With claims of corruption seemingly left, right and centre within FIFA and football at the moment, it’s hard to not question some of the coincidences and claims surrounding the Brazilian side and how the World Cup tournament seems to be favouring them so far.
The Draw.
With claims that the draw was rigged strife around the world wide web, many question how. With many crazy suggestions such as heated balls within the pots or vibrating balls, it all seems a little too far fetched, along with the thought that Zinedine Zidane, Geoff Hurst and Lothar Matthaus agreed to be sheepdog’s for Blatter and FIFA in the plan. The question as to how it would have been fixed is a tough one and one I doubt anyone would know, if it was fixed. But, this doesn’t explain the claims of Argentine journalists who, according to a report from national newspaper ‘La Nacion’, were told beforehand by a “high-ranking member of FIFA” that Alejandro Sabella’s team would be in Group F. As much as that could have been two journalists looking for their career defining big scoop, it also is backed up by the all speaking Spanish twitter account @FraudeMundial14. During the World Cup draw, a number of tweets were posted regarding prior knowledge of what would unfold in the draw just before it took place.
“We profoundly lament that a sport that is so pure is manipulated by an international organisation that acts on its economic interests… We are not trying to rid the World Cup of its excitement and euphoria. However, if this corrupt manipulation goes on we will consider ourselves obliged to publish the name of the winner of the competition, which has already been dictated by Blatter and his company from Switzerland”
Claiming the winner of the World Cup has already been chosen, they never went on to publish this name, casting doubt on their claims briefly, until the next part of the story began to unfold.
“On the other hand, neither is it our intention to ruin all the drama of the World Cup draw. With that in mind, we will only publish the group in which Argentina will play. Let’s begin.”
@FraudeMundial14 went on to correctly predict that Italy would be the team to leave Pot 4 and be instead placed into Pot 4, followed by a tweet naming Argentina’s three opponents within Group F.
“Grupo del Mundial: Argentina, Nigeria, Iran, Bosnia #FifaFraude”
With these tweets comes anchorage of the claims of the two journalists, with prior knowledge regarding Argentina seeming to be known. Although nothing is yet to be mentioned regarding Brazil, is it starting to show that the conspiracy theory surrounding the 1998 World Cup Final has an element of truth within it?
The France 1998 World Cup Conspiracy.
Conspiracy theorists claim that Brazil “sold” the World Cup to FIFA in 1998.The claim goes that France would win in exchange for $28m cash as well as the guarantee that the 2002 World Cup would be “softened” in Brazil’s favour and they would host the competition in the next decade.
Perhaps be-known to many of us, Brazil have previous in the rigging department.
The Opening Match.
Anybody who watched the opening match, which saw Brazil pick up a 3-1 win against Croatia, would tell you – certain decisions seemed to go their way – one of which, one of the softest penalty decisions you will see in any World Cup. Brazil seemed up against it early on after Brazilian left-back Marcelo put the ball past his team-mate Julio Cesar into his own net. Croatia seemed to be finding their flow until Neymar found the net from outside the box on the half hour mark. But as the game carried on into the second half Croatia were holding up well and an air of belief that Croatia could get something out of the game reverberated around the football world. But half way through the second half, Brazilian forward Fred seemed to fall to the ground after Dejan Lovren got tight on his man and in disbelief saw Japanese referee Yushi Nishimura point to the spot. As Croatia pushed for an equaliser, Oscar took advantage on the break and put the game beyond reach for the Croatians
Although Brazil were favourites and on paper certain to win, it seemed Brazil were bailed out by Nishimura, and Croatia were robbed. But another poor display of refereeing was on show in the second Group A match between Mexico and Cameroon, with two perfectly good Mexican goals from Giovanni Dos Santos disallowed for offside. Although Mexico picked up a 1-0 win, the two goals would have made it 3-0 – putting Mexico top of Group A, ahead of Brazil on goal difference.
It will be interesting to see how these decisions carry on and whether Thursday’s incidents seemed to be coincidental rather than conspiracy.
Seat343 