Blame Club Owners for Europe's Failures
By GEORGE VECSEY
HE conspiracy theories are kicking in about the World Cup ? or, as one e-mail correspondent called it, the Third World Cup.
The fix is in, according to some fans who believe that the world soccer body, FIFA, has favored one of the hosts in this World Cup. (And if so, why South Korea and not Japan?) People in traditional soccer countries, whose teams have already gone down the drain, believe that South Korea is getting a break from the referees, upon orders from the home office in Switzerland.
You can hear those bleats emanating from the European teams that have been left in the dust by the roadrunners from South Korea. Some fans cannot believe that South Korea outhustled and outthought and outlasted their pampered millionaires to reach the semifinal against Germany tomorrow in Seoul, South Korea.
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Meanwhile, Turkey has also reached the semifinals for the first time in its history and will play Brazil on Wednesday in the Tokyo suburb of Saitama. While a European country, Turkey has the exotic feel of an outsider, as the first predominately Muslim country to reach a semifinal. Like South Korea, Turkey has played hard, inspired, united soccer.
If anything, the world should be thanking South Korea and Turkey for showing that teamwork and preparation and persistence still count. The attachment to a national soccer team runs extremely deep among fans, however, including the subway alumni of other countries who now live in the United States.
When Italy runs out of psychic gas in the second half, it must be somebody's fault. When Spain chokes on penalty kicks, it must be a plot. When Portugal plays dirty and then mugs the referee over a red card, it's somebody else's fault.
Whatever else the fans want to believe, the concept of FIFA's arranging for a tilt in the direction of South Korea is downright ludicrous. FIFA is the ultimate house divided, even though his majesty Joseph S. Blatter got himself re-elected by cronies around the world (including the United States, which doesn't say a lot for our values).
Blatter has so many enemies under his own roof that if he, or his opponents, tried to fix something, the other side would be waving the transcripts in a heartbeat.
To its credit, FIFA has indeed tried to broaden its base in recent years, opening more spaces in the World Cup for African and Asian teams and insisting on referees from many countries.
In the broad sense, this is good because it cuts down the Eurocentric look to world soccer, although it is fair to say that allowing only one referee from a soccer-rich nation like England or Argentina could cut down on the talent pool and bring in a few lesser officials ("village referees," Christian Vieri of Italy said with a sneer, before he missed a point-blank shot for the winning goal).
No matter how hard FIFA has tried to include all regions of the world, players still have to go out and play hard. Bad or even mediocre teams will give up goals. In this tournament, South Korea has lived up to its slogan, "Korea Team Fighting."
The South Koreans have given Americans a glimpse of old-fashioned teamwork. We are used to watching the richest clubs buy championships ? and not only in college football and basketball either. The Los Angeles Lakers can afford to keep Shaq and Kobe. The Arizona Diamondbacks went out and obtained two great pitchers and won a World Series. The Detroit Red Wings can buy expensive spare parts that win Stanley Cups.
The World Cup has traditionally been a first-world old-boy club. The insolent waltz by West Germany and Austria in a World Cup game in 1982 ("Here's the ball, Hans." "Back to you, Dieter.") kept Algeria out of the next round. That stuff doesn't happen anymore.
Besides, Europe brought this disgrace upon itself by expanding the soccer season to fill the great maw of cable networks around the world. There are preseason tournaments in August, midweek cup games all season and championship games stretching into May.
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Want to know why Zidane and Figo and Batigol and Maldini all looked as if they were running in quicksand this past month? Because the European leagues and team owners are greedy. One does not hear Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, who also owns A.C. Milan, blaming himself because his captain, Maldini, has aged in dog years. It's money in the cable bank for Berlusconi.
That buffoon who owns the Perugia team had the gall to fire the South Korean glamour-boy striker, Ahn Jung Hwan, after his header eliminated Italy last week. It's a safe bet that owner pockets the swag from the player-killing schedule of Italy's top league.
There's your conspiracy, amici sportivi (sporting friends). European soccer leaders have made money from the dead legs, dead brains and dead national teams. They should bank their Euros, and stop whining when their boys cannot keep up with the South Koreans.
AcrobatMan
) will be shouting against them
