Postcard from Bogota

A colorful week in Colombia's capital for me, spiced up by snacking on the Beautiful Game. Like a medieval pilgrim seeking a shrine, the first thing I seek in a foreign capital is its stadium, and like my ancestors, I come home with tales and tacky trinkets. My family heirlooms will include a South Korea World Cup CD case, a Sparta Prague ashtray and an Atletico Madrid singing alarm clock with spring doors and illuminated diorama.

I'm not the only one. I bumped into a DC United fan over to see the capital's clasico between Santa Fe & Milionarios, which ended 4-2 in front of 30,000 on Saturday. If you wear your club shirt when you go abroad it tells the locals you speak the international tongue. Once I had seen the eagle crest I struck up a conversation I would otherwise not have had.
Colombia is a proper football nation - Carlos Valderrama dolls sit alongside traditional souvenirs in the tourist shops and there is soccer on TV 24/7, while last Wednesday's World Cup qualifier against Uruguay (lost 3-1) was watched avidly across Bogota. I spied far more people wearing the national team shirt than I ever do in London when England are playing. I also watched a badly subtitled 'Green Street' on TV, which came in useful when I was mugged on Saturday night in the pretty but edgy La Candelaria neighborhood (a swift right hook and he ran away).

Bogota, like La Paz and Quito is one of the altitude cities FIFA tried to ban from hosting World Cup qualifers last year and it is true you need a day or two to acclimatise properly. But a long soccer tradition here shows the move was due to Brazil & Argentina's travails away from home more than anything else.

Colombia's national team suck at the moment however and qualification for South Africa is out of their hands. I have had a soft spot since I saw them at Wembley in 1988 playing an elegant style I had never seen before. Two years later at Italia '90 they were the only team to take points from the eventual winners, at times leaving the Germans chasing shadows in their 1-1 group game, before crazy Rene Higuita eliminated his country in the next round by dribbling upfield and being robbed by 38 year-old Roger Milla.

Higuita cemented his fame by his scorpion kick at Wembley in 1995 and his infamy by going to jail as part of a kidnap plot two years before. He looks like a suave Latin crooner now. At Parma University in the mid '90s, I saw the mercurial Faustino Asprilla many times on and off the field and remember the day I stopped my bike at a red light and Tino pulled up beside me driving AC Parma's team minibus, containing Tomas Brolin, Gianfranco Zola et al. The Colombian made the starry-eyed student's day with a simple nod.

Colombia's modest soccer history means it looks outward, so on Sunday I could happily watch highlights from several countries' leagues alongside the domestic fare. I like to think I know a little about soccer but am painfully aware how ignorant I am about the South American game outside World Cups, part of the reason I came here...One story that has always intrigued me is how Colombia managed to lose the hosting rights to World Cup '86 to Mexico. FIFA under Stanley Rous had announced Colombia as hosts back in 1974, and I remember during the 1982 World Cup there was a prominent 'Colombia '86' banner at many games, but four months later they had changed their mind.

During that tournament, President Joao Havelange confirmed Colombia as hosts for '86 while issuing a list of requirements including airports and an inter-city train network the like of which the country didn't possess. Adding fuel to the fire, Brian Glanville reported that Havelange was being jetted around the finals in Spain by Mexican TV mogul Emilo Azcarraga, whose Televisa network controls much of Mexican football...

The infrastructure still is not there for Colombia to host a World Cup finals, but then the same thing has been said about South Africa in 2010, Ukraine (joint Euro-hosts in 2012) and Brazil in 2014. After the red carpet treatment in France, Japan/Korea and Germany, and in Austria/Switzerland for Euro 2008, the next two World Cups should provide interesting experiences for fans who have grown up in 'modern football'...

- Sean O'Conor, Bogota