New World Cup mascot out-weirded by craziest sporting mascots
Brazil has just unveiled its mascot for the 2014 World Cup - and in true mascot tradition, its one that has absolutely nothing to do with football.
It's called 'Fuleco', and is a three-banded armadillo who is meant to raise awareness of environmental issues. You know, as opposed to raising awareness of the world's best football tournament.
Still, Fuleco is relatively sane and sensible compared to some of the mascots seen in sport. Here's our pick of some of the weirdest.
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Wenlock and Mandeville - London 2012 was an absolute triumph for almost everybody involved. Conspicuous among the few failures, however, were Wenlock and Mandeville, the one-eyed twins who are perhaps the strangest sporting mascots ever seen. The piles of Wenlock and Mandeville cuddly toys and pencil cases still on sale in supermarkets and toy shops across the country (now at bargain prices) says it all.
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Athena and Phevos - The Greeks might be a bit hard up, but you would think they could have done better than Athena and Phevos for the 2004 Olympics.
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Waldi the dog - The fun-loving dachshund from the Munich 1972 Olympics was rubbish at the time but now actually has a certain retro cool.
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World Cup Willie - Here is a German fan waving a cardboard cut-out of the first World Cup mascot from 1966.
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Ciao / Goleo VI - Ciao (left) was a bit abstract, but the Italia '90 mascot was a sight better than Goleo from the 2006 World Cup (right). Some Germans moaned because lions have English and Dutch connotations. Others complained it was obviously just a man in a lion suit.
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Timber Jim - The Portland Timbers legend was a lunatic lumberjack who celebrated goals by firing up his chainsaw and cutting from a log. As you do.
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Paisley Panda - St Mirren's mangy bamboo-gobbler was sacked in 2003 after pretending to use a Falkirk shirt as toilet paper. He had previously gestured to Queen of the South fans with an inflatable sheep, danced in front of Morton fans with a banjo and playing the theme from Deliverance and disrupted Morton's warm-up by diving Klinsmann-style into a puddle of muddy water.
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Sausages - These sausages race at the end of the sixth inning in every Milwaukeee Brewers home game. On one occasion, an opposing player attacked the Italian sausage with his bat.
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Mr Testicles - We genuinely couldn't have made this one up: some poor sap at Everton is made to dress up as a pair of gonads (with cartoon eyes and mouth, naturally) in order to raise awareness of testicular cancer. A job that is, quite literally, b******s.
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Gunnersaurus - Rumour has it Arsene Wenger is considering flogging the venerable old dinosaur to Barcelona and replacing him with a younger version.
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Sammy the Tammy - The Dunfermline Atheltic mascot was rapped on the knuckles this year after he attempted to sledge down one of the stands at East End Park and veered off course.
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Rally Monkey - This monkey was shown on the Anaheim Angels' big-screen TV during numerous come-from-behind wins when the Angels won the 2002 World Series.
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Philly Phanatic - One of America's best-known figures of fun meets the Philadelphia Phillies' mascot.
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Stanford Tree - One of the USA's most prestigious universities genuinely uses a bloke dressed as a tree as a mascot.
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