From Brendan : farce
Hi Myles,
I don’t like to go on in this negative way, but I think someone has to and John Keats would have understood my cause.
The World Cup in Brazil started farcically, and it is continuing in the same vein.
Ridiculous refereeing by incompetent officials, or worse, has marred the tournament irrevocably.
This has led to the exit of Croatia, Bosnia, Italy and even England if you include the Spanish referee’s dismal performance in the Uruguay game.
There may be more.I haven’t watched and / or kept up with all of it.
It may be that I grow more cynical with age, but I’m not convinced.
Last night’s ridiculous spectacle featuring the clearly mentally challenged Suarez was a new low.
We face the prospect of the agricultural Uruguay playing without their only player (aside from Cavani), while the talents and excitement which could have been forthcoming from the former Yugoslav nations, not to mention Italy, who didn’t become a bad team overnight, are gone.
There are few chinks of light in all this. I’m afraid to say that if I was South American, I probably would be on the side of Jose Luis Borges, who called football “the ugly game”.
I have been shocked at the nastiness of South American teams. Brazil, Uruguay and Mexico in particular. Borges berated the way football became a focus for rabid, rampant nationalism, and made people lose their identity in some false idea of solidarity, which often turns nasty.
Did we not see that with Uruguay’s response to Suarez’s latest biting incident? Indeed, with the incident itself?
Football can be better than this.
I’m sick to death of all the gushing praise of the tournament.
It has rewarded bullying and gamesmanship, and consigned the outsiders to ignominious departure without any conscience.
FIFA could actually claim some achievement by making the EU look like a transparent, fair and open organisation.
At least that’s something.
Suarez? If Liverpool have any class, they will kick him out.
I fear, though, that what should matter in these things doesn’t matter enough and he’ll continue to poison English football for some time.
Myles says:
We don’t trust Blatter. We don’t trust anything he says or does.
We all hate him.
But we don’t know how we can take the World Cup away from him.
And we are not surprised when we discover that the members of the large Fifa Executive Committee, who do a part-time job, get $200,000 a year each.
I was on the bike at the gym today at 3pm, listening to Stevie Wonder when their Suarez punishment was read out on Sky News: 9 matches, four months.
Like you, I’m disappointed that Italy are out.
If the ref could have seen five replays of that Marchisio foul, he might not have given the Juventus midfielder a straight red card. But he was a yard from that skirmish and Marchisio didn’t play the ball first or attempt to play the ball first. He kicked the guy just below the knee.
In a contact sport, it’s all a matter of degree. And intent.
I was amazed that Prandelli didn’t keep Darmian and Candera on the right in his second game. That worked so well in their first game. Why change it?
Will never understand why national team managers do the crazy things they do.