World Cup Blog - out!

So there you have it. the dust has settled and the Spaniards are still wearing red and yellow in celebration several days later. Arguably up until the final itself the best two teams got there although on form I think a German/Spanish final would have been better. Holland were always going to try and cheat their way to a win as they have often done in the years since their 'total football' nonsense came of age. Robben was the whiner from hell and the way both sets of players surrounded Howard Webb on several occasions wasn't pretty nor respectful and far from fair play considering the number of times they asked him to produce a card for an opponent. Can you imagine how bad it would have been if we'd had a lesser ref? As for Holland saying he wasn't strong enough, they would have been 2 men down maybe 3 by half time had he stuck rigidly to the rules and not a chance of a Dutch win then... he kept them in the game I reckon and made a final of it.

The only way to solve this is to ban players and not whine at the referee when he does. You cannot have it both ways. Either you accept the discipline and stick to the rules or you forget football and call it something else. Like kiss ball or pretend to trip ball, diveball or handball. The apparent acceptance that it also ok to cheat has also got to stop FIFA has to come down and say it is not ok to cheat and if, after the fact there is video evidence then you will be banned and banned for a minimum of 3 games. Imagine how quickly clubs will pull their players into line if revenue is hit and profit as without these 'top' players the club starts to slide. It is simple and all it takes is balls and not politics for it is polictics these idiots play with our game. Blatter, Platini and all the other suits that 'administer' the game ffs I could given a mandate sort out the cheats in the English game in one season as longs as the managers were kept in their kennel and not allowed to interfere. Golf, rules no matter who you are make a mistake (not a cheat) and you can lose tournaments remember Ian Woosnam having too many golf clubs because his caddy missed the error, disqualified no nonsense and no argument cost him a fortune. Rugby is a similar field sport and you get no nonsense only the captain is allowed to talk to the referee and the captain sticks to it otherwise it is sin bin or worse. Now football would not work with a sin bin a ten minute penalty isn't really that difficult as they can play behind the ball and weather the storm but banning persistent offenders for future games will have an effect eventually. Forget fines and forget enquiries keep it to the rules and keep it transparent no matter if you are Maradonna it is the world Cup and the handball was deemed ok by the fans it's against the rules and a ban should have happened after the goal was replayed and disallowed, nothing difficult in that.

Back to the final and Spain were definitely the team that should have won yes Puyol should have been sent off but Robben stayed on his feet hoping to get to the penalty area he can't claim a disadvantage after he tried to use it as an advantage? Van Bommel? It's all been said but nothing has been done. Finally what the hell was Blatter doing there handing over the trophy it was an African World Cup he's had enough free publicity, meals, wine, flights etc including his salary he can buy a photo and get it photo shopped with him in it if he's that desperate. I would have liked to have seen Zuma and a child from the township presenting that trophy - period.