FIFA World Cup 2018: Football players' lack of respect for game and fans paints ugly image of the 'Beautiful Game'

Though the patient professes to be in robust health, the rot inside is pretty much in the fourth stage. If there was a mirror on the wall and any sports lover asked, “Who is the fairest of us all?”, the mirror would probably crack if the questioner happened to be a football fan. Football, as we are watching, is not a beautiful game. It is as ugly as sin and the England-Colombia match was the nadir of the extreme sickness that is football. Indeed, the FIFA overlords have packaged the game with diabolical precision, but you have to be shocked at the total inability of the administration to control it and keep it honourable. The top marquee names have no respect for keeping their game real. The need to dive and fall about at the slightest nudge is comical, but now endemic. In fact, if there are classes held by coaches on how to dive, I would believe it.

If former Germany captain and World Cup winner Lothar Mathheus advised Neymar to stop pretending and drop the ‘injuries act’, he got it right. But it isn’t only Neymar. Cristiano Ronaldo probably takes the cake for faking it and what FIFA is unable to do is create a game plan to rectify this nonsense. It is detracting from skill and talent, and the fact that these famous billionaire players do not care a jot that the world is watching their shenanigans is indicative of how deep the cancer is. They don’t mind being found out… for how long will the fan accept such disrespect? The same indifference or helplessness is reflected in the uneven refereeing and the cartload of yellow cards distributed rather arbitrarily. At the England versus Colombia fiasco, the referee was manhandled for over four minutes with no rescue plan by the officials in sight. The in-your-face attitude of the players to the referees is insulting, and you only have to watch a rugby game to see how a referee controls big, burly men who dare question him. Then we have this Video Assistant Referee (VAR) with 13 mandarins sitting in Moscow and no one knows why, and three incidents vividly highlight the arbitrary nature of their decisions. “There is no way VAR goes against Russia in overtime in Russia,” was a sentiment that placed Spain on the sidelines. Most viewers thought Spain were robbed of a legitimate penalty, but with seconds to go, who would dare offer the Spaniards a chance to even the score. Even mealy-mouthed commentators on TV channels were nervous about criticising the decision. Senegal had one equally obvious infringement overturned by VAR for Davinson Sanchez’s challenge on Sadio Mane. Come on, despite the pretty slogans about racism, a bit of it sneaks in. When Nigeria’s Victor Moses says they don’t want Africans in the last 16, he has a cogent argument. Nigeria lost 2-1 to Argentina and were disallowed a penalty after the ball struck Rojas’ arm. Penalties have been awarded for less. Who is really being conned here? The fan. And if FIFA does not wake up to the ground reality, there will be a price to pay. You cannot keep fooling the people all the time. The way the players tumble even before being struck and often clutch the wrong part of their anatomy is ludicrous and far too common. Even as the conspiracy of commentators and experts to keep the window dressing intact is in full damage control mode, it is beginning to suffer credibility loss courtesy the obvious nonsense unfolding on the field of play. Between a barrage of false falls, frightened referees, politically-motivated adjudicators and spoilt rotten players, the ball is deflating faster than you think. Click here for full coverage of FIFA World Cup 2018  Click here to view the full schedule of FIFA World Cup 2018