corruption laws. You can't even give a Christmas card to a bank teller apparently - should spend a bit more time with your legal team, guys. BNP Paribas is hosting its press party at the Royal Academy in London next week. Daniel Cogoi will have to be on top form - his recent absence from the press means reporters will be snapping at his heels... for his opinion on where the Italian football team went wrong.
June 28, 2002
