FIFA World Cup 2010: The Cheating Heart Of Football

On June 27th 2010 a very poor England team were defeated in a World Cup second round game by a fairly good German team. Not an outstanding German team, but they beat England fair and square.

Almost.

When Frank Lampard's shot hit the crossbar and bounced down into the goal it was very apparent to the German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer that England had scored under the rules of the game. But he simply retrieved the ball and proceeded with a normal clearance, thereby convincing the match officials that no goal had been scored. Here are his words as reported by Sky News: "I grabbed the ball quickly and threw it back into the game. If I had looked to my right or to my left, the referee would have thought about it again."

The England players remonstrated very strongly with the officials, but none thought to rebuke Neuer for his actions. Why would they? He only did what any professional footballer would do.

He cheated.

It is difficult to accept claims that the course of the game would have been changed by that lost goal . That would imply that if the goal had been allowed, and England had thus drawn level with Germany, its defence would have suddenly become competent, its midfield would not have been swamped, and it would have emerged triumphant from the encounter.

Dreaming.

In truth, England were comprehensively outplayed, and it would take a deluded fool to say that Germany did not very clearly deserve their victory. All we have learned from the match is what we already knew, that England do not have a world-class team, and that professional footballers are totally imbued with the corrupt ethic that cheating is OK.

If you want see real sporting spirit in a football match you need to watch one between teams of sub-teenage kids. There you will see honest endeavour and a guileless approach to playing with skill.

But in any professional game, or even at the upper amateur level, it seems to be accepted that a player can pull any trick in the book. If any opponent comes close, he can pretend to have been fouled, and fall to the ground writhing in simulated agony. At every throw-in or free kick he will do his best to steal a few yards. If the ball has crossed a line, then he can simply pretend that it never happened, nobody will fault him for it.

You see it in every match. Officials are there to be deceived, like the audience at a conjuring show. And when they are fooled by what they think they've seen there is often an outcry, and loud cries for officials to be supplemented by 'modern technology'.

Football would be an enormously complicated game to be monitored by some form of spy technology. If such a system were ever implemented it could only be at the highest level, thus splitting the game of football into two halves that would effectively be separate sports. Even then, the dishonest consensus among professional players would find ways to prevail, just as the illusionist deceives the TV cameras.

The answers may perhaps lie not with high-speed video cameras and motion analysis software, but where the issues have their origin. In the cheating heart of football.