Fifa paid Irish to stop legal action over Thierry Henry handball

Fifa paid the Football Association of Ireland 5m euros (£3.6m) to stop legal action after France controversially beat Ireland in a World Cup play-off.

And this is only scratching the surface of the MASSIVE corruption FIFA was involved in. That's why I said that we may soon have legal and tax authorities from around the world going after FIFA--and that organization could be stuck with a tax bill that could be in the tens of billions of US dollars in value. Ouch.

From a realistic standpoint, maybe FIFA can catch up with the other sports and for me, get cameras or have another referee out there.

As it stands, I even know of a fan here in this forum who is against instant replay for soccer/football.

But I’ve wanted it myself.

The real corruption is in the organization, this looks like it was an officiating error basically, a lot of those. Yes, and in that play, France did cheat and their own news sources call it that. Fifa-ball has seemed to sometimes reward cheating, diving and so on. We will see.

On thing I'd like to see FIFA require is that any blatant attempt at diving will result in an automatic red card sendoff (ejection from the game). If we get that, the incidences of diving will drop drastically, since many of the players at the highest league levels in Europe get paychecks based on the number of games played, and a red card sendoff means the player cannot play the next match.

I’ve always been strongly for sort of a combination of both your suggestions - the use of video EVEN AFTER THE MATCH to punish (severely) both obvious dives missed by the referee and the ridiculous, embarrassing histrionics after a foul to try and coax the ref into giving a card to an opponent.

Well, they’ve started with goal-line technology, which is a start. Also, I think they’re going to allow for limited video review to ensure the right player is penalized in some cases — there have been at least 2-3 incidents in the EPL alone over the last 14 months or so where the ref rightly red carded a player, but issued it to the wrong guy.

I hesitate to go with the red card for diving idea simply because I’ve seen too many yellows issued to guys who go down when there’s some contact, but not enough to draw a penalty kick, and then the ref incorrectly books the player for diving. That’d really suck to get ejected on an iffy call like that - straight red cards are generally for violent or reckless play, after all.

The other thing they really need to do is figure out a good concussion protocol. The constantly running clock and limited substitution scheme make this difficult from all sides. You want the players to get proper evaluation to make sure they’re OK without overly burdening their team or providing a rule loophole for teams to exploit. Tricky.

I should add that the FA does already review video after matches and will punish players for actions missed by the referee (e.g., Diego Costa was suspended for stomping on an opponent’s foot that was not seen), though diving is not one of the things they review.

That’s probably because their guideline is to not second-guess the referee on the field. If he sees the event and makes a decision (or non-decision), no matter how wrong, it’s still his judgement call. To an extent, it’d be like the NFL overturning a pass interference call /non-call after a game is over.

Diving is an issue, but I think it’s overblown in comparison to other sports. NBA players flop on slight (or even no) contact. NFL receivers are interfered with - in their frequently displayed opinion - on every pass attempt. Even baseball players will insist a tag was or wasn’t made (depending on which side they’re on) when they know better.

Working the refs to favor your team is part of human nature. You’re not going to eliminate it entirely. If someone is clearly faking, punish them. In fact, soccer is the only sport that consistently punishes this sort of behavior. Frankly, I’d like to see some technical fouls called against basketball players and unsportsmanlike conduct called on football players for their fakery.

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