Is there nothing sacrosanct anymore? Is there nothing pure, honest and real left? Has corruption and money become so entrenched in the system that even something which brings joy to billions is tainted and filthy? Just ask FIFA
For those unaware, here is what happened.
USA player Folarin Balogun received a red card in the host nation’s Round of 32 match against Bosnia. As a result, he was suspended from USA’s Round of 16 match against Belgium. At the urging of President Trump, FIFA overturned the suspension, and Balogun was allowed to play.
The FIFA World Cup lost any sense of credibility with this decision, and FIFA President Gianni Infantino, along with the organisation that manages the most popular sport in the world, has become a punchline.
Infantino said- “Fifa’s judicial bodies are independent. They operate autonomously, apply the Fifa disciplinary code, and decide cases based on the applicable regulations and the specific facts before them.”
FIFA also released a 13-point defence of their decision.
Let’s be honest, there are so many clauses in their rules that if they really wanted to they could probably get Italy into the World Cup.
Belgium hammered USA 4-1, which cooled things down, but that doesn’t take away from the lack of integrity on display.
This move by FIFA is another display of the moral compromise that is pervasive throughout the sports world. Every sports league has sacrificed some level of fairness in the name of something else.
In cricket, India and Pakistan are always drawn into the same group at ICC tournaments to ensure they play each other at least once. Is that truly a fair World Cup draw? No- it’s actually a bit of a joke. Similarly, past Asia Cups have built in a rain-day provision for the India-Pakistan match alone.
In tennis, there have long been complaints that only the sport’s biggest stars get night matches at the Australian Open, a clear advantage. Day matches regularly see temperatures climb into the high 30s and low 40s, while evening matches take far less of a toll on the body over a two-week tournament.
Why does this happen? So that when Roger Federer gets a night match in Australia, organisers can capture the Asian evening, European afternoon, and US morning TV audiences all at once. More TV audience equals more money.
Some might say what FIFA did crossed a line. Reversing a red-card decision reduces the value of cards in any game to nil. If any country can get a decision overturned, what value do they hold at all?
If there’s a scale measuring compromised ethics in sports, FIFA sits at the worst end of it. No question about it.
Then again should morality and fairness have a scale? Can you be slightly pregnant?
More importantly do we really care? Nope.
We don’t care that the World Cup groups are pre-fixed in cricket, because we want to watch India vs. Pakistan. We don’t care about the tennis scheduling, because when we get home from work, we want to watch the biggest stars play.
I’ll go so far as to say that if this red-card reversal had involved Messi or Ronaldo, the outcry wouldn’t have been nearly as loud. Why? Because we’d want to watch them play.
The interesting part of this decision is that most football fans in the world wouldn’t be able to pick Folarin Balogun out of a lineup, let alone pronounce his name correctly. So it’s hard to see why this decision was made. It makes no sense and raises more questions than answers.
FIFA’s decision was wrong, absurd, and should never have happened. Was it shocking? Not really- there’s an angle here we’re still missing. Until that is answered, it can be added as another mystery in the long line of football enigmas.
Till then look in the mirror- we are happy with most of the decisions sports bodies make and we know it.
Source of images linked in pictures.
