Sometimes news can be so unsurprising that you actually feel shocked that what you are reading about didn't happen ages ago. This would be a great example of that:

THE county council has pulled out of the bid to bring the World Cup to Nottingham in 2018.

The real surprise here is that Nottingham - a small city with a Robin Hood fetish and economy based on students and debauched stag/hen parties - ever thought it could host the World Cup in 2018. It was probably an odd mix of naive optimism and crass stupidity that made them make a bid in the first place, but frankly Nottingham has more urgent problems than trying to host a glorified football tournament in the year 2018...