Sh1t final to cap a sh1t tournament to be honest, worst world cup ever! I also agree with Vim, the game has become about choreographed diving and blatant cheating, its sickening to watch sometimes. The histrionics of some of the players when they didn't get their own way, the exaggeration of contact, the prolonged periods spent prostrate on the turf and the one that really, really makes my blood boil, the waving of imaginary cards at the ref leave a sour taste in the mouth.
The Dutch were an utter disgrace last night, Cruyf, Rensenbrink and the rest of the 1970's squad must have been cringing at that display which I didn't think they had in them. Webb was on a hiding to nothing and would have been damned if he'd sent off the two players who deserved it in the first half, and he'll be damned because he didn't. Still, the right result panned out in the end.
The management of the game of football from our national level in the FA, through UEFA and up to FIFA is an anachronistic dinosaur of a machine that needs to take a long, hard look at itself. It cannot get the basic things right. Holding the World Cup in Africa was Blatter's personal crusade and he can't see that the empty seats seen throughout the tournament were a damning indictment of that decision; the people just couldn't afford tickets at the prices being asked. They use technology when it suits them and dismiss it when it doesn't in some hazy, misty eyed belief that the game can still exist in the 1960s when matches were covered by one camera and replays of incidents were just as inconclusive aboiut what happened as watching it in real time was.
They need to start hammering the cheats and divers, if not during the game then after. Dived for a pen? Replay proves there was no contact? Have a retrospective three match ban!
