The controversy surrounding the French World Cup is only increasing as the team is now boycotting training. For those in the know, bear with me as I re-cap the illustrious fall of the French Football Federation (FFF):
1. World Cup 2006 – The downfall of team France can be traced back to the World Cup final against Italy. It was a close match and truthfully it could have gone either way. Then Zinedine Zidane made, possibly, the worst decision of his life – “The Headbutt Heard Around the World”. That single action cost France the World Cup. His abscence from the penalty kick was a severe disadvantage to France and allowed Italy to secure victory. Read the rest of this entry »
If I didn’t know any better I’d say Day 7 shaped up to be quite similar to Day 6. Think about it – we had another big loss with France rolling over for Mexico, another African team plagued by a dubious red card and the emergence of a strong team in Argentina.
Game #1 Argentina 4 vs South Korea 1
Like Chile in the first game on Day 6 the Argentinians imposed their will against the South Koreans. To tell you the truth I thought the South Koreans were going to be a tougher battle for Team Messi and Co. I guess I was influenced by the strong backbone their nation is currently displaying in the ongoing battle with Kim Jong Il (any time I can mention Mr. Kim is a bonus). But boy was I wrong. It was the Higuain show, plain and simple. How scary is it that the Argentinians are 2-0 with 5 goals for that Messi has not had a hand in any of? Read the rest of this entry »
After much jockeying by the Irish Football Association, Ireland’s Prime Minister, Ireland’s Minister for Sport, Ireland’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Ireland Coach Giovanni Trapattoni, football fans the world over (except maybe in France), and following much conjecture on the part international media outlets, FIFA has decided to deny a match replay of the world cup qualifier played between France and Ireland on November 18th 2009.
It was fairly certain from the outset that this would in fact be the governing body’s decision, though it does once more raise the very appropriate question: Do football referees require video replay to help them make decisions of particular importance? While no real blame can be place on either Henry or the officiating, the system of on-field officiating is in need of an overhaul. Former France international David Ginola has repeatedly called for a goal judge to be stationed behind the net to facilitate a fairer adjudication on ‘goals’ of question. Unfortunately these requests have fallen on deaf ears. This ‘hand of god’ play has re-sparked rumours that video replay is necessary in football, and that it should have been tested along the road to South Africa so as to ascertain its true value. While such a system was never installed, one can only hope that at FIFA’s next executive council summit the world’s football associations will put pressure on the international federation to implement video replay, or something similar, for the World Cup in 2010, so as to cut down on results achieved through foul play.
As the Bard once remarked “Brevity is the soul of wit”, so to the whole Thierry Henry Hand of God, miracle at the Stade de France I choose only one word: disgusting.
My (lost and useless) hope is that FIFA will render unto fans of the beautiful game a true and just decision regarding this clear infraction, especially considering the admission of guilt on the part of the nonchalant superstar himself. Good thing I wont be holding my breath.
Mr. Blatter, your results are served. How do you think your little scheme has fared? Quite well if you ask me, after all, the top two reasons (Portugal and France) this abominable seeding system was adopted in such a hasty last minute fashion have secured their tickets to the big dance in South Africa, while bumping their (equally) deserving ‘minnow’ nation counterparts from proving just how advanced the beautiful game has become in the oft neglected corners of the European football universe. Everybody at FIFA headquarters in Zurich surely winced when it became obvious the tournament would loose star Russian forward Andrei Arshavin, but were quickly relieved when Portugal and France qualified ensuring appearances from top draw players like Christiano Ronaldo, Raul Miereles, Deco, Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka and Franck Ribery. Read on for a breakdown of today’s results.
FIFA should be ashamed. Period. For the first time in the history of World Cup Qualification, teams relegated to a playoff situation to ensure qualification have been seeded in order to avoid traditionally ‘top’ squads from eliminating each other, prospectively avoiding revenue losses in the tens of millions of Euros. FIFA’s reasoning? Well, to be honest, we haven’t been given any official reasoning regarding this decision, other than it was deemed to be for the good of the sport and that it was agreed to (hastily) nearly unanimously by the football’s governing body. So much for FIFA’s FAIR PLAY programmeI suppose.
Ireland’s response was perhaps the most irate with Manager Giovanni Trapattoni claiming that a decision such as this strikes at the pureness that lies at the heart of the beautiful game. Keeper Shay Given offered a more succinct, yet equally eloquent description of his feelings regarding the seeding system: “Disgusting”. It begs the question that had teams like Portugal, France and even Russia been more successful in their qualification attempt, and smaller nations such as Serbia, Denmark or Switzerland been swapped into their position, would FIFA have adopted a similar stance? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by mbian 
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