So last night it all kicked off. After 4 years of what seemed like endless qualifying matches (not to mention a European Championship in between) the first match of the 20th World Cup Finals kicked off. It's finally here and, for the first time ever, I couldn't give less of a shit.
Forced to sit through 96 minutes of dull, uninspiring football between two highly technical teams is painful for any football fan. It just doesn't seem right. If you don't want to know the score, you're reading the wrong article. Brazil won their opening fixture 3-1. Croatia, for their part, didn't actually get any of their own players on the scoresheet. Their contribution to the scoreline came courtesy of an extremely dangerous low cross into the Brazilian box, a tiny deflection once in and a rather clumsy attempt at a clearance by Marcelo which ended up in the back of the net. Marcelo, to his credit, would have easily cleared the ball had it not taken that tiniest deflection en route to him. As it stood, he had a shocking game.
It's tricky when Brazil are playing in a World Cup on home soil to accuse any of their players of a lack of motivation. However, if there was ever a blueprint on how not to contribute to the opening match of a World Cup, look no further than Marcelo. A highly successful left back in his own right with La Liga trophies, a Copa del Rey and now a Champion's League winner's medal to add to that, he looked every bit an amateur last night. The attitude he had on the pitch was nothing more than pitiful. It was a sorry sight. After conceding the own goal just 11 minutes into the match, he should have stood up and been counted for the rest of the game. As it was, he left it to his less experienced, but vastly more talented, teammates to cover for him. His contribution was minimal throughout and for someone who has license to roam up and down his flank as part of a now-guaranteed back five, he wasn't nearly as far up the pitch as his mirror, Dani Alves.
Talking of contributions to the match, I feel it is incredibly disappointing to see yet another important game decided by the whistle of the referee. I've always said that football referees do an incredibly difficult job, but that means they need to be the best at what they do. The World Cup refs need to be even better than that. I'm not saying that Croatia were going to win last night, I just have this belief that when a penalty is given, it should be checked and re-checked by a video referee. That shows that the proper checks have been done before giving one team a decisive decision. At the Maracana, that decision was wrong, and Fifa should stand up, say it was a wrong decision to make, apologise and show some backbone in ensuring it doesn't happen again.
That brings me nicely onto Fifa. Oh, the almighty Fifa with its very own dictator, Sepp Blatter presiding over this shambles of a World Cup. There are many times when writing these articles that I think of how much better world football would be without him. The conclusion is always the same, Sepp Blatter should no longer continue as president of Fifa. We shouldn't wait until next year, he ought to have gone years ago. His decisions on football at the highest level are some of the most ridiculous statements it is possible to hear from any statesman. I haven't looked, but I'm sure there's a video of him and all the u-turns he's made while Fifa president. He's been there so long, he drew England's name out of the envelope for the 1966 World Cup!
Blatter has to go. His comments about the allegations of corruption within Fifa being racist were just a smokescreen designed to keep anybody away from an investigation in fear of them being labelled a racist. A very good trick as anyone who goes near it now will be accused of being racist. This plays nicely into Blatter's hands because then they don't start looking into him and his personal life. He had something to do with it, I just can't prove it.
All in all, this just means that I don't give a monkeys about this year's World Cup. I'll support England of course but the whole tournament has been sullied by pointless bureaucracy and overshadowed by a lack of faith in those at the very highest echelons of world football.
And that's without even mentioning the rioting that takes place every day and night in a part of the world where the government gives nothing to their most at-risk citizens. Pathetic.
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