For the third time this fall, the Fox network will bamboozle couch potatoes with a misdirection play that marries an N.F.L. game with a tape-delayed soccer match from the English Premier League.
Nearly all of the top-10 markets for the second tape-delayed soccer game were in the southern part of the United States New Orleanss was first, Dallas fourth) because of strong lead-ins from early N.F.L. games.
Alexander Tomov, former head of the debt-ridden Kremikovtzi steel plant and the CSKA soccer club, delayed his corruption trial while campaigning for Parliament.
By contrast, last weekend, Jacques Chirac, newly re-elected as president on May 5th, refused to go on the pitch to greet the players, demanded and got an apology to the nation from the boss of French soccer, and delayed the match for 20 minutes while he stalked off to address the TV cameras.
There was also the potential flip side of success: Bayern Munich, which provides more players to the national team than any other, reached the Champions League final, which was good news for German soccer but delayed its players from taking full part in Löw's squad-building preparations.
Flights have been missed, school bus schedules have been delayed, and a major pro soccer game set for this weekend has been postponed.
The Americans had hoped the Hondurans would have been tired after a dispute with their soccer federation over bonus money delayed their arrival here until dawn.
FIFA has delayed until next year its investigation of the American soccer official Chuck Blazer, who is accused of financial corruption.
That tournament had been delayed because of the SARS epidemic, which forced FIFA, soccer's world governing body, to move the World Cup from China.
Indeed, novelas are so popular that nighttime broadcasts of soccer, Brazil's other great passion, are delayed until the last one is over.
Sunday's meeting was delayed more than two hours after Mr. Morales broke his nose in a soccer match.
