Europe - the great football depression (Feature)

By Sebastian Fest Jun 19, 2010, 16:12 GMT

Johannesburg - 'Just look what is happening: Spain lost, France lost, Germany lost. Poor Europe, its economy is sinking now its football teams are doing the same.' So said Hugo Chavez in his weekly television address.

It is not known just how much baseball-fan Chavez actually knows about football but the president of Venezuela has a point: The old European super-powers are in danger of heading for the poorhouse while the rest of the world continues its football party without them.

Spain lost to the Swiss, who had never beaten them in their history, France still have not scored, England still have not won and even Germany are flirting with group stage elimination. Things seem every bit as bad on the pitch as they do in each of those once strong nations' economies.

It is not all bad news for Europe but the teams who have excelled so far have come from football's emerging nations. Slovenia and Serbia both have good chances of progressing while it was the humble Swiss who stunned Spain.

France could be the first to crash out of the tournament. Zinedine Zidane summed up the lack of confidence in coach Raymond Domenech when he said: 'He is not a coach he just picks the players.' And from the varying translations of what Nicolas Anelka said to his manager at half time in France's defeat to Mexico one thing is clear - it was not complementary.

England is another case-in-point. They arrived at the World Cup with a fine record in qualification but if they fail to beat Slovenia in their last game they will go out at the Group stage for the first time since 1958.

With Fabio Capello as coach and Wayne Rooney at centre-forward progress seemed assured but after two awful performances Capello seems clueless as to the solution and his star player is now at war with the team's supporters.

'It is very nice to see the fans booing their own team. That is real loyalty' Rooney said into a TV camera as he left the field after the 0-0 draw against Algeria.

German legend Franz Beckenbauer told German Press Agency dpa: 'It seems they have returned to the bad old days of kick and rush' after the opening draw with United States. 'It was kick without the rush ' quipped one English newspaper in response to the even worse performance on Friday in their second game.

And Germany have nothing to shout about. After beating a below-par Australia 4-0 in the opening game they lost to Serbia, missing a penalty and having a player sent off.

Spain, meanwhile are the current European Champions, but that did not prevent them crashing to an opening defeat against the Swiss with current boss Vicente del Bosque criticized by former coach Luis Aragones for being too negative.

The Spanish may well bounce back on Monday against Honduras and Italy, who were also poor in their World Cup opener drawing with Paraguay, may well improve against New Zealand although they must do so without injured goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon

Who knows, maybe England and Germany will still qualify despite their bad starts but one thing seems sure. Anyone in the old continent suffering from unemployment and inflation and waiting to be lifted by their football team ... is still waiting.