Integrity of game at stake over Fifa Balogun decision

Uefa has strongly criticised Fifa's shock decision not to uphold Folarin Balogun's automatic ban at this World Cup, calling it "unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable".

United States striker Balogun, who was sent off against Bosnia-Herzegovina, should have served a suspension for the last-16 tie against Belgium. (Tuesday)

But World Cup organisers Fifa, the governing body of world football, opted not to enforce an immediate sanction on the 25-year-old, meaning the co-hosts' leading goalscorer will be available to play.

Uefa, European football's governing body, said that intervening to effectively cancel a suspension at a tournament "crossed a red line".

Of the 188 other red cards at the World Cup, only one other player has escaped a suspension.

That was Brazil's Garrincha in 1962, which was before automatic bans were in place and it was shrouded in allegations of political interference.

The BBC's US media partner CBS News has confirmed that Balogun's reinstatement came after US president Donald Trump called Fifa president Gianni Infantino on Thursday and spoke about the suspension.

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Well I’ve been around long enough to know what is so great about soccer or footy a also why it looks completely stupid to Americans.

What’s great?
1.)
Best cardio possible and every kid 5-15 should have it as foundational to a life of good health.

2.)
Some of the best fan enthusiasm scenes possible at least at the world cup level.

The completely and utterly stupid.
1.)
I’ve been watching the WC since England won in ‘66 and Pele was to best leading up to that. It took me years to figure out what was wrong with the sport where everyone faked and flopped to gain a ruling advantage. The skills at playing the game brilliantly are undeniable but even though I could see the fakery it’s not clear exactly why. As a kid playing soccer we never ever engaged in that kind of fakery... Ever.

2.)
In time you realize the game, not the sport itself, is rigged because rules to WC countries are suggestions that are to be decided by someone that knows better than you as to the outcome.

So let me give specifics. The WC is totally a home team advantage setup in form which is OK because there’s always a home team advantage but it should be because of the crowd and that’s a good thing about soccer. The refereeing in favor of the traditional power teams is ridiculously obvious but even so that doesn’t really count too bad until it gets ridiculous. But it does get ridiculous because off the rules of the game and not the game itself.

Time.
Really. The rest of the world doesn’t know what a stopwatch is or how to use one?
Player flops and acts like they’ve received a mortal injury, other players argue with the referees and the clock keeps running? OK but in pure not American style that pure BS is then leveraged into “extra time”. Wait, what, you don’t know how long the “match will be, not how long it will take this day but how long the competition between the two sides will last. Well that’s European where your “betters” will let you know who won and who lost when they decide you need to know. To an American that’s all stupidity artificially stuck on an otherwise great sport. But there’s more.

While the “free kick” situation is different Americans can get that part even though it is wildly disproportionately unfair to the relatively tiny goalkeeper compared to the enormous goal opening that’s OK we have free throws and field goals that decide things too. But the real ridiculousness of the inability to time the match correctly resulted in a “proper” “revenge” by America.

I watched the Brazil match yesterday and at the half and the 90 minute mark they added “extra time”. Over years of watching it is clear this is done to allow for an unexpected and surprising circumstance so that a traditional power to at least get to the totally random and unfair shootout. But it was completely clear when the added 7 minutes but played 11 minutes and 40 seconds. In a sport that takes just a few seconds to score from midfield, that’s a long time after the 90 minute mark in any case. Give Brady or Mahomes 15 seconds and they can score twice so as an American I noticed arbitrarily adding 11 minutes and 40 seconds.

OK...
I could go on but how does America have it’s revenge?
When the Olympic refs used soccer style thinking to add “extra time” in the gold metal basketball game to give the USSR a chance to get ahead AND THEN declare the game over, well that’s why you have the “Dream Team”. The only way to overcome that is ironically to keep eliminating soccer from 5-15 year olds in America and exercise in general.

So soccer is a great sport administrated with BS rules by non-players that clearly culturally find rigging outcomes normal behavior.

We have this exact problem in a completely different area where our SCOTUS has allowed counting ballots created after election day and up to a point when those that know better than us will let us know the result “when we need to know the result”.

One big rigged soccer match...

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