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FIFA rules out video reviews
Soccer will not consider a videotape review system for referees, the world boss of the game said yesterday, leaving about 50 million French citizens stamping their feet. The rest of the soccer world ought to join them.
The controversial send-off of star French defender Laurent Blanc during France's semi-final win over Croatia leaves the French weakened since a two-game suspension was attached to it. FIFA, the world governing body of the game, has turned down an appeal by France.
DISGUSTED
But the issue also impairs FIFA, the world governing body, in the sense it finds itself defending the indefensible. Even some Croatians are disgusted.
"There is a feeling of sympathy for Blanc and a feeling, too, that Slaven Bilic should not play in the playoff match (for third place today)," Croatian sports writer Frane Soic said.
Those who saw Wednesday's game will recall how Bilic, after a touch by Blanc, sank to his knees holding his forehead in a manner that would make a casting director cringe. It was not the first fake collapse since this tournament began a month ago and in any World Cup rating of theatrics, the star with England's Everton would surely take centre stage.
Referee Jose Garcia Aranda of Spain, referred to in one French paper yesterday as an obvious descendant of one of those Spanish Inquisition nasties, turned to see Bilic's fake swoon to the turf and out came the red card banning the disconsolate Blanc to create a different tricolore -- Blanc made blue by red, or blanc-rouge-bleu. Replays clearly show Blanc retaliating to a shot from Bilic by brushing his hand past his jaw.
So Aranda looks like a fool, Bilic looks like a jerk and FIFA looks like a mule.
"Football is played and controlled by human beings," FIFA president Blatter said. "Football is excitement and passion. I'm against any electronic artifice. I remain firmly against it."
Blatter did have a hopeful note. While he's against in-game use of video, he's all for using videotape for review purposes, meaning some of the players who've made refs look like dopes will one day be getting the official version of an audience hurling rotten eggs at their performances. Besides his countrymen, Bilic is being rapped by the Professional Footballers' Association for getting Blanc ejected with his fakery.
The World Cup is the premier sporting event in the world, Olympic Games included, and it invariably is run well. FIFA is too rich, too well-staffed, too all-encompassing in everyday life throughout the world not to be a highly professional operation.
But it is an autocratic, ultra-conservative one and its style might be more useful in some other professional sport, such as hockey. In soccer, it can be killing because it's a low-scoring game and at this level, where teams are so close, any ripple in a lineup can have a tidal effect.
NEXT ROUNDS: Round of 16 || Quarter-finals || Semi-finals
GROUP A: Brazil, Morocco, Norway, Scotland
GROUP B: Austria, Cameroon, Chile, Italy
GROUP C: Denmark, France, Saudi Arabia, South Africa
GROUP D: Bulgaria, Nigeria, Paraguay, Spain
GROUP E: Belgium, Holland, Mexico, South Korea
GROUP F: Germany, Iran, United States, Yugoslavia
GROUP G: Colombia, England, Romania, Tunisia
GROUP H: Argentina, Croatia, Jamaica, Japan