Yeoh Siew Hoon was told to stick to knitting by a soccer fan last week because women just don't get it.

Ok. Ok. I get it already. I should not write about football because women just don't get it.

The streams of emails I got just because I got my Brazilian soccer stars mixed up in my last column – ok, Ronaldo's the roly-poly one who needs a lot of tender loving care from mummy and Ronaldino is the one who looks like a stick insect on speed.

I get it.

Actually would you believe me if I said I did it on purpose just to see what reaction I would get?

I mean, I think it wouldn't have caused such a fuss if I had got my hotel CEOs wrong – like for example saying Miguel Ko was boss of Le Meridien when he's actually the Starwood boss, but wait a minute, aren't they one and the same now? I tell you, it's hard to keep track of things these days.

Especially soccer which is full of dramatics – worse than Desperate Housewives.

The managers are the most desperate of all. They always look like they are in pain throughout the game. Some stay in pain long after the game. Then there's the footballers themselves – some blame others for their poor performance; some blame the heat; others blame the grass, ball, fans, referees ….

And then there's the fans, of which I can't quite decide yet if I am one – I am trying to emulate England's manager Sven Goran-Eriksson who has been criticized for being indecisive.

My recommendation to Sven is he should resign from soccer and think about forming a new Abba.

I was actually thinking I should become a fan because really some of the matches are quite entertaining and as a young girl, I used to watch soccer a lot because my boyfriend lived and breathed football and it was the only way to get her man (I did and I did) … but now I am not so sure.

In today's newspaper, there's a column which states quite categorically that women just don't understand the game and calls all the women fans at the World Cup "great pretenders".

It says that knowledge of football among women can be broken down like this: 70% know nothing – they can't tell Michael Owen from Owen Wilson;  15% know something – they can tell Michael Owen from Owen Wilson but only because they think both are cute; 10% think they know something – they can tell Michael Owen is an English striker and will try to recite a few statistics; and 5% know everything – but they don't know who Owen Wilson is.

And it tells women that we shouldn't spoil it for the men because it's a men's game.

Which is obviously what I did last week in my column by getting my Rs wrong.

One fan told me I should stick to knitting.

I think I should and then stick a needle in his eye. Now that's a women's game.


The SHY Report
A regular column on news, trends and issues in the hospitality industry by one of Asia's most respected travel editors and commentators, Yeoh Siew Hoon.

Siew Hoon, who has covered the tourism industry in Asia/Pacific for the past 20 years, runs SHY Ventures Pte Ltd. Her company's mission is "Content, Communication, Connection".

She is a writer, speaker, facilitator, trainer and events producer. She is also an author, having published "Around Asia In 1 Hr: Tales of Condoms, Chillies & Curries". Her motto is ‘free to do, and be'.

Contacts: Tel: 65-63424934, Mobile: 65-96801460

Yeoh Siew Hoon's other writings can be found at www.thetransitcafe.com. Get your weekly cuppa of news, gossip, humour and opinion at Travel's Busiest Junction.