World Cup 2018 Pt. 1

I am disappointed.

For four years we have looked forward, as we do every time, to the FIFA World Cup.

That’s ‘we’ who are avid football fans.

Some of you are aware that I enjoy Club Football. International football is never the same.

Sad, but true.

International football tends to garner a bunch of excellent players who fail to gel and play together as a team.

Such is true of most International team sports, of course, when compared to Club or County teams.

Nevertheless, the World Cup has a special place in my heart.

It is a month of concentrated football where we can sit back and enjoy the multitude of talents on display.

Not this time.

There have been a number of teams, mostly, I am unhappy to report, South American sides whose sole endeavour is to cheat.

This is not restricted to South American sides and there are teams from that beautiful place who have not resorted to these vile tactics; I am not trying to paint everyone with the same general brush.

It appears to me that some of the best players in the World – by reputation, have resorted to some of the meanest tactics.

Neymar, for example, is a superb player. No doubt about that and yet he spends much time in each fixture simulating fouls and appealing to the referee for a free kick or, worse, a penalty.

The last time he played I noticed four appeals for a penalty – one of which he succeeded in being awarded.

Ronaldo is another one who does not need to play act and yet he does. Exaggerated rolling around to convince the referee that he is mortally wounded does not cut it for me.

In my experience as a referee the players who are actually hurt are inclined to lay still. Furthermore, clutching your face/head after being tapped in the leg is less than convincing.

There is too much of it.

Last night I watched, with considerable interest, England take on Panama.

In one instance a player named Godoy fouled the England striker Kane in the penalty area. What irritated me was that the VAR (Video Assistant Referee) team failed to pick up the fact that he punched, viciously, Kane in the back just blow his (Kane’s) neck. This is violent misconduct and deserves an immediate red card but nobody seemed to see it. Yet, in my household, even my wife, who was not really watching, shouted, “Whoa! That fellow hit the chap in the white shirt!”

Watching the Panamanian defender, Torres, was also upsetting. Very often when there was a free kick awarded to England Torres was hurling abuse at the Egyptian referee – it seemed as if he was constantly in the referee’s face. No card. Staggering.

The quality of the football and the skills on display are marred by these gratuitous antics. It is depressing.

I am hoping that when Belgium and England meet we shall see something better, more rewarding. The idea of Russia and Uruguay playing is less than appealing!

We need something that will warm the heart and bring football back to our screens.