Fair Play Takes a Real Beating Down Under
There’s finally something useful FIFA can do with that yellow “Fair Play” banner that children parade out onto the field before international matches.
World soccer’s governing body can burn it.
The banner was never more than a public relations gimmick anyway, yet another sad instance of political correctness trying to cover up harsh reality. Image over substance.
Those who want to know about fair play should talk to Tuahiva Fincfeuiaki. He’s the Tonga goalkeeper who watched Australia hammer 22 goals past him in a World Cup qualifying match on Monday.
Or they can have a word with Tunoa Lui. He’s the coach of American Samoa who saw his team of teenage amateurs torn apart as Australia obliterated World Cup qualifying records with a 31-0 victory on Wednesday.
In the latter game, Australian striker Archie Thompson scored 13 goals, breaking an 89-year-old record. The feat, to his credit, caused him some embarrassment.
“You have to look at the teams we are playing and start asking questions,” he said. “We don’t need to play these games.”
He’s correct. Australia does not need to play them. There are only two countries in the Oceania region that have ever qualified for the World Cup: Australia (1974) and New Zealand (1982).
The other Oceania nations never have and likely never will. Their World Cup is a quadrennial parade of lambs to the slaughter, each one wrapped in a “fair play” flag.
The notion that the region’s small island nations should be subjected to such sporting torment on a recurring basis is ludicrous. It does nothing to help the sport grow in those countries and, in fact, harms soccer’s reputation internationally.
But FIFA claims its hands are tied.
“It is up to each confederation to choose how they want to organize their World Cup qualifying competitions,” Keith Cooper, FIFA’s director of communications, told Reuters. “It is not FIFA’s responsibility to tell them how to do it.”
There is some sentiment, even in Australia, for the system to be changed.
“It is too late to end the carnage this time around, but there should be no repetition in four years,” Michael Cockerill wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Frank Farina, Australia’s coach, comes in for a share of the blame, although his position is at least somewhat defensible.
Farina called his team’s 22-0 win over Tonga “disgraceful and embarrassing,” but that didn’t stop him from telling his players to “score as many goals as you can” against American Samoa.
“As a coach, my responsibility is to Australian soccer and to get us to the World Cup finals,” he said, indicating that goals were necessary in order to assure Australia of finishing ahead of Fiji on goal difference should the two countries end up tied on points.
With that in mind, Farina called in eight of his European-based players for the qualifying tournament, thereby sparking another club-versus-country feud.
“‘It says enough about the stupidity of the situation when a team is winning 22-0,” said Dick Advocaat, the Dutch coach of Rangers in Scotland, which provided two members of Australia’s team.
“And the annoying thing is that the Australian manager clearly does not need all his overseas players to win a game like that.”
When Farina suggested that Oceania should change its qualifying format, he was shot down by Basil Scarsella, the Oceania Football Confederation president.
“‘FIFA is not worried about what Farina thinks is a lack of competition in the region,” Scarsella told the Australian newspaper.
“I suggest he concentrates on coaching the Australian team rather than worrying about the administration of soccer in the Oceania region.”
Should Australia, which defeated Fiji, 2-0, Saturday, win the group after the final matches are played today, it would advance to play the winner of the other qualifying group, almost certainly New Zealand.
One of the starters on the New Zealand team is Galaxy midfielder Simon Elliott, who believes the qualifying format needs to be reviewed.
“Perhaps the island nations should play off among themselves and then one or two of them should join Australia and New Zealand [in a later round],” Elliott said.
In the past, Australia has made a push to play in Asia rather than Oceania.
“It’s understandable,” Elliott said. “It’s better games. You feel like you deserve to be there [in the World Cup] if you beat some of these teams in Asia. If you beat some small island nation in the middle of the Pacific that nobody has heard of--not to be rude--have you really justified your place in the elite of the World Cup? Probably not.
“I don’t think it will happen, though. I think FIFA is committed to developing soccer in Oceania and it’s just an unfortunate geographical situation that we have to deal with. “
By the time qualifying for World Cup 2006 arrives, hopefully fair play will come into the equation.
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Soccer’s Most Lopsided International Games
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DATE SITE RESULT Apr 11, 2001 Coffs Harbour, Australia Australia 31, American Samoa 0 Apr 9, 2001 Coffs Harbour, Australia Tonga 0, Australia 22 Feb. 14, 2000 Kuwait City Kuwait 20, Bhutan 0 Jan. 26, 2000 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam China 19, Guam 0 Nov. 24, 2000 Tabriz, Iran Iran 19, Guam 0 Jun 8, 2000 Papeete, Tahiti Tahiti 18, American Samoa 0 Jun 2, 1997 Damascus, Syria Maldives 0, Iran 17 Jun 19, 2000 Papeete, Tahiti Australia 17, Cook Islands 0 Sep. 28, 1998 Brisbane, Australia Australia 16, Cook Islands 0 Nov. 26, 2000 Tabriz, Iran Tajikistan 16, Guam 0 Dec. 5, 1998 Chiangmai, Thailand Mongolia 0, Uzbekistan 15 Apr 19, 1998 St John’s, Canada Guyana 14, Anguilla 0 Apr 15, 1998 St John’s, Canada Grenada 14, Anguilla 1 Jun 11, 1997 Sydney, Australia Australia 13, Solomon Islands 0 Apr 28, 1987 Toluca, Mexico Mexico 13, Bahamas 0 Apr 7, 2001 Coffs Harbour, Australia Fiji 13, American Samoa 0
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Note: “Home” team listed first
