Clambering from the ruins of World Cup 2006

Seed(l)ings without growth

Whatever spooky science goes into the FIFA World rankings, it has no match for the seedings we have witnessed on women’s tennis where both Rolland Garros and Wimbledon have had the top 4 seeds in the semi-finals.

I was driven to distraction with the pundit-mantra about Brazil being the one to watch and the exasperation of Portuguese possibilities built of the antics of melodramatics and remonstration that makes one suspicious of the letter of Phil Scolari’s coaching manual.

Einsteinic calculations of vacuity

We now have a final which would feature from the May rankings, on the eve of the World Cup, number 8 – France and number 13 – Italy. The third place biscuit crumb would be a scramble between number 7 – Portugal and number 19 – Germany.

I suppose that puts paid to armchair punditry, whilst FIFA has now decided to revise the ranking methods to allow for better scrutiny and closeness to reality, the next rankings would be published on the July 12.

However, you can catch a glimpse of the mathematical and statistical gimmickry that produces the amazing rankings here.

Referees – a bad breeze

Beyond the surprises and excitement of Ghana v Czech Republic; Australia v Japan and France v Brazil we would be talking referees and not enough has been said about the need to bring football adjudication into the 21^st Century.

The passions excited by decisions that have gone awry and are not immediately corrected like the triple yellow card or player remonstrations to act against opponents need a clearer sense of assessment and decision-making.

An off-field adjudicator with a monitor and a wireless link to the referee cannot go amiss, you can only see so much on the field of play.

If FIFA can sanction players after a match so can the decisions of referees been reviewed real-time, online and expressly by an additional umpire.

FIFA recommended 44 referees from the 2006 World Cup and of that lot; it is amazing that the Argentine referee who performed well in the opening game and allowed himself to be cajoled in the England v Portugal match amongst other controversial connotations is now to officiate in the final.

Surely, there could be another untainted by controversy or vituperation that could officiate, but far be it for FIFA to present a situation that is beyond reproach – it is exasperating in the least and frustrating at worst – one can only hope that this era of poor management passes on before South Africa 2010.

It smirks of hypocrisy to suspend the Greek Football Federation of political interference only to read of corruption within the annals of FIFA.

My backing goes to the French, but after this world cup, one can only hope for greater and better things that come with more transparent leadership.

tags: greece  referees  italy  world cup  france  corruption  germany  portugal  fifa  commentary  general  news  politics  

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