The Socceranos

Leaving alone the English for a while, I wish to raise some eyebrows again, by mentioning the supposed invisible games that go on behind the curtain of the football break (present and past).
Tomorrow the first semi-final will be played between Germany and Italy, but as it is publicly known now, both sides have been involved already in a tactical game to beat the opponent outside the pitch – Italy took the lead today, with the advertised suspension of Frings, caught on camera attempting to hit an Argentinean player.
The incidents took place Friday, three days ago; FIFA, apparently, was not in a hurry to launch the investigation to what motivated the tumult between Argentineans and Germans and who did what.
Funny how the camera suddenly cut away from the commotion and seemed reluctant to give a clear view of what was going on… was it in the interest of protecting the good name of Football and Fair Play, or to protect one of the teams? We did see the Germans trying to appease the Argentineans, while some of the Latin-American bad-boys seek to hit some of the players…
Then, nothing; silence, almost no comments, pictures, TV replays – nothing like the fuss generated and exploited all week by the media (the English, above all), over the match Portugal v Holland…
The vilest things were said and written about the Portuguese and the team (quite handy propaganda), with no mention or interest for the truth, the good character references by Sven-Goran Erikson, etc.
Yesterday (Sunday), then, there was a hint that someone in the German team could get penalised for involvement in the aggressions with the Argentineans and today, Monday, the day before the semi-final, the news is finally out – apparently the Italians knew about it first than the Germans; the Germans accuse the Italians (who have their own football-league trials going on for corruption) of pressuring FIFA, and the atmosphere is set for the game to begin. Should be a good game indeed.

Theories of conspiracy or whatever, that made me think of all the conflicting interests of power, money, sponsors, and even politics, behind this great competition, and how some – usually the more influential, the more powerful countries, teams, players, referees, people – may influence the outcome of matches, results, champions…
All I know is that if ever there was a team favoured, that has never been Portugal – not because we’re above all that, but because we’re too poor and tiny – the big “kids” don’t let us in and play…and who owns the ball, owns the game...
Beware of the men in raincoats… or maybe the men in white coats...