I tried my hardest to stay up and watch the England game last night, but when the one-hour delay was confirmed, I realised that, despite being English and wanting England to progress, I’m not _that_ bothered to be watching them.
To be fair, I missed a cracker, so I re-watched it this morning, and although it’s not the same jeopardy when you know the score, it was still an entertaining watch. Those England players really did everything to put their bodies on the line. Also, that first England goal had Arsenal DNA all over it:
1. Declan Rice’s lung-busting run
2. Bukayo Saka’s perfect cross
Superb stuff. Then, for Bellingham to score so soon afterwards, I bet all the people locked in the pubs at that time were having a whale of it. Me, I was fast asleep. It’ll be Norway in the next round, and that’ll be an interesting match too, I reckon. They’ve proven themselves to be a good side, they have our skipper skippering them, plus the best goalscorer in world football up top, so I think England are going to find it hard going.
That is, of course, unless they can get some kind of hotline to Gianni Infantino. Apparently, if you have his ear, you can just change the rules to suit your own agenda. I am, of course, talking about the decision to rescind Balogun’s red card, so he’s able to play against Belgium in the early hours of the morning tonight. Honestly, at this point, I think we all have to just give up and go home. The hydration breaks have been a joke; a fiscally-driven attempt to line the coffers of the broadcasters in the US and FIFA, too. Infantino has long been a horrendously corrupt individual, and he showed his contempt for everything and everyone football-related back in Qatar. Now he’s just doing it in plain sight. The absolute cajones of the man to essentially rewrite the rules because he’s chummying up to world leaders like Donald Trump. It’s beyond scandalous at this point – it’s morally bankrupt. Blatter was a disgrace, and we all have seen the documentaries about how corrupt FIFA was. They don’t even hide it anymore.
The Norwegian boss Solbakken had some good words to say, and I agree with him. Tuchel also made a good point in his post-match press conference about appealing for everything now. Infantino’s actions (he got a call from the White House about this decision) have effectively napalmed any level of sporting integrity of this competition. It’s not enough that they have expanded this tournament to too many teams. It’s not enough that they’ve changed it with these ‘hydration breaks’. It’s not enough that they have got their greedy mitts into the club-level side of football by creating that pathetic Club World Cup expanded tournament last summer. Now they are just rewriting the rules for those with the most power.
I just [googled the definition of the word ‘corruption’](https://www.transparency.org/en/what-is-corruption):
> Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power or authority for personal or private gain.
That is it. That is Infantino. It stinks. On a day in which we’ve watched arguably the best football match in this horrible tournament with the England v Mexico game, the competition itself feels like it’s a bit pointless, when rules can be re-writen favouring those Infantino is looking to curry favour with. I saw somebody put a message out on social media saying “Has FIFA told us what the score of the USA v Belgium game is yet?” and whilst that Gallow’s Humour is setting in online, there is no doubt a sad reality to how people are feeling.
I feel a bit sorry for Balogun in this. He just wants to play. He picked up a red, he said afterwards he has to accept it, and yet now he’s at the centre of some of the most murky football-related goings on that I personally think I’ve ever witnessed in the 43 years I’ve been on this planet watching football. Even if the decision was a bit of a dodgy one, the VAR also corroborated the decision of the referee. You cannot change the outcome after the dust has settled like this. It also makes a mockery of the referees. They will probably all be feeling undermined as a result of this action. What’s the point in having a person in the middle officiating when it can all just be overruled like this? It stinks.
I’m going to leave it there for today, I think. I really don’t think I want to talk much more about football for now.
Back tomorrow.