- Arsenal are the most penalised team by referees among the current top four.
- When we played Man U and the ref and VAR ref were both from Manchester
- The bent triangle: four major issues that show all is not right with refereeing
By Tony Attwood
Not many British people living in the UK read newspapers from outside the UK. But if they did they would realise that the picture of the world cup that is painted in the UK’s media is different from that seen in many other parts of the world.
For example, the German newspaper SZ recently gave a review of what is happening in the world cup that is totally at odds with the tales that we read in England. The report is behind a paywall, but in essence, the 1000-word article states that “Fifa has been broadcasting its own reality from Qatar to the world.”
What the TV pictures never show are the many empty seats in the stadia, which leads to inaccurate talk of sell-out games, nor the posters critical of Qatar, Fifa and the human rights record of both. And of course, there is no mention of the gradual unveiling of the biggest corruption scandal ever to hit the EU which is of course focussed on Qatar.
That latter event is being mentioned in the UK media – but not directly in relation to football. It is as if the scandal and the world cup are separate things! (See for example World Cup host Qatar implicated in European Parliament corruption scandal)
Refereeing at the world cup, if we believe the pictures we have been shown, has been of the best, and VAR is sorting out the final details of the last centimetre or two, which is absolute nonsense. We see fans celebrating, not the questionable events of what is really happening.
So this has now gone far, far beyond the fact that the English media criticises players but not referees which we often note. We have had moments of it before as when the media revealed how Chinese TV is manipulating images of matches and supporters but I don’t think we have had this level of manipulation before.
Indeed it is as if Fifa and Qatar has seen how the English media refuse to criticise referees or comment on their odd statistics, and thought, “that’s a good idea – let’s see if we can take it a bit further.”
We knew that Qatar would not allow interviews with people at games unless they were fully approved, and scenes involving controversial handball offences, will not be shown. VAR will often not be viewed (if it doesn’t fit with the fair play narrative).
There is the case where Saka was brought down by Upamecano just before the first goal and VAR had nothing to say about the situation. “The officially recorded replay only went back to the moment Mbappé set off with the ball on the left wing – it did not start with Upamecano’s action,” says the German report.
Of course, Fifa won’t say anything about this, but it knows, and we know this is a precedent because it is selecting carefully what information it gives to the referees. And referees know this, which means that any referee who agrees to work for Fifa is agreeing to work for an organisation which is deliberately manipulating results.
We know that the production company HBS, operates 42 cameras but it is Fifa that decides which decisions go to VAR and which are ignored. In short, it is manipulating games to help get the results it wants.
As a result, and as the SZ report points out, “TV commentators from various countries [have] repeatedly expressed their incomprehension during the games as to why some scenes were not shown again.” Of course this is just the start – the first time (I think) that we have seen wholesale manipulation of the images from a game by Fifa. With each tournament, the technology gets more sophisticated giving Fifa more and more chance to be able to pick and choose how it wishes games to be seen, and ultimately who it wants to win.
With each tournament, the English media are in more and more of a bind. They won’t ever criticise PGMO decisions, and so are now drawn into taking Fifa’s word for what happens in what are evidently fixed games.
lt me mention the ball over the line that helped Japan make it through to the knock-out stages instead of Germany – Germany which has been the country most critical of FIFA. Numerous studies show the ball was out. But it was ruled ‘in’ and thus Germany was out…talk about a coincidence….
This is not to say Japan did not merit it more then Germany, but just to show how there seems to be something odd happening.
In Geneva, there was a demonstration a few days ago in front of a UN building. A demonstration in support of the FIFA Qatar WC… Not that it drew a large crowd, but it did happen.
Interestingly, reporters have uncovered that visibly quite a few of the people were being paid for their presence…
Uuuuhhhh….
Is the France vs Morocco Semi final not on tonight?
Royal Air Maroc have cancelled up to 30 flights to Doha today due to Qatari authorities restricting inward air travel, including those from Morocco with supporters who have pre paid for seats at the semi final. No reasons have been given and I can find no mention of whether French fans have also had their flights in cancelled. For clarification I get this info from Inside World Football.
Yes indeed the story is all over the media today. No one seems to be able quite to work out why. Certainly the crowds at some of the WC games have been quite modest, but with Qatar controlling all the TV cameras, we tend mostly to see those parts of the ground that are full.
@Sel,
well, the equation would look simple : Qatar = PSG = France….
or FIFA = advertising revenue = Argentina – France
each one makes sense, and the 2 added together make a lot of senseas far as I am concerned. And I’m not sure anyone much cares about flights from Morocco to Qatar and the individuals who bought tickets. And I bet that any diplomatic row that may erupt will be solved by some kind of money ending up in Morocco in the future.
It is not that supporters are considered at all, and if you look at what happens in the PL with games moved just for TV with absolutely no thought given to supporters, I’d say this is nothing new, is it ?
I enjoyed the image of Infantino at the France vs. Morocco match tonight. Somebody had actually sat next to him – Macron.
Ashleigh Neville actually received a red card tonight in the WSL match between Tottenham and Everton. She regularly escapes without receiving a card in the matches I have seen her playing in against Arsenal, although many of her challenges are quite dangerous. Giovana Queiroz Costa came on as a substitute for Everton after 77 minutes. In the 90th minute Neville was sent off for a “late lunge” on substitute Giovana. To rub salt in the wound, Giovana scored in the 95th minute to complete Everton’s 3-0 rout of Tottenham. Giovana is on loan to Everton from Arsenal.