JOHANNESBURG – The rules of soccer are jammed together in a long document provided by the sport’s governing body, FIFA. And nowhere, not once in 140 pages, is the word “cheating” mentioned.
Given the stubborn refusal by the men in charge to admit that cheating is either a serious problem, or needs fixing, perhaps its omission should come as no surprise.
But what this World Cup has proved without any doubt is that unfair and unsporting behavior is rife within the “beautiful game” and is a stain on the sport’s credibility.
Few, if any, games at this tournament have passed without clear and blatant attempts to gain an unjust advantage. Some teams are worse than others, but no one is blameless.
And still FIFA refuses to act. Still, it fails to address what may be its biggest problem.
“We have footballers cheating and taking advantage of it to get a result,” said former elite referee Kenny Clark of Scotland.
Uruguay’s Luis Suarez was lambasted internationally for the intentional handball on the goal line that kept his team alive in Friday’s quarterfinal. Suarez was red-carded but Ghana missed the ensuing penalty kick, allowing the South Americans to progress to the semifinals in a penalty shootout.
While Suarez’s action was both instinctive and understandable, plenty of other incidents are premeditated and affect soccer’s reputation. In fact, before you get too upset at the misfortune that befell Ghana thanks to Suarez’s handball and Asamoah Gyan’s subsequent miss and meltdown, think back to the extra time period.
That was when the Ghanians used every trick and tactic to waste time and slow down the tempo of the game. On five separate occasions, a Ghana player fell to the turf expressing varying degrees of mortal wounding only to bounce back to his feet after a couple of minutes of groaning.
Earlier in the tournament, Brazil’s Kaka was unjustly red-carded when Kader Keita of the Ivory Coast feigned injury after colliding with the former World Player of the Year and spending minutes writhing on the ground in mock agony. Then there was German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who gleefully admitted that the way he hurriedly played on against England may have “fooled” the referee into thinking that Frank Lampard’s shot had not crossed the line for a tying goal.
Perhaps the worst moment of all at this World Cup was the way Joan Capdevila of Spain flopped dramatically in the round-of-16 victory over Portugal to provoke Ricardo Costa’s sending off. That Capdevila remains in the tournament and was eligible to face Paraguay in Saturday’s quarterfinal was a travesty.
It is not like FIFA doesn’t have options to address these problems. It is all powerful in the soccer world. It could take action on these other blatant displays of cheating, but it doesn’t.
Perhaps FIFA assumes that the soccer public now simply expects unscrupulous actions from players and it uses that as a shield for its lack of activity. But if just once, like when Brazil’s Rivaldo was hit in the thigh in 2002 and went down clutching his face, a Keita, a Neuer or a Capdevila was sent home and banished from the tournament for their deliberate deception, the problem would swiftly clear up.
This is the World Cup, the world’s game, and it deserves better. It deserves a governing body with some spine. And it deserves an environment where cheats cannot prosper.
