The world of football, shaken and stirred

NOV 23 — I cannot recall a time, outside of the month-long World Cup and European Championships, with all its controversies and personalities, when football made the headlines so much in so short a period.

A tragic suicide, a small nation’s return from football oblivion, a legend charged for shameful behaviour, cheating of the highest order, “blind” referees and, as of last Friday, the biggest match-fixing scandal in European football history.

All of the above in a matter of 10 eventful days is more than the required dose of football news and excitement that one expects to hit the front pages around the world.

The death of Robert Enke was the tragedy which set off this chain of events. His mourning fans saw just how much more his loss will be felt when they witnessed the two alternative German number ones fumble and flop their way through the grief-stricken German side’s 2-2 draw against Ivory Coast in a friendly in Gelsenkirchen last Wednesday.

Both nations are already going to South Africa next June, and could now possibly be looking for easier opponents to gain some confidence in their preparation for the World Cup. None would come easier than New Zealand.

The Kiwis secured their place in World Cup 2010 when they defeated Bahrain 1-0 in front of a rapturous home crowd in Wellington on Nov 14. That Bahrain failed to gain an advantage with the penalty that was awarded them just makes the victory all the sweeter. All Bahrain needed was a score-draw and the away-goals rule would have given them their lucrative World Cup ticket.

But let’s be honest here, the only reason New Zealand made it is because Australia chose to leave their rightful Oceania grouping to join the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), prior to the start of the World Cup 2010 qualifying campaign three years back.

This has now created a scenario whereby, for the first time, two Oceania countries are in the same World Cup finals, albeit artificially . . . at the expense of a more deserving Asian nation, let alone the worthy European nations which have missed out this time around. But that debate is for another day.

New Zealand last appeared on the world stage some 27 years ago at the 1982 World Cup in Spain. Like that last tour of duty, the all-whites are going to be the whipping boys yet again I am sure. Incidentally, they lost to Brazil, (the former) Soviet Union and Scotland by 3-0, 4-0 and 5-2 margins respectively in their World Cup debut.

Also at that 1982 World Cup, a young Argentinian made his World Cup debut as the next great hope of world football since Pele retired. His name was Diego Armando Maradona. His 22-years-young mind, full of desire and heart, failed him as he reacted to the rough tactics of the Italians and kicked out at his opponent. He earned a red card and a ban as his nation was knocked out by the eventual champions.

Scan forward 27 years and little seems to have changed as Maradona was slapped with a two-month ban and a 25,000 Swiss francs fine. He earned this sentence for mouthing off in a vulgar fashion, demeaning both men and women of the press, as well as setting a bad example for children, in a much-publicised press conference after Argentina gained the final automatic qualification place for the World Cup in the South American grouping.

Honestly, the punishment is just a slight tap on the knuckles for the kind of language and behaviour which would have earned him proper touchline bans for more than a few matches, if it happened in a league competition. Over the next two months, there is likely to be nothing significant scheduled for the Argentina team to be needing his services.

He is just lucky, one could say. After all, here is a man who literally rose from the depths of shame in 1982, to come back to the same world stage and end up a hero, becoming the greatest player of his generation by helping Argentina win their third World Cup in 1986 in Mexico.

Yes, the “Hand of God” played a part in robbing England that year, but seriously folks, he only took every chance he had. Besides, with one mesmerising run past a few defenders and scoring against the great Peter Shilton in goal for England, Maradona made amends for that “goal that should never have been”.

Who would’ve thought that history would repeat itself in similar circumstances with a player, whom many had considered the world’s best player just a few years ago.

In an unexpected and dramatic climax to a series of sordid events engineered by the Swiss-German Sepp Blatter (as Fifa president), supported by the Frenchman Michel Platini (UEFA president) and dubiously completed by a couple of Swedish referees, Thierry Henry became the cause célèbre for the introduction of video replays in football, let alone a whole new level of anti-France rhetoric across the British isles.

This was the final disgusting act in this shameful round of play-off matches to determine the last of the European qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup.

To say I am very disappointed is an understatement. Even as an Arsenal supporter, I am left speechless at Henry's cheating to help France through over the Republic of Ireland.

I am always reminded of Robbie Fowler and Paolo Di Canio when recalling heroic acts of selfless honesty in football. Both were incidents in the English Premier League.

Fowler had gone down in the penalty area when David Seaman blocked his path in a match between Liverpool and Arsenal at Highbury in March 1997. The referee blew for a penalty but Fowler immediately got up and gestured to the referee that it wasn’t a penalty. But the referee called it as he saw it.

The former England striker was given the task of taking the penalty and he was duty-bound as a professional paid by Liverpool football club to put the ball into the net as best he could, and he did. But I have never forgotten that incident, which earned Fowler the UEFA Fair Play award for 1997.

Similarly, Di Canio was presented with the same award for his great act of sportsmanship in a match between his West Ham United side and Everton at Goodison Park in December 2000.

He had a clear-cut scoring opportunity deep into injury time, with the score at 1-1. Then he saw that Everton goalie Paul Gerrard was helpless, lying injured a few yards away. So, instead of putting the ball into the net, Di Canio simply picked up the ball and pointed to the injured goalie. What could any teammate of his do but tell him that it was the dumbest yet noblest thing any human can do.

It all boils down to honesty and keeping one’s integrity at the height of the passion that comes with playing top-level football. Henry demonstrated little, if any, of such integrity.

His name is forever stained no matter how much one may argue that the game is already so tainted with diving cheats, violent footballers, shirt-pulling tactics and other incidents of intentional handball which did get caught.

That the referee may have had his view impeded is one thing, but the linesman’s job is to exactly spot these incidents and ensure that justice prevails. He had the better view and there is no excuse for such gross negligence on his part.

It kinda reminds me of the goal which was not given in the match between Manchester United and Spurs in January 2005. The linesman failed in his duty by not watching the ball being fumbled by Roy Carroll and dropping over the goal-line, thereby denying Spurs a winning goal in the 90th minute. Anything can happen when these linesmen take their eye of the ball (pun unintended) even for a second.

Still, last Wednesday’s turn of events had the massive reward of a World Cup place at stake. Was Henry just playing into the script that Fifa and UEFA had written in the first place?

The whole seeding debacle for the play-off round was scandalous in itself without the France vs Ireland match ending up being a symbol of the bourgeoise-favouring methods of football’s governing body. Fifa’s decision to have seedings for the play-offs was borne out of concern that not only France and Portugal, but Germany too, might miss out on automatic qualification from their respective groups.

Most tellingly, UEFA president Platini, who criticised and penalised Croatia’s Eduardo for so-called deception when he won a penalty for Arsenal against Celtic in the Champions League qualifiers last August, has not spoken a word against the greater act of deception by his fellow Frenchman. This totally smacks of double standards.

Ironically, news of a major scandal involving match-fixing in Europe was revealed to the media last Friday.

UEFA and German public prosecutors announced that more than 200 people were under investigation over a racket that fixed or tried to fix around 200 matches across Europe and spanned nine domestic leagues, as well as the Champions League and new Europa League.

But like in the title of my favourite “Star Trek: The Next Generation” episode ‘Who’s watching the watchers”, I wonder who is watching the inner goings-on at Fifa and UEFA, the so-called authorities on football, and the wheeling and dealing that ensure teams like France and Portugal are given an unfair advantage in advancing to the World Cup finals.