World Cup Have Your Say on TV

How can the BBC churn out such banal tripe as, 'Everyone in Spain sees the Spanish team as national heroes’, or whatever it was that ended the so called report I heard this morning as I was going out the door.

Has your 'journalist' never heard of Cataluña or the Basque country?

I know that football is basically all ra ra ra, but for God's sake, does no-one check these things? Especially after making so much fuss about who supports who. It’s like reading the Sun

Spain

About the 2014 Cup in Brazil, Hamilton, who spoke in the show, is correct in his assessment that there will be both political repercussions and the inevitable corruption scandals we are all used to witnessing here in Brazil. That having been said, Brazilians are a cunning and resourceful people so that we can be certain that the Cup will happen in plausible conditions. Let's just hope the local infrastructure is genuinely ready to receive it by 2014, and not just makeshift.

The world Cup matches were riddled by poor refeering, wrong decissions, not allowing goal scored by England, not awarding the Dutch a penalty in the final game, the issuing of the most yellow cards in the history of the final game, when only much fewer should have been awarded. There can be no excuse for not having the technology in improving the game, for a start, when a huge querry by one team against the other, the game should be stopped for a brief moment to look at the replay on TV and the right decission made. At least 4 linesman, 2 on each side should be kept to watch out for fouls, ie: hand ball, and offsides. In America baseball, basketball, football and others, any dispute is carefully scrutinised with their technology so as to arrive at the right decission. Bad refeering should be punished for their wrong and bad decissions. FIFA is mostly to blame whereby they make a huge fortune and not provide the necessary safeguards and technology for a fairer game.

Elias, FIFA is going to look at introducing more linesmen and perhaps technology. About time.

I disagree about too many yellow cards. That final was a disgusting display of vicious fouls and pretend agony of those on the receiving end of milder fouls. At times I thought I was watching a street fight. I would have given red cards for many of those fouls, especially the one where the Dutch guy came in with his boot up, nowhere near the ball, kicking the Spanish guy in the chest.

It's high time FIFA cleaned the game up. Getting much stricter on fouling and dissent would limit their practice. Then players would no longer resemble thugs in the street outside a nightclub at 2am.

@5 TrueToo

Don't get fooled by FIFA: all they are discussing (which means it may be quietly shoved under the carpet when the world has forgotten about that England goal) is goal line technology. To effectively get today's players and foul tactics under control you'd need the following measures.

- Goal line technology (was it in the goal or not?)
- Perimeter technology (is it a corner/throw-in or not?)
- Video surveillance for the referee to refer to within seconds something controversial happens (was it offside, was the attacker tackled in- or outside the penalty box, was it a foul or a feign?)

The first and second measures can be automated: the ball could have a RFID chip and the referee a sort of watch on his wrist with two lights, on that lights up when the ball crosses the goal line, the other when it crosses the perimeter. The third measure requires active surveillance, the camera work can be done by the crews that film the match for the audience, with the fourth official watching the match so he can tip off the referee when he sees something suspicious, or give the referee advice. It all costs a lot less money than FIFA would have you believe because RFID technology is very cheap, their already is a fourth official and even in Africa matches are filmed from every angle already.

I agree with TooTrue and ModernJan. Spain played the ball, Holland played the man, and the referee played the game. The endless fouls spoiled the game. If anything the ref was too easy. He should have handed out a few reds which would have sorted out the Dutch idiots but probably ruined the match. He was trying to keep it going.
FIFA must do something but they have a pathetic history of weakness. The FIFA board has too many old men who are frightened of technology.

ModernJan and Delewar, agreed. Well, let's see what happens in 2014.