The referee seems to be biased in giving yellow cards though to be fair I only saw the second half of the match. And also the snatching of Robben’s shirt by Puyol was ignored near the penalty area.

Much as Spain deserves to win, I do have such questions after reading your post.

Argentina V Korean Republic: Apparent total second half collapse by a clearly strong Asian side.

England V Algeria: England seemed very reluctant to complete a pass in the final third. Rooney had no designs on any form of ball retention. Lampard always sought to play backwards, sidewards or to the opposition. Gerrard shooting anywhere but at goal.

Portugal V DPRK: Surely a nice little earner for the Dear Leader’s dear subjects after they demonstrated their impressive bus-parking abilities against Brasil.

France V South Africa: Ridiculous over the top faux-anger from Cisse when Gourcuff was sent off (for nothing – was the ref in on it too?). Like England, no desire to play in the final third.

Netherlands V Brasil: Wasn’t expecting this in a big quarter final tie but all the goals looked really fishy indeed. Complete collapse from Brasil without Netherlands even having to move up a gear.

I’m not saying these matches were definetely pre-arranged results but going on the warning signs Mr Bullivant and yourself advise to watch out for these were the key matches in terms of setting off a flashing light for me. Hopefully we’ll get some better information on what’s really going on at this tournament from heroes like yourself because we certainly can’t rely on our mainstream media.

International Football to me has always given me the feeling for some time that games have been “adjusted” to suite a very large worldwide gambling community! Call the “fixers” what you want in the world, but FIFA’s non-action, either by not disgussing within the press or the sense that it wants NO investigations within it’s walls, tells me that they have something dirty hidden in their soiled laundry!!!

Years of very poor officiating and the officiating scandals that have come to light in rescent years in Football leagues around the world is only the tip of the iceberg, for FIFA to deal with!!!

Mr. Bladder, of FIFA, doesn’t give me the impression that he is a an open-minded person with the media and about change within his wonderfull game. He and his old world friends are in firm control of a Billion dollar worldwide corporation, that has very evident flaws with it.

I believe that it will take more investing by journalists like yourself, to bring the dirty behind the scenes laundry to light, for all fans to see. The only way to hurt these Billionaires crooks is where it counts, in there pocket books. I hope that day will come soon, to clean up this game, and make it wonderful once again!

Just bought your paperback and will read through so apologize if this is a stupid question. What is the viewpoint on ‘fix’ with FIFA officials. Some really questionable card calls by refs in this match.

And let’s face it – the Brazil-Portugal match was a pure fix today. Ref over-carded and saved Brazil from red cards (!) and further Kaka gets a second yellow to ‘exhaust’ the yellow card following him into elimination rounds. Brazil-Portugal was a ‘nothing’ game for Brazil.

Portugal only needed a tie and Ivory Coast really tried to score goals to make it to the next stage.

Sepp Blatter’s lame excuse that he likes the “debate” and the “subjectivity” that are generated by the lack of transparency and public accountability in FIFA officiating certainly leads one to question how serious he really is about protecting the integrity of the game, doesn’t it? How on earth can he justify this horrendous officiating in the belief that it is good for the game? The LAST thing any game official should be is “subjective,” because, as in the case of Koman Coulibaly, it leads to all manner of suspicion about his motive for disallowing the US goal at such a critical moment of the game. Was he merely incompetent? Does he have a personal or political bias against the US team for reasons known only to himself, which led him to decide that he was not going to allow the US to win that game? Or was he bought off by the outside interests that you have worked so hard to expose? Was that game fixed?????

Is THIS the type of “debate” that Blatter wants to encourage as a means of growing the game?? If so, he needs to be ousted as head of FIFA ASAP.

This game needs a good dose of OBJECTIVITY, and that would be achieved through the selective use of instant replay in exactly the type of circumstance surrounding the disallowed goal in the US-Slovenia game. Video replay has been successfully implemented in the National Hockey League in order to OBJECTIVELY determine whether a goal has been scored when it cannot be determined in real time. And I think the game is unquestionably better for it. Another improvement in ice hockey officiating has been the use of a second referee. Since players have been getting bigger, stronger and faster, it has become increasingly difficult for one person to keep up with the demands of refereeing the game. The addition of a second referee provides not only a second set of eyes, but also acts as a counterbalance against biased officiating on the part of one’s partner. And–if nothing else, the presence of a second referee would put a serious (and welcome) dent in the incidence of “diving,” such as the ludicrous dive in today’s Brazil-Ivory Coast game which resulted in a red card for Kaka. That makes a mockery of the game. I think it’s high time that FIFA gave serious consideration to adding a second referee on the pitch along with judicious use of video replay.