"Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play…it is war minus the shooting."
The coaches
Jose Mourinho recently revealed that he turned down the chance to coach England because he was concerned that he would miss the day to day involvement with players. So what kind of person is appointed as a national coach?19 of the 32 coaches are with the country of their birth; 13 with other countries, for example Carlos Queiroz, who has previously coached Portugal in a World Cup as well as Real Madrid and Manchester United finds himself this year with Iran.
17 of the 32 have played international football; 15 have not. Two coaches have won the World Cup as players - Didier Deschamps (France 1998) and Jürgen Klinsmann (1990). They will be hoping to be the 3rd to win the World Cup as player and coach after Frans Beckenbauer and Mario Zagallo.
Five coaches have been captain of their national team. Luiz Felipe Scolari (Brazil) and Vincente Del Bosque (Spain) have coached their country to World Cup victory – Scolari in 2002, Del Bosque in last time 2010.
12 coaches are serial offenders, in their second or third World Cup as a coach. Most coaches have years of experience with some of the top clubs in the world but there a few with remarkably little coaching experience: Sabri Lamouchi (Cote d’Ivoire) has worked under Jose Mourinho but has never been a head coach.
Oscar Tabarez (Uruguay) and Joachin Löw (Germany) have been in post since 2006 but half the 32 have been appointed in 2012 or later.
With African nations often favouring a foreign coach it is great to see Ghana’s Kwesi Appiah, Stephen Keishi (Nigeria) coaching their own countries.
Marc Wilmots (Belgium) was a player the last time Belgium were in the World Cup in 2002 and even scored their last World Cup goal in a 3-2 win over Russia.
And finally, Cesare Prandelli, looks like the first one to be out of a job, having resigned when Italy were knocked out.