Big Boy wrote:
Assuming it is true, any team with players from Serie A (in particular playing for the named 4 teams) should be suspended from this tournament with immediate effect. The only way a team can be corrupt is for the players within that team being corrupt. This incident totally de-values the premier footballing competition in the world, if they allow these cheats to continue playing. At the very least the players involved should be withdrawn.
Is there any point continuing with this competition? Italy can continue to buy victory, but at the end of the day, when proven, the competition will have been a farce.
the FIFA World Cup, designed by Silvio Gazzaniga and produced by Bertoni of Milano
If they want it that badly, could they not make another one and pretend?
You would not have at any time in the past used the names captainsensible and getreal by any chance would you.
Big Boy wrote:The only way a team can be corrupt is for the players within that team being corrupt.
Well not according to the English media giants BBC. It is stated that
Twenty-six unnamed people - but no players - are also set to stand trial.
In some of the other nation's corruption scandals, players have been accused (Bruce Grobelaar for one who spent most of his career at an English club). The current accusations are not pointed at players but at the club management and the referees and linesmen. You can only be accused of bribing a player to lose a game. Bribing him to win is acceptable and common practice and in many cases written into their contracts. This is born out by the fact that two of the accused teams were first and second in Serie A.
If the preposterous suggestion that you put forward that all players for the four teams (and it may become six if my sources are correct) have their national teams banned from the World Cup without a court hearing, I think you will find that at least ten teams would be dropped from the remaining 19 contenders for the last sixteen. England would of course be one of the teams that survive and without thorough checking Australia and Germany would join them with perhaps one or two others to make a remainder of six to seven teams at most.
Of course though if that action was taken FIFA would have to ban all the nations that had players playing for German clubs who were involved in the German referee match fixing scandal of a few years ago. Based on the fact that Owen Hargreaves plays for Bayern Munich and England.
Looking at Italy's performance yesterday can you really accuse a team of cheating when two of their players are allowed to moved forward unchallenged with just the goalkeeper to beat (albeit probably the second best in the world).
As for the trophy itself. The Brazilians were given the old Jules Rimet Cup for keeps in 1970 as they had won it for the third time. Many nations were requested to design a new one. The most famous English designer was a gentleman called Thomas Crapper (then deceased). They dug out some of his designes and came up with a trophy that resembled a toliet with hadles on the sides. It was a close call but the Italian design was chosen by a narrow majority. Another English idea at the time was to create a figurine of Pickles the dog until it was pointed out that Korea were expected to compete in most future World Cup Competitiions.