Goal disputes – we think they’re all over – they are now!

International football has come a long way since the first match in 1872, a ‘friendly’ played between England and Scotland in Glasgow (which ended in a scoreless draw to save any heated debate).

Next week will see the start of the 20th FIFA World Cup Finals where 204 teams have been whittled down to a mere 32 with representation from all continents.
Such is the global profile of the game that even the 2022 World Cup in Qatar is shrouded in controversy let alone the coming event kicking off in Brazil on June 12.
Organisers will hope the current heated debate over costs will dissipate with fans focusing instead on the action and the Gulf controversy (newspaper revelations withstanding) will get placed on the backburner as investigations over alleged corruption continue.
That the 2014 competition will be played at all is a surprise to many who believed that Brazil would be unable to have completed the building or its 12 stadia in time with half having missed FIFA’s deadline.
The greatest concern surrounded the venue for the opening fixture in Sao Paulo. However, the Itaquerao Stadium successfully completed its test event as 40,000 watched a domestic match between Corinthians and Figueirense.
The roof will not be completed until after the tournament which means that spectators could be subject to the same hailstorms as those seen running for cover in last Sunday’s game, although organisers stress that this does not impact on the logistics!
Protests remain fervent, however, as the financial implications for staging the global soccer spectacular have nearly quadrupled from the original plans, although the greatest cost was the death of a worker installing temporary seats.
Further protests and strikes are also envisaged which will place greater strain on a creaking infrastructure with fans being warned to allow for significant delays to avoid disappointment. Contingency measures are in place following the successful hosting of the Confederations Cup last year.
The total cost of hosting the event is said to have reached $4 billion although, in mitigation, the Government has claimed this represents less than one per cent of the amount they have spent on health care and education over the last four years.
While the fixture list was finalised months ago this has been thrown into jeopardy by a High Court case taken by the Brazilian Federation of Professional Athletes who are concerned at the adverse health impact of lunch-time starts in some of Brazil’s host cities.
Even though the tournament will be held in winter, the heat and humidity in the Amazon could be detrimental to the players according to a study recently completed by acclaimed sports scientist, Turibio Leite, at the behest of FIFPro, the players’ union.
The lawsuit has demanded that all 1pm (local time; 7pm Bahrain time) matches in identified cities be delayed until 4pm at the earliest. However, with TV rights and transport arrangements in place, a more likely outcome would be games being suspended temporarily for water breaks to allow for players’ rehydration.
Brazil has previously hosted this competition in 1950, which was the first time many of the Allied countries re-entered after the Second World War.
The results of that have haunted the hosts ever since, despite achieving a record five titles, as they believe they were ‘robbed’ by the Uruguayans in the final.
Having secured their third title in 1970 Brazil was allowed to keep the original Jules Rimet Trophy (named after FIFA’s president in 1946) although this was stolen in 1983 with many believing it was melted down.
The current FIFA World Cup trophy is 36cm high and is made of 18 carat gold, weighing a little over 6kg. The winners will receive a gold-plated replica.