Football World Cup On Board P&O Azura

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Posted on January 25th, 2010 by Phil Davies

World Cup Games To Be Broadcast On Board Cruise Ships

Three o’clock on Saturday proved to be a momentous day in the life of the Davies family.

For it was kick-off at our local League One side and I was taking my five year old son Hal to see his first ever football match.

OK, it wasn’t exactly Old Trafford – or Loftus Road, home to my beloved QPR – but it was a live match, full of lower league tackles and, luckily for me, a few goals to boot.

As expected, Hal wriggled a lot and made full use of the somewhat basic loos, but happily we were positioned in a family stand, close to the action and I could see he was completely enthralled by the whole experience.

The biggest crowd he had ever experienced previously was on a visit to the cinema, so I could see that the impact of 8,000 or so noisy football supporters crammed together to witness a no-holes barred a local derby made him slightly nervous but also tremendously excited.

He just has to get better used to balancing on the football ground folding seats to avoid them tipping up leaving his bottom on the ground and feet in the air. Not good for a clear view of the action on the pitch.

Sea of optimism

While I suspect the half time hotdogs proved to be the highlight of Hal’s first not so big match experience, I would love to think the day out will lead him to lending his support to our local side.

Sadly, I fear this may be a somewhat naïve aspiration on my behalf given the wall to wall Premiership coverage he’s likely to be exposed to on TV and online as he grows up.

Yet I hope his first trip to our local league ground will be as memorable as my conversion to QPR at Loftus Road back in the 1970s (how things have gone downhill since).

What I hope to have achieved when the final whistle blew on Saturday afternoon is to have planted a seed of interest in the game which will blossom as he grows older.

I don’t expect Hal will be joining daddy on the sofa for his daily fix of World Cup fever this summer, but hopefully he’ll be there in 2014, 2018 and beyond.

However this year, he might just be interested in a plan I am hatching to take an even softer option for watching the World Cup rather than trekking all the way to South Africa to cheer on Capello’s boys.

Voyage viewing

My preferred option will be positioning my sun lounger near the pool, cold beer in hand, on the deck of P&O Cruises’ Azura in the Med as the new ship’s giant outdoor Sea Screen shows all the key England games live, together with the final on the evening of July 11.

I am reliably informed that the cruise line is one of a number negotiating to show the main World Cup matches live across the fleet.

And with England being tipped as a potential winner of the tournament for the first time since I was a boy in 1966, I can’t think of a better place to be to witness all the action.

That way Hal can still enjoy half-time snacks but can also take a plunge in the pool when a 0-0 bore draw looks likely.

I may also be joining him for an early bath if, as seems almost inevitable, England get knocked out on penalties by Germany in the quarter finals in Cape Town on July 3.

But at least I’ll have the rest of my cruise to recover from the trauma and, ever the optimist, start planning my voyage viewing for the next World Cup in Brazil in four year’s time.

Phil Davies