FIFA, Favouritism and Football
As I gasped in astonishment and watched the Pharaohs leading 2-0 against the defending champion Argentina on July 7, I was wondering how the FIFA would swallow the outcome of the match, if the final scoreline goes against the Messi-led Argentina!
The South American giant advanced to the quarter final and kept their title defense hopes alive after winning the match against Egypt by the narrowest of margins (3-2), thanks to biased refereeing and controversial VAR calls.
“I won’t watch the rest of the World Cup matches,” said a fuming Egyptian coach Hossam Hassan. The FIFA now faces a serious charge: Was the match rigged to favor Argentina?
The Argentina-Egypt tie has exposed the FIFA’s blatant bias, utter disregard for fair play and depraved mindset: seeing Argentina through by any means, fair or foul.
Following Egypt’s valiant display against Argentina, Manolo Lama, the legendary Spanish commentator, said: “Today we witnessed a great comeback by Argentina and one of the biggest robberies in football history.”
“This is theft and an absolute disgrace. Why did football authorities investigate the incident involving Argentina, while Egypt didn’t get the same treatment?” said Jose Mourinho, Real Madrid manager.
Alan Shearer, the former England captain and currently the BBC sport columnist, was livid as he was reacting to Egypt’s unfair exit from the tournament. He had vented his spleen during a debate on ‘The Rest is Football’ podcast pointing out the inconsistency of the French referee, Francois Letexier. He had said that the referee had used VAR to disallow Mustafa Ziko’s goal due to an earlier foul, but refused to review an identical challenge during Argentina’s late winner. “Either both are fouls or neither is a foul…,” Shearer added.
Shearer was also joined by Gary Lineker, Micah Richards and Joe Cole, who slammed the controversial VAR calls in the match.
Political interference
Soccer fans had seen how the FIFA had set a precedent after President Donald Trump called up the FIFA president Gianni Infantino and USA’s star striker Folarin Balogun was allowed to play against Belgium.
The entire world witnessed how the brazen political inference had spoilt the spirit of the game. Although it had little impact on the field (Belgium won 4-1 against USA), it caused seismic shocks. The decision to lift the ban on Balogun (who had been red-carded) raised serious questions about the Infantino-Trump friendship.
According to ESPN reports, several European lawmakers are now mobilizing support to launch an investigation in the European Parliament against Infantino over his involvement in the Balogun red-card case.
We may also recall how Argentina scraped through in their match against Cobe Verde, the tiny West African nation of half a million that made history in this World Cup.
Oliver Kahn, German goalkeeping legend, made an ironic comment against the FIFA: “If we’re now rewriting history, I have a small suggestion: I would like FIFA to overturn the yellow card shown to Michael Ballack in the 2002 World Cup semifinal, the one that kept him out of the final and while we’re at it, we could very well replay the final against Brazil.”
Football, the most popular sport globally, stands for self-belief and self-confidence and this is what Cobe Verde had shown the world.
Unfortunately, the game has now become only a multi-billion-dollar global entertainment industry with sponsorship and broadcasting rights being given the top priority. The values—fair play, integrity, camaraderie and social cohesion with which the Beautiful Game is associated with—are sorely missing today!
Is the FIFA listening?
