I stopped watching it after the penalty.
This is not football, it's geopolitics.
This is not football, it's geopolitics.
FIFA’s job is to get the teams that make the glittering diamond to play in the WC without too much fuss and without making any problems. In that context doing shady shit on the playfield would even be counterproductive.
If all (important) national teams feel like the games themselves are fair and that they are heard when there are problems on the playfield then at least that‘s not an additional area of conflict.
For that reason I think it‘s extremely unlikely for corruption to actually extend to the playfield. It‘s just no needed and even counterproductive. I think that might actually be the thing that actually breaks FIFA‘s power, so I would think that they don’t touch it.
Di Maria just destroyed that flank this game.
I would buy that story if it were for China - look at all the ads and they even built the stadium. Too fantasy though since China men’s soccer team is a total joke
They spend 10 times more than the other countries to host the world cup. They want it to be a big hit. That's why FIFA has been saying that this is the best wold cup ever and bla bla bla.
They want something big to show the world. What better than having one of the best players ever win a world cup before retiring?
That's how I see it.
But hey, even a 7–1 beatdown of the favorites can make for a memorable and entertaining World Cup.
It is unusual enough to let people wonder.
EDIT: And just as I write this France draws a penalty!
That said, the denominator/ top team argument only holds if Argentina was the most dominant team in the cup by a landslide (considering the ratio of the total penalties). They weren’t, they performed mostly in the same pack of France/England/ Portugal. Brazil would be the only team that was blatantly more dominant. Another denominator could potentially be number of foul against, and I would be surprised if it is that lopsided.
Did someone count the number of cards and penalties against Arsenal last season?
I'm not defending France or anything. I dislike both teams, my team got eliminated a while ago.
But take a look at Argentina - Croatia. Argentina was way superior after the first 20 min or so, but Croatia was still holding. After the penalty Croatia was no longer playing football. When Argentina scored the second goal the defense was scared of even approaching the ball. A penalty in a tournament like this can kill the morale easily.
This is the money spent on the last world cups.
QAT (2022) US$229 billion[1]
RUS (2018) US$16 billion[2]
BRA (2014) US$19.7 billion[3]
RSA (2010) US$7.2 billion[4]
GER (2006) US$4.9(€3.7) billion[5]
KOR/ JPN (2002) US$7 billion[6]
FRA (1998) US$2.33 billion[7]
USA (1994) US$500.00 million[8]
ITA (1990) US$4 billion[9]
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_the_FIFA_World_Cu...
I often compare it to medicine, where a football match is a drug that is tested with a randomized controlled trial with N=1.
If football matches had a p-value for "the best team won", it would be abominable.
Also I'm talking about Qatar here, not Argentina or France.
Still, it’s an egregious shame and it tarnishes the win.