Quast

Football-the beautiful game, or so it? The below-power world cup and Italian match fixing scandal has shown that its beauty is only skin deep. After 1990, the 2006 world cup was one of the dullest world cups ever played. So few goals, so many cards and of course the 'Zidane head-butt'. Although Matarazzi was equally at fault, the head butt was totally unacceptable, especially from a player who is "GOD" for many soccer fans. All the favorites under-performed and all the stars failed to shine. In all it was a world cup to forget.

Gone are the days of MARADONA and PELE when an average of 4-5 goals was scored every game. Nowadays, the game has become too defensive and teams prefer packed mid fields. This is highly prevalent in the English Premier League which is ironically the most "viewed" football league.

In accordance with concentrating on skills teamwork etc., teams practice "diving" to win fouls and feigning injures to waste time. This is common in South America where ironically the most "talented" football players are bred.

The eleven yellow cards and four red cards in the Portugal-Netherlands clash this world cup speaks volumes of the level of refereeing today. The level is constantly depleting as most officials are doing is for the money rather for the "good of the game".

Racism is also poisoning the game. Samuel Eto'o, a candidate for the Player of the Year award was booed and monkey noises were made when he was playing a leagues match for Barcelona, which is ironically also known as "the Peoples club". His teammates and manager convinced him to continue playing and he silenced the crowd when inspired his team to win. This is a reason why African and South American players do not play in England.

Gone are the days when Mara Dona used to wake up an hour before the match and still be on the starting eleven. Nowadays, no one messes up with the manager and gets away with it. No player is above the manager, but this has proved expensive in many cases. Stars like David Becham are sold due to personal reasons rather than management decisions. International managers are often "pressurized" by club managers, club presidents to include young players of their clubs so as to increase their market value. This causes experienced players like Raul, Becham, and Ruud to be dropped from their countrys squads. "Smart" players are being bought for their merchandise's value rather than their actual game play and "ugly" players are often shown the back door.

Leading brands have been accused of producing "attractive" Soccer boots rather than those with better performance. On the other hand hats off to barns like Nike for lifting talents like Robinho and Ricardhino from the slums of Brazil with the help of the "Joga Bonito" organization.

The Italian match fixing took the world by surprise. Multi-million clubs like AC Millan and Juventus paid heavy prices for match fixing, but the heaviest looser was the "BEAUTIFUL GAME".

The less one speaks of Indian Football the better. Referees pause the matches to answer their cell phones, a team scores more than a 100 goals in a match, a Brazilian of the Tempo club died of a heart attack on the field and there was no immediate medical facilities and the list goes on.

Whatever happens one thing is for sure; if soccer makes the world go round it is definitely spinning the WRONG WAY!