Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

The countdown clock says only five days to go now. "If ever there was a nightmare group, then this is it," goes the FIFA blurb introducing Group C, which comprises Argentina, Côte d'Ivoire, the Netherlands and Serbia and Montenegro. Unknowingly, our PR hack got it dead right with the word "nightmare" because that's what the group has become, for FIFA. Overnight, one of the countries in Group C has gone missing. The political entity officially known as "Srbija i Crna Gora" (Serbia and Montenegro) is no more.

Last night, Montenegro declared independence from Serbia in a special session of parliament in the capital, Podgorica. Later this week, Serbia is expected to declare its own independence. This will bring to an end the break-up of Yugoslavia , with the six republics of the former Yugoslavia becoming six independent states. You won't find much mention of these matters, however, if you go along the "Serbia and Montenegro" country page on the FIFA site. Actually, when you click on the "News" link, up comes a blank page. How appropriate.

So what's the point in allowing Serbia and Montenegro Disunited to continue on the football field after the club has dissolved itself? It's a bit late in the day, of course, to change the schedule for the tournament, but the idea of proceeding with a team from a country that does not want to exist is ridiculous. Maybe Sepp Blatter could toss a coin and the winners could choose an all-Serbian or all-Montenegran line up and carry on from there? Does anyone out there know is there's a fallback position in this situation? Remember the European Championship of 1992 and the 11th hour exclusion of Yugoslavia because of hostilities in the Balkans? Denmark were invited to fill the slot and famously won the tournament without playing one warm-up game. Anyone at FIFA still have Denmark's number in the old Rolodex?