Women are as much a part of the world's biggest soccer competition as men. Only thing is, we play by different rules, says Yeoh Siew Hoon
Brazil fans at Ellis Park Stadium. Courtesy of FIFA.com
"These Nigerians should not wear green. It doesn’t look good with their skin. And it’s hard to see them from the grass," said one.
"Yes, and the Greeks should not wear white. It’s boring," replied the other.
Finally, I understand the frustration Hillary Clinton must feel when she makes an important policy statement that she thinks will change the world, but journalists would rather comment on the colour of her suits and if they go with her hairdo and eyes.
Here’s a game that will determine whether one team will face early elimination from the biggest soccer competition on the planet, and my girlfriends are more concerned about the clothes the men are wearing.
But that’s women for you – we watch the World Cup for different reasons than men.
"The only reason I watch," declared one, "is footballers have great thighs and butts."
"Look at that one," she added, pointing to the bottom of one of the Nigerian players.
"What do Nigerians eat?" asked the other.
"How is this relevant?" I finally summoned up the courage to interject into the conversation. Do not interrupt women when they are in the middle of talking about male anatomy.
"They are so big, so much bigger than the Koreans," she said matter-of-factly. "What do they eat that makes them so big?"
"Argentinians are very big too – they eat a lot of beef," chipped in the other.
"Yes, look at Diego Maradona. He shouldn’t wear a suit. He looks like Danny de Vito," replied the other.
And as the controversial Jalubani World Cup ball was flicked from foot to foot that night, so too did the conversation flow from fashion to food.
Don’t think though that we are not interested in the game as such. It’s a beautiful game, soccer, especially the way the Argentinians play it. It’s also a tragic game, the way the Spanish played it and yet lost to Switzerland.
But the World Cup is more than just about the game. It’s about the bonding that goes on. It’s about the fun and colour off-pitch. Those crazy hairdos – sorry, fashion again. Those noisy vuvuzelas.
And occasionally, women steal the show like those 36 blondes dressed in orange mini dresses who were ejected from the stadium in Johannesburg in a case of "ambush marketing".
The two Dutch women, who used tickets allocated to football pundit and former Wimbledon player Robbie Earle (who has since been sacked) to bring in the group to promote a beer that was not one of the official sponsors, were arrested and are now on bail.
Their case has been splashed all over the media with the Telegraph UK, saying, "The logos on the women's dresses were as tiny as the hemlines were short, but Fifa's heavy-handed reaction has brought the affair international attention and risked a diplomatic row with Holland, whose foreign minister has branded their handling of the incident "absurd"."
