In this week's special World Cup edition of Zooming In, Gelf's quasi-weekly roundup of undercovered local stories from around the world: An inappropriate Swedish booty call; a Brazilian soccer diaspora; and more Togo drama. One of our favorites deals with an Israeli flag appearance in the Ghana-Czech Republic game.

Paul Antonson

Ghana defender John Paintsil's strong play against the Czech Republic won fans here in the States by helping to ensure that the US squad, in the same bracket, would live to see another game. He also won some fans back in his home in Israel by removing an Israeli flag from his sock and waving it around several times both during and after the game. Paintsil, a Ghanaian-born defender who plays for the club Hapoel Tel Aviv, was simply paying tribute to his Israeli fans who had traveled to watch him, Ghana team spokesman Randy Abbey told Reuters. "He is obviously unaware of the implications of what he did. He's unaware of international politics. We apologise to anybody who was offended and we promise that it will never happen again."

While an article in the Jerusalem Post says that Pantsil's flag-waving is indicative of how much foreign players in all sports love living in Israel, Assaf Geffen of Ha'aretz tells his fellow Israelis not to take too much pleasure in the scene. "Because if we insist on giving an Israeli connection and meaning to Paintsil's celebrations," he writes, "one could think of some more realistic alternatives. For example Paintsil's fellow countrymen, and other Africans, may not have lifted the Israeli flag but have been working here for years, and are subjected to inhuman treatment from us. Paintsil's partner was no exception—she was deported before being allowed back after someone at Maccabi Tel Aviv made a phone call. Paintsil and other African players receive VIP treatment from Israeli fans, including monkey calls and thrown bananas."

In the Morocco Times, Fahd Chafik rounds up opinion of the gesture in Northern Africa, stating, "This gesture—for the populations of the region, along with Middle-Easterners and Muslims around the globe—is just like showing a swastika or any Nazi sign in Europe or in Israel."

(Gelf note: While Paintsil's jersey clearly states his surname as P-A-I-N-T-S-I-L (BBC), it should be noted that the majority of mentions he gets in the press are as John Pantsil. We'll let you know if it's anything more than a spelling error.)

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