Spain have been a delight; now they are like a vivid flower which has gone over. Their short-passing, "tiki-taka" style makes them resemble a clock, going tick tock. They have been a precision mechanism. And when one or more part becomes imprecise, it throws the whole. The Spanish clock is out of time.

Spain are not the only World Cup holders to go out in the group stages. In 2010, Italy did so. In 2002, France suffered that fate. Brazil, whose star man Pele was brutalised by first Bulgaria and then Portugal, made an early exit in 1966 and Italy did so in 1950, albeit after a 12-year gap following their 1938 victory.

Pele makes a sad exit from the 1966 World Cup finals after being repeatedly fouled by Portugal ©Hulton Archive/Getty Images

They are, however, the first defending World Cup champions to lose both their opening matches at the next version of the tournament.

Spain's so-called golden generation has finally tarnished, as all golden generations must.  But at least it has shone proudly for almost a decade, unlike some other teams so named. Are we talking about England in 2002, 2006?  Yes we are.

England football supporters will also recall the World Cup winners of 1966, and their subsequent, inevitable, slide from that pinnacle. Although they were defeated in the quarter-finals by West Germany at the Mexico World Cup four years later, the quality of that side was as high, if not higher, than the one which had ensured home success at Wembley.

But by the time they lost to Poland in their campaign to qualify for the 1974 World Cup finals, with the great Bobby Moore's feet finally turning to clay in what was to be his 107th and penultimate game for his country, you could tell the jig was up. England's subsequent failure to earn the win they needed at Wembley in their return match against Poland, which ended 1-1, confirmed that sense of foreboding.

England goalkeeper Peter Shilton cannot watch as Allan Clarke scores a penalty at Wembley which levelled the scores with Poland in their crucial qualifying match for the 1974 World Cup finals but which was still not good enough to allow them to qualify
©Hulton Archives/Getty Images

Rarely do such individuals as Moore emerge. And to witness them sinking is always a rather mournful experience.

At the age of 37, Canada's famed ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky used the 1998 Nagano Olympics - which had signalled willingness to accommodate the professionals from the National Hockey League - to make his international farewell as a player after a career reputed to have earned him more than $100 million (£59 million/€73 million).

The man who finished his career as the NHL's all-time record points scorer showed only glimpses of a sublime gift that had already been diminished by a serious back injury five years earlier.

Wayne Gretsky, number 99, makes his final international appearance at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics ©Bongarts/Getty Images

But at 5ft 11in, and dwarfed by his 6ft 4in colleague Eric Lindros, Gretzky - in his trademark 99 shirt - still demonstrated a game which, like his face, was all angles. The progress of the years was evident in one obvious respect in Japan, however. While his younger colleagues vaulted to and fro over the barrier between bench and ice, Gretzky used the gate provided.

He departed with dignity after Canada had lost their semi-final to the eventual winners, the Czech Republic, commenting: "When you don't win, you have to accept the lumps and take your bruises. When you win, you accept the flowers and roses."

That quote could have stood as comment for the final dying falls of two of Britain's superlative athletes, Steve Cram and Sebastian Coe.

By the time Cram got to the 1990 European Championships in Split, the memory of his annus mirabilis of 1985 - when he set world records for the mile, 1500m and 2,000m in the space of 19 days - and his sublime performances at the following year's Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh - had been overlaid with the frustration and pain of injuries. In Split, he gave it a right go, but eventually faded to fifth in the 1500m final. I was there in the stadium - and it just didn't seem right.

Earlier in that year, Coe, double Olympic 1500m champion and multiple world record holder, ran what was to be his final international race at the Auckland Commonwealth Games in the final of the 800m, for which he held a world record of 1min 41.73sec which would not be beaten for another seven years.

Seb Coe (left) chats to Scotland's Tom McKean before the 800m final at the 1990 Commonwealth Games. He finished sixth ©Getty Images




Coe was suffering from a chest infection at those Games. As he tracked Kenya's Nixon Kiprotich into the final bend, BBC's commentator David Coleman commented: "And Coe is waiting to strike." But the finish the world had seen so often from this great athlete was not there, and as the field reached the halfway point in the final straight, Coleman was dismissive: "And Coe is beaten". The beleaguered Englishman finished sixth in a race where his team mate Matthew Yates came through for a surprise bronze behind Kiprotich and the Kenyan winner, Sammy Tirop.

I was there in the Mount Smart Stadium that day. I felt glad for Yates. But I felt sad for Coe.

Spain's conclusive 2-0 defeat by Chile prompted the following tweet from John Sinnott, senior sports producer for CNN's International Digital team:

"Nobody wanted it to end this way - the humbling of a side which has brought so much joy to world"

But that's the way it always ends, John.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. His latest book Foul Play – the Dark Arts of Cheating in Sport (Bloomsbury £12.99) is available at the insidethegames.biz shop. To follow him on Twitter click here.

Some eight months after the Queen placed her "address" in the Rennie Mackintosh inspired baton at Buckingham Palace it has at last reached Scotland to signal that Glasgow 2014 is nearly here.

The Queen's baton relay - or QBR in shorthand - has become the biggest event of its kind in world sport. Whereas the journey of the Olympic Torch has been scaled down to a domestic affair which passes through Greece and that year's host nation, the QBR rejoices in visiting every single Commonwealth territory.

This year is the third time that a Scottish city has hosted the Commonwealth Games but the sixth occasion that Glasgow has been visited by the Baton .In fact, even this 2014 incarnation will be returning to Scottish soil. Back in October, as organisers launched the appeal to find runners to carry it through the Highlands, it was taken to  Stirling University. Swimmer Ross Murdoch and triathlete Marc Austin seized their chance to hold it .

The Queen's Baton Relay for Glasgow 2014 has already made a brief stopover in Scotland when it visited Stirling University ©Glasgow 2014

In 1970. Edinburgh was the stage for  what were then known as  the British Commonwealth Games. Organisers had decided that "the Baton containing the message should be carried around as large a part of Scotland as practicable during the week preceding the Games. Thus many distant places from Edinburgh would feel they were playing some part in Scotland's Games."

A competition was held by the Royal College of Art. Hector Miller was the winner and executed his design in silver gilt. Two Batons were made and were the gift of the Worshipful company of Goldsmiths.

The Relay that year had begun in Yellowknife in Canada's Northwest Territory. It is the only time to date that the  it has ever started its journey outside England. It landed at Prestwick Airport where Games organising Chairman Sir Herbert Brechin was waiting to greet it. The first Scottish runner was 21-year-old John Ferguson who began the 700 mile journey around Scotland with an escort of fellow members of Ayr Seaforth Harriers in their distinctive club running vests. They were one of 18 organisations who participated. Unlike earlier Relays it took place exclusively in the hours of daylight.

The runners headed to the Borders and then to Glasgow where 14-year-old Doreen Arthur of City of Glasgow Ladies AC and four escort runners arrived to present it to the Lord Provost Donald Liddle. In turn, he handed it to representatives of the Glasgow Union of Youth Clubs to continue the journey.

It headed North towards Aberdeen and, although the organisers had hoped it would cause a stir, The Scotsman noted that in Aberdeen it had "passed unheralded and almost unnoticed" when it was received by from 16-year-old Yvonne Valentine by Lord Provost James Lamond.

Commonwealth Games marathon champion Jim Alder was the final person to carry the Queen's Baton Relay at the Opening Ceremony of Edinburgh 1970
©Hulton Archive/Getty Images

It was a different story when the Baton finally reached Edinburgh and at the Meadowbank Stadium.

Marathon runner Jim Alder had been selected as the final bearer. He had won gold at the 1966 Games in Kingston, despite a mistake by officials who misdirected him outside the stadium .He made light of the extra distance  to win the race and had no problems with a much shorter run on a new synthetic track to deliver the baton in 1970. Prince Philip read the message from The Queen, who later attended the Games in person for the first time.

When the Games returned to Edinburgh 16 years later, there was a certain symmetry when the Baton crossed the border into Scotland. This time Alder, who had turned 46 the previous week, walked at a much more sedate pace with the baton through an avenue of flags representing the Commonwealth countries, though sadly, many  stayed away from the Games themselves in a boycott over rugby contacts with South Africa.

The Relay through Scotland over the next nine days was sponsored was organised by Sir James Orr in conjunction with 52 Lowland Brigade, based at Edinburgh Castle. Organisers insisted "the accent was on youth" and many runners and cyclists took part. The Baton also visited the rowing venue at Strathclyde.

It was sponsored for the first time. The Royal Mail's Datapost service had transported the baton around the British Isles.

Sprinter Allan Wells was chosen to bring the baton into the stadium. A Commonwealth gold medallist at Edmonton 1978 and Brisbane 1982, he had been a volunteer helper at the Meadowbank Stadium in 1970. Wells was flanked by six champions from those Games, athletes Lachie Stewart, Rosemary Stirling, Rosemary Payne, Ian Stewart, boxer Tom Imrie and fencer Sandy Leckie.

Again it fell to Prince Philip to read the message,  the final time he would do so as President of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF).

In the new Millennium, the Baton Relay has returned to the Highlands on three occasions.

David Beckham carried the Queen's Baton Relay into the City of Manchester Stadium at the 2002 Commonwealth Games ©AFP/Getty Images

In 2002,Manchester in the North West of England were to stage the  Games They decided a wide ranging event would help in "securing the involvement of people across Britain, engaging them in the spirit of the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games".

All the nations and regions were involved and Scotland was allocated five days in the Relay with Stranraer as the first port of call.

Earlier in the year Great Britain had won Olympic gold in curling at Salt Lake City. Every member of the team was Scottish. Janice Rankin, Fiona Macdonald and alternate Margaret Morton invited to take part in the Relay .Hammy McMillan, skip of the men's team and a former world champion, also carried the Baton.

When the Relay reached Glasgow, hammer thrower Chris Black who had won bronze for Scotland at the  1982 Brisbane Games, Edinburgh 1970 high jump medallist Moira Maguire and Paralympian swimmer Maggie McEnely showed the Baton to crowds watching the Scottish trials at Scotstoun Stadium.

Athlete Kirsty Law carried it from Urquart Castle to Loch Ness, where Adrian Shine of the Deepscan Loch Ness project lowered it 220 metres into the dark and mysterious waters.

This was an echo of the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Then, the Torch had been taken underwater at the Great Barrier Reef. Sadly, although the 2002 baton was capable of recording heartbeats, it found no evidence of a monster lurking in the depths.

Sir Peter Heatly, long-serving chairman of the CGF, and himself a three-time diving gold medallist, took the baton in Aberdeen.

Willie Shanks, an 87-year-old stalwart of the local society to promote the work of the great Scottish poet Robbie Burns, carried the baton from the Bannockburn Memorial.

The journey to the 2006 Melbourne Games began fully a year before their Games. For the first time it visited every territory in the Commonwealth. When it stopped in Glasgow,it visited some of the arenas which will see service next month. Lee McConnell, a silver medallist over 400 metres in 2002, took it around the perimeter at Hampden Park. It also made a stop at the Tollcross swimming venue .

The city had already been chosen as the venue for 2014 by the time that the Relay to Delhi began in November 2009. Yvonne Murray, 10,000m gold medallist at the 1994 Games in Victoria, took the baton at Glasgow's Kelvin Grove Museum during another brief visit to the city.

Five-time Olympic cycling gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy carried the Queen's Baton Relay for Glasgow 2014 when it was launched in London last October ©Getty Images

Over the next month, the speculation over the identity of the final bearer will reach fever pitch. The regulations used to specify "the runner carrying the baton into the stadium should be a medallist from the host country of a previous Games".

That rule has been relaxed since 1990 as organisers looked for more unorthodox choices. Eventer Mark Todd arrived on his famous horse Charisma at the Auckland opening. Four years later in Victoria, biathlete Myriam Bedard was another Olympic, rather than Commonwealth champion, when she arrived on dry land skis with the 1994 baton. At Manchester in 2002 David Beckham delighted the crowds in Manchester when he appeared in the Stadium.

Glasgow's organisers might well pick up the football theme. The Games open at Celtic Park, home of the fabled "Lisbon Lions" who lifted the European Cup in 1967. Billy McNeill was their captain that golden afternoon and as a club ambassador could well figure, but this being Glasgow, the other Old Firm Club, Rangers would also have to be recognised. John Greig skippered them to the European Cup winners' Cup in 1972. Could there also be a place for Kenny Dalglish, still the only Scottish footballer to win 100 caps, or rugby union's Sir Ian McGeechan, an outstanding British Lions player and coach?.

Since 2002, the trend has been to have more than one runner carry the baton in the stadium  so reigning Wimbledon champion Andy Murray must also be in with a great chance. Scotland's greatest Olympian. Sir Chris Hoy seems certain to play his part. Resplendent in kilt, he walked up the Mall to show the Baton to the world at the very start of this Relay. For him to end it too would be the ultimate in symmetry.

Philip Barker has worked as a television journalist for 25 years. He began his career with Trans World Sport, then as a reporter for Skysports News and the ITV breakfast programme. A regular Olympic pundit on BBC Radio, Sky News and Talksport, he is associate editor of the Journal of Olympic History, has lectured at the National Olympic Academy and contributed extensively to Team GB publications. His latest book, Lord's First: 200 Years of Making History at Lord's Cricket Ground, has recently been published. To follow him on Twitter click here.

Away from the pitch, we saw darts thrown at youth team players, fireworks set off in a bathroom, a drive into a female prison "for a look around", and, my personal favourite, an attempt to pay off thousands of pounds worth of student fines after a spontaneous appearance at a university library.

And that is just scratching the surface.

Italy's Mario Balotelli performed the perfect team role against England on Saturday
©AFP/Getty Images



To an extent mavericks are seen in all walks of life, outside as well as inside the sports world. There is always one person who attempts to work outside the box and relies on instinct and talent rather than time honoured practices. It is a way to be noticed in an increasingly competitive marketplace as much as anything else.

By the time they arrived in the Olympic city of Paris, they had earned plenty in gate receipts but importantly, they were also battle hardened and acclimatised to European conditions. They installed themselves in the Chateau de Argenteuil to make their final preparations for the most important competition any of them had ever played.

2) If they share my analysis on Point 1, European cities such as St Petersburg, Rome and Paris - who would make formidable rivals - might conclude that 2024 is not a foregone conclusion after all and throw their hats into the ring.

3) The remarks could contribute to undermining the progress made since the 2016 bid fiasco in dissipating the air of anti-Americanism that has been detectable in and around the membership for much of the 13-year period I have been covering the Movement. Probst himself, as well as USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun and IOC members Anita DeFrantz and Ruggiero have been key players in fostering this positive change. As one European Olympic observer told me recently, "The US has reacted better to 2016 than France did to [Paris's defeat in] 2012."

From there it was rolled out across the British Empire, and in 1960 the INF was formed to standardise the game before the first World Championships took place in the southern English seaside town of Eastbourne three years later.

It remains essentially a sport for the Commonwealth countries, with reigning Commonwealth Games champions New Zealand and reigning world champions Australia occupying the top two places in the world rankings. England, Jamaica, Malawi, South Africa and Fiji are in positions three to seven. 

But huge effort is being made to bring the sport to new parts of the world. Israel competed at the 2013 World Youth Championships in Glasgow, for example, while Argentina will be among the participants at the Americas Federation of Netball Associations Championships in Calgary this August.

Switzerland, the United States, Taiwan and Thailand are all members of the INF, while foreign coaches are working in other parts of Latin America, such as Uruguay and Paraguay. There are more recognised countries playing the sport in Asia than anywhere else and it is hoped that participating in the South East Asian (SEA) Games, taking place from June 5 to 16 next year in Singapore, will pave the way to eventual Asian Games inclusion.

Last month, Rhone attended the netball competition at the African Youth Games in Bostwana's capital Gabarone, where the sport was featuring for the first time. 

"The crowds were great and there was a really festive atmosphere," she reported. "I hadn't seen teams from [gold medal winners] Uganda, Kenya and Zimbabwe playing before and I was really impressed with the skill levels on display. A lot of matches were really close and were decided by one goal. Many people in Botswana said they hadn't seen netball before and it was a great advert for the sport.

"What is good is that all of the English speaking countries in Africa are now playing. And if senior players from these countries are twice as good as the youth ones, then the rest of the world better watch out!"

Given the cheapness and the comparative void in established team sports for women on the continent, Africa has clearly been identified as an opportunity for netball. The INF are also aiming to help with development there away from the court, and their work with international organisation Peace and Sport in Burundi was acknowledged with an award at the 2012 Africa International Sports Convention for making a "significant contribution to peace and the promotion of sport in Africa".

Like Africa, India is another area in which netball has enjoyed recent growth ©Facebook




It is hoped that by steadily building this international role, and by competing in events such as the SEA Games and the African Youth Games, the long-term goal of Olympic inclusion will eventually be reached.

In 1995, netball was recognised by the International Olympic Committee and they are now a member of the Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations (ARISF), with Rhone having served as a Board member since May 2013.

Rhone, who was vice-captain of the Jamaican team at the 1975 World Championships before working for two decades with Air Jamaica, hopes that Olympic inclusion is something that will eventually occur by default more than by a specific campaign.

"We have a great group [in ARISF] and my comments are sought like everyone else's," she told insidethegames. "It is a vibrant forum for the non-Olympic sports and we have a voice with the IOC and with other bodies.

"I don't think netball really has a 'campaign' to get in to the Olympics - we don't have the money to do that! But we hope that in time it will just happen. I think there will come a time where they will re-examine the disciplines, and we think and hope they will include netball when they do this.

"It is great that the sport is growing. We would love to see the sport in the Olympics one day. Not in the near future but it is still an aspiration.

"Netball would definitely add something: no one can dominate because you cannot move with the ball, so it is exciting, simple to understand and good to watch."

Unsurprisingly, Rhone believes that netball should take advantage of the current drive for gender equality engulfing the Olympic Movement, but she believes the inclusion of netball would achieve this in a more natural sense than artificially altering long-established programmes in other sports to add more female events.

"There has been a lot of focus on gender equality, but I think it would be better to do this by focusing across the entire Games rather than by changing specific sports," she argues. "Some sports lend themselves better to gender equality than others. Why not enter women under their own sport?"

Molly Rhone (left), pictured at the Queen's Baton Relay event in Manchester last month, believes more women can succeed in top sporting roles ©Twitter



One final opportunity that netball would provide is opportunities for women in a coaching and an administrative sense as well as in terms of participation. These are topics which have enjoyed a lot of focus recently, including during a special "Women in Sport" panel during the SportAccord Convention in Belek, Turkey, earlier this year.

As well as reinvigorating an "Auld Alliance" between France and Scotland, the fascinating unveiling yesterday of former Grand Slam champion Amélie Mauresmo as the new coach for British tennis star Andy Murray is another boost, with women coaching men something virtually unique in top-level sport today.

But Rhone believes that having the assurance they can perform top roles as successfully as their male counterparts is key, as is having a "confident approach".

"The opportunities are there for women in sport," she insists. "We cannot feel threatened and must put ourselves up.

"We need to make an impression. When running as a Board member of ARISF, I said don't vote for me because I am a women, vote for me for what I will do.

"We have to have responsibility that we can deliver."

It is this approach that has got Rhone and netball where it is today and they must also be confident of more success in future months, at Glasgow 2014 and beyond. 

Nick Butler is a reporter for insidethegames. To follow him on Twitter click here.

That she ranks her 1986 win above all else in a career that was to encompass a world title, an Olympic silver medal and victory in the London Marathon - she later described it as "the best moment" of her sporting life - is a huge tribute to the power of home. And also to the enduring power of the Commonwealth Games.

The value of the former world champion's memorable victory on home soil was affirmed this week as the eldest of her five children, Eilish, was invited to become the first athlete to test the newly laid track at Hampden Park which will host athletics at the Glasgow 2014 Games which open on July 23.

"My mum has told me all about the unbelievable atmosphere and overwhelming support of the crowd when she competed and won gold in front of a home crowd at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh and I know that's a standout memory of all her races throughout the years," said the 23-year-old, who was accompanied on the plush new track by pupils from the nearby Mount Florida Primary School.

Eilish McColgan, and pupils from Mount Florida Primary School, get a first feel of the new track at Hampden Park this week ahead of the IAAF Diamond League meeting and Glasgow 2014 Games ©AFP/Getty Images

"I'm just so excited at the prospect of competing in a home Games and she's [her mother] told me the support I'll have from the Scottish crowd as a Scottish athlete will be on another level."

That will be literally true, given the fact that, in order to accommodate the track, the pitch at Hampden has been raised by almost two metres using a temporary deck which is made up of 1,200 base panels supported by more than 6,000 structural steel stilts.

The two-day IAAF Diamond League meeting which usually takes place in London will act as an effective test event for the Games when it takes place from July 11 to 12.

When one recalls the dismal sequence of indecision and political confusion which accompanied the plans to convert the old Wembley Stadium into something able to accommodate the IAAF World Championships in 2003 - oh no, sorry, make that 2005 - oh no sorry, make that not at all - then Glasgow's achievement appears outstanding.

Games organisers claim the track - which will be dismantled a few months after the summer activity is over - and the warm-up track installed nearby at Lesser Hampden, have been provided within the target budget of £14 million ($23 million/€17 million).

No wonder the Glasgow 2014 chief executive David Grevemberg told my insidethegames colleague Gary Anderson this week that the process - fashioned in partnership with Scottish firm Malcolm Construction - had amounted to a "fantastic journey".

David Grevemberg, chief executive of the Glasgow 2014 Games, said this week that the Hampden Park stadium conversion had been a "fantastic journey" ©Getty Images

The woman who turned this audacious technological challenge into a reality is Suzanne McCormack, an architectural technologist who was part of the team which created the Velodrome for the London 2012 Olympics.

She applied new techniques to create what was the world's first proper running track built on stilts. The first eight rows of seats at Scotland's national stadium disappeared beneath the enormous steel structure.

"This has never been done before," McCormack told the Daily Record last year. "Steel stilts have been used for temporary 110m straight tracks in Newcastle and Manchester, as well as the ice rink in George Square and the equestrian course at the London Olympics - but it's completely new for a 400m track."

The newly installed, temporary, athletics track at Hampden Park - suspended six feet above the pitch on stilts ©AFP/Getty Images

Officials built a mock-up section on a vacant plot at Clyde Gateway East, near the Chris Hoy Velodrome, which was tested by a machine provided by the International Association of Athletics Federations - and Scottish high hurdler Chris Baillie.

At the time Grevemberg accepted that the plan was challenging but, if successful, could save a fortune on dedicated athletics stadiums at future Games.

"We don't need a new athletics stadium in Glasgow," McCormack added. "We have three stadiums which have a capacity of 50,000 or more - Hampden, Celtic Park and Ibrox. We don't need a white elephant of an athletics stadium that's going to sit there empty."

All in all, it surely ranks as the first gold medal performance of the Games.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. His latest book Foul Play – the Dark Arts of Cheating in Sport (Bloomsbury £12.99) is available at the insidethegames.biz shop. To follow him on Twitter click here.