There are still over one million football tickets up for sale, with interest slowing down to the rate of just 150,000 sales over the last month. Beckham's inclusion in the tournament would certainly drive interest.
Last month Beckham fiercely defended his career record and insisted his involvement with Team GB would be on merit and not because of his fame.
"I have never said it before but that suggestion has always felt a but disrespectful," said Beckham.
"Whenever I have been asked about shirt sales or filling stadiums it has always felt it is a bit disrespectful. Throughout my career I have been pretty successful, I’ve played for some pretty big teams, represented my country quite a few times, and played for managers without sentiment.
“When you play for Sir Alex Ferguson, Fabio Capello, Sven Goran Eriksson or the manager that I have played under, they don’t pick players because they want to fill a stadium or particularly to sell shirts.
“I have always found it an honour that people have wanted to buy my shirt and an honour that fans turn up to watch the team I am playing in. I have always found that a huge honour.
“But no, I don’t want to be picked for shirt sales or as a stadium-filler, I want to be picked for what I can bring to the team. That has been the case throughout my career and I don’t want that to change.”
Team GB play a friendly against Brazil at Middlesbrough's Riverside Stadium on July 20 before taking on Senegal, UAE and Uruguay in Group A at the Games.
'Bored' London diamond thief Arthur Rachel jailed - The Independent
Arthur "The Brain" Rachel, 73, was sentenced to eight and a half years for his involvement in planning robberies with two other accomplices, both of whom are also in their 70s.
Before the sentencing in Chicago, US District Court judge Harry Leinenweber asked Rachel why he got involved after spending nearly a decade in prison for the London diamond robbery.
"It's the way we are," Rachel answered. "We got nothing better to do. We sit around talking."
Rachel and Joseph "The Monk" Scalise staged a daring daytime theft of the Marlborough Diamond in 1980. Both men were convicted in Britain of threatening to use a hand grenade while robbing London's Graff Jewellers of £2.3 million worth of goods, including the diamond. They began serving 15-year prison terms in 1984 and were released in 1993.
The diamond was never recovered.
Federal prosecutor Amarjeet Bhachu did not mince words in characterising Rachel, noting his long criminal history.
"This thug has the gall to ask for leniency when he does the same thing over and over," he told the court. "He is a parasite. He lives off of others. The public needs to be protected from this man."
Judge Leinenweber found Rachel guilty in a bench trial, while his co-defendants - Scalise, 74, and Robert Pullia, 70 - pleaded guilty earlier.
Evidence presented during Rachel's trial included a stepladder that the would-be robbers intended to use in a 2010 burglary at the home of the late Chicago mobster Angelo "The Hook" LaPietra. Authorities arrested the senior citizens, dressed in black, outside the house.
They had also planned to rob an armoured car, prosecutors said.
The FBI has said Scalise's resume included serving as a technical adviser on the film Public Enemies about Depression-Era gangster John Dillinger, which was filmed in Chicago in 2008.
Asked by reporters as he left court earlier this year if the Marlborough Diamond could ever be located, Scalise said: "If Lloyd's wanted to pay enough money, maybe they could.
London Underground wi-fi goes live at King's Cross and Warren Street - Metro.co.uk
The free service, provided by Virgin Media, was launched at King’s Cross and Warren Street, with Oxford Circus and Green Park to follow along with 80 more by the end of summer.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson hailed the move, saying: ‘We need to ensure London is able to cement its position as Europe’s leading digital city.
‘Our partnership with Virgin Media to make wi-fi available on Tube platforms will be of tremendous benefit as building world class connectivity is critical to supporting new businesses and the jobs they create, especially in the high-tech and creative sectors.’
The rest will be live by the end of the year.
After London 2012, access will remain free for Virgin Media customers.
Free content for others will be limited to live travel news and content from Time Out, Spotify and MyMovies.
Virgin Media boss Neil Berkett said: ‘By putting the power of Virgin Media’s next generation fibre optic network in the hands of Londoners and visitors, we’re able to showcase our great capital and celebrate a momentous summer.
VIDEO: New London Underground wi-fi put to the test
A full list of all 80 stations planned for wi-fi installation by July 2012
Aldgate East, Angel, Archway, Arsenal, Barbican, Bayswater, Bermondsey, Bethnal Green, Blackhorse Road, Borough, Brixton, Caledonian Road, Camden Town, Canada Water, Canary Wharf, Canning Town, Chancery Lane, Charing Cross, Clapham North, Covent Garden, Edgware Road (Circle), Elephant & Castle, Embankment, Euston, Euston Square, Finsbury Park, Goodge Street, Green Park, Hammersmith (District/Piccadilly), Heathrow T1-T3, Heathrow T4, High Street Kensington, Highbury & Islington, Holborn, Holland Park, Hyde Park Corner, Kentish Town, Kings Cross/St Pancras, Lambeth North, Lancaster Gate, Leicester Square, Liverpool Street, London Bridge, Manor House, Mansion House, Marble Arch, Marylebone, Mile End, North Greenwich, Old Street, Oval, Oxford Circus, Paddington, Piccadilly Circus, Pimlico, Queensway, Regents Park, St James Park, St Johns Wood, St Paul’s, Seven Sisters, Southfields, Southwark, Stepney Green, Stockwell, Stratford, Swiss Cottage, Temple, Tottenham Hale, Tower Hill, Tufnell Park, Vauxhall, Victoria, Walthamstow Central, Warren Street, Warwick Avenue, Waterloo, Wembley Central, Wembley Park, West Ham, Westminster and Wimbledon Park.
London 2012: Selection 'a fairytale' for Mohamed Sbihi - BBC News
Mohamed Sbihi has described his selection in the men's eight boat for the London Olympics as "a dream".
The 24-year-old took up the sport nine years ago after being discovered through a talent identification scheme while at school in Surbiton.
He told BBC London 94.9: "An opportunity has become a dream and the dream has started to become a reality.
"I feel very fortunate. It's almost like a fairytale. If I hadn't gone into school that day, I wouldn't be here."
The Molesey Boat Club member was identified after British Rowing's World Class Start programme visited Hollyfield School in south west London.
"They wanted all the tall kids in the year to go to a special PE lesson," Sbihi added.
"I didn't really want to go because I wanted to play football but my PE teacher pulled me back and told me that as I was the tallest guy in the year, I had to go.
"Before I knew it, I was in the top four out of 10,000 kids who had been tested in our area. I didn't like it to start with but then it slowly hooked me.
"I feel honoured and proud to wear the GB flag. I have to thank everyone who has been involved in my development."
London hotels persist with Olympian price hikes - Daily Telegraph
This week JacTravel, which provides wholesale accommodation for inbound tour operators, said its London bookings were down by 35 per cent during July and 30 per cent during August, compared with the same months last year. By contrast, it said that bookings for summer holidays to Barcelona and Berlin had grown by more than 100 per cent.
JacTravel found that some four-star London hotels were charging up to £415 per night for stays during the Games, nearly four times more than usual.
A second hotel booking website, Hotels.com, found that the average price for a room during the Olympics had fallen slightly by five per cent since March, to £202. However, this is still 93 per cent more expensive than the same period last year.
A spokesman for Hotels.com said that some cheaper rooms could still be found if travellers were willing to look to outlying districts.
Our Cars: Vauxhall Ampera - June - News - What Car?
Week ending June 8
Mileage 5030
Driven this week: 180 miles
My brother-in-law is a dyed-in-the-wool petrolhead. The list of cars he's owned includes a Fiat Barchetta, Toyota Celica and VW Golf GTI. His current car is a 1996 Mercedes E240. He thinks electric cars are just a fad.
However, that changed after a half-hour passenger ride in our Vauxhall Ampera.
He liked the instant acceleration, the refinement, and was pleasantly surprised by the fit and finish of the Vauxhall. The range-extending petrol engine wiped out any concerns he had about electric cars and their range.
This total change of mindset bodes well for Vauxhall if it can convince enough people to at least test drive such cars.
I'm not sure that my brother-in-law's next car – or even the one after that – will be an electric car, but at least the acorn that one day he could own one has been planted in his mind.
What we didn't appreciate was the decidedly non-futuristic recharging mechanism. When the car has finished recharging, your hands get covered in dirt and crud as you wind-up the power lead. Some kind of retractable lead, such as that in a vacuum cleaner would be more user friendly, but Vauxhall says the lead can't be coiled when the car is being charged because it will get too hot.
Iain.Reid@whatcar.com
Week ending June 1
Mileage 4850
Driven this week: 100 miles
Now that the fun of having a new car is beginning to wear off, I've started to notice a few issues with our Vauxhall Ampera. It's great to drive through town – there's nothing quite like the smoothness you get from electric motors – and you get just as much attention as you do in, say, a Range Rover Evoque, but there are a couple niggles.
The first is that the incredibly low front diffuser scrapes on every speed bump. Bearing in mind that the car is badged a Vauxhall and, by virtue of its electric powertrain, destined for a considerable amount of town use, it's frustrating that it doesn't seem to have been tested in London, a city full of speed bumps.
The second thing I'm surprised about is that, although there's a fully functional Bluetooth phone connection, there's no Bluetooth audio to allow you to play music from your phone without plugging it in. In any other car, you wouldn't give it much consideration, but in the top-spec version of what would appear to be the UK's most technologically advanced car it's a strange omission.
Ed.Keohane@whatcar.com
London 2012: Tickets For Olympics Opening And Closing Ceremonies Go On Sale - huffingtonpost.co.uk
More tickets for some of the most popular events at the Olympic Games go on sale today.
Thousands of tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as for athletics, swimming, boxing, table tennis, volleyball and football at Wembley Stadium, will be available through the official Olympic website from 11am.
Prices range from £20 to £720 across the 96 available sessions, while tickets for the two ceremonies start at £995.
All the remaining tickets, both for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, are on sale on a first come, first served basis, and more will be available in coming weeks.
As with previous tickets, they can only be bought using a Visa card.
Locog, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, said more than eight million tickets have now been sold across both games.
But there are still about three million tickets left up for grabs, including more than half a million Olympic tickets, 1.2 million Paralympic tickets and 1.25 million tickets for Olympic football.
Locog commercial director Chris Townsend said: "There are still plenty of ways to join in and be part of London 2012.
"We are at advance stages of venue planning and these represent the final release of ceremonies and other sport tickets tickets.
"Over the next few weeks we will release further tickets for other Olympic sports and keep people informed when tickets are available.
"We are delighted with ticket sales to date, and have sold another 1 million tickets in the last four weeks, prioritising people who were unsuccessful last time around."
For more information or to buy, visit www.tickets.london2012.com.
0 Responses to "London 2012 Olympics: David Beckham set for inclusion in Stuart Pearce's Team GB football squad for Games - Daily Telegraph"
Post a Comment