Project Buckingham

My name is near the bottom

I entered a competition to win tickets to the Crystal Palace match but I didn't win. This is a good thing as it would have been unbelievably cold and I have far too much work to be getting on with.  As a result of all the snow falling, Leeds staff have been busy trying to make sure the game will actually go ahead. They have given this snow clearing operation the name "Project Buckingham (Get the Palace On)". For that name alone, I hope the match does go ahead and Leeds win obviously. Unfortunately the project to get the World Cup in England in 2018 failed as the tournament was awarded to Russia, with 2022 being awarded to Qatar as Fifa decided to take the world cup to different parts of the world as they did with South Africa. If England had won the World Cup bid, Elland Road would have been one of the stadiums used. A redevelopment was going to take place to increase the attendance to 50,000. Apparently this is still going ahead but it will take much longer.

Not exactly Fifa or Pro Evo

Talking about Leeds competitions has reminded me of how I won my PS2. To enter the competition in the Junior Strikers magazine,  I had to answer which Leeds players were going to be playing at the World Cup. Bear in mind this was 2002 so it was a bit more difficult as at that time Leeds had quite a few international footballers. There are less in the team this season, as shown by the fact that I mentioned how two players had been called up by their respective countries in a previous post on this very blog. Anyway, I won the PS2 which 8 years ago, was quite a big deal. Obviously I was very happy and so were my parents probably, saving them a lot of money as if I hadn't won, I would have asked for it for my birthday or Christmas. One notable game I feel the need to mention was Leeds United Club Football. It sounds like a great game but unfortunately it came out at a time where Leeds were losing the plot. One of the main feature of the game was that you could put yourself in the game aslong as you shared the name of a professional footballer so the commentator could say it. This way I was in a virtual Leeds team (as the commentator said 'Martins' in a french accent which was the nearest I could get. I was on the same team as such forgettable rejects as Salomon Olembe, Lamine Sakho and Jody Morris. During that same season with my beloved football club at the brink of financial oblivion, my family were even joking that I would have to give my PS2 back to help their financial situation! Below is a video of how bad Leeds played that season but obviously this won't happen when we play Arsenal in the F.A. Cup next month!