With Italian football currently embroiled in a match-fixing and corruption scandal, their recent win in the World Cup will probably go a long way to smoothing over a lot of issues. Don't be surprised if the ramifications are as minor this time around as in 1982 when similar circumstances abounded.
Having said this I wouldn't put it past the same people involved in scandal in Italy to have manipulated FIFA in the same way. When people like the Agnellis who own FIAT and Ferrari also own Juventus, and people like Silvio Berlusconi who was European President and Italian president was the president of AC Milan and only just quit in 2004, it's not hard to make the mental leap to realise that some very powerful people could potentially have fingers on button that they shouldn't.
Honestly, I think that there's been a distinct bias against the English speaking nations in the World Cup. Australia and the USA were both subject to obvious directed refereeing against them, and England were on the receiving end of some pitiful decisions which was only really masked by the lacklustre tournament they had.
Does anyone remember the abysmal challenge of Edwards on Owen in the Trinidad & Tobago match? You don't? Well the consequences were obvious when he started limping and was substituted for Rooney and then even more obvious a couple of days later when he went to ground against Sweden.
What did Edwards get for it? Not an iota, not a dot.
Italy needed to win this tournament because just like the last time they did there would be a scandal back home if they didn't. Full credit to them for playing well enough (though boring) to win, but FIFA if it doesn't already should have some serious questions to answer to.
FIFA have openly resented both England and Germany as well as UEFA for having more money and power than them. Since FIFA also control the referees and the "directives" given to them before a match behind closed doors, again I ask who's pushing buttons.
The FIFA Board itself is composed of the four delegates from each of the four British associations as permanent members and four FIFA delegates. The FIFA website describes the Board as "an abiding acknowledgement of the historic significance of the British associations in world football" officially, but in reality resents this position.
Still, it’s not all bad news as there’s only 49 days until the Premiership resumes and we can, at last, get back to watching some "proper football".
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