Soccer Laduma Blog By Clint Roper
Soccer Laduma Blog By Clint Roper
As I write this column, we have reached the last four of the World Cup. There are no massive surprises, really. All four teams have the pedigree and players to be there. Perhaps that Spain did not get close to the final four is astonishing, but in Germany, Holland, Argentina and Brazil you have four teams bristling with talent who were always going to go deep into this tournament. While the World Cup always excites, I feel strangely disappointed with this one. Despite the World Cup being hosted in Brazil, the home of the real beautiful game, I'm not convinced the 'Beautiful Game' is all that well. The World Cup is a mirror that FIFA is able to hold up and look into every four years, and I'm not convinced that 'beautiful' describes the image of this world game that is staring back at them. For one, there is the fact that Brazil clearly was not ready to host this World Cup. Their infrastructure was, and still is not, good enough. The scheduled builds were not completed, and in many parts of Brazil this was a rush job. I'm not sure FIFA has let that happen before, but when people are dying at a World Cup because of rushed jobs, it's not a good thing. The fact that the stench of FIFA money squandered lingers so strongly in the air in a place like Brazil is disturbing. In the build-up to the World Cup, many Brazilians themselves were appalled that so much money was being spent on football stadiums and upgrades, when clearly the poverty in the country and need for schools and hospitals seemed a far more pressing matter for Brazilians. Those who have travelled to the World Cup have told me that things are ridiculously priced, and that for the average man in the street, for whom the game was created, this World Cup was possibly a step too far. Off the field, the banning of Franz Beckenbauer by FIFA over the refusal to co-operate with an investigation into the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup has drawn much attention, and even though that ban has now been lifted, one has to think that where there is smoke, there is fire. That some of FIFA's commercial partners are now looking to strong-arm them into investigating the next two World Cups leaves a bad taste in the mouth of football fans around the world. And on the field, things have not been much better. Diving and cheating seems to be the order of the day. FIFA is adamant to keep television refereeing as far away from the game as possibly to preserve the traditions of the game, but at the same time, this seems to galvanise 'diving' and further encourage it so as to make it an actual 'skill' of the game. There are those that say it's been a good World Cup for Africa, but on this count, I'm also not so sure. Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Benjamin Moukandjo of Cameroon head butting each other for all the World to see, while at the same time being demolished 4-0 by Croatia… and then, for good measure, match fixing claims surfacing against the Indomitable Lions of Africa. Ghana's Kevin-Prince Boateng and Sulley Muntari sent home for disciplinary reasons while a plane full of money from Ghana had to be sent to Brazil just to keep the Ghanaian players motivated while at the World Cup. And all this while the previous African hosts of the last World Cup cannot even qualify, the carcasses of 2010 - the stadiums and infrastructure - lie rotting, for the most part as empty as the promises SAFA have made to ensure Bafana are competitive. No, I can't say it has been my favourite World Cup for many reasons, but maybe in the next four years things will turn around. To the players and teams that remain in the tournament, good luck. My personal preference would be to see Argentina and Brazil in the final, but that would look almost scripted and possibly cast even more scepticism that FIFA has in fact scripted this World Cup from the start. That said, may the best team win! Shapa, Clint
