Why Can’t FIFA Simply Apply the Rules During the World Cup?

Tonight the final of the 2026 world cup will be played between Spain and Argentina. There is already speculation about how Donald Trump will behave and if he will hand over the World Cup in case Spain would win. The fact that Argentina is in the final is a bit of a ‘miracle’ considering how they have played so far and how often they had to clinch victory in the final minutes of a game or even in overtime. What is even more miraculous is that no Argentinian was sent off during the semi-final. The first half of this semi final, together with the game between France and Paraguay were a display of the most dishonest refereeing I have seen in a long time. In both games many mostly South American deliberate fouls without even a ball in the vicinity were not sanctioned with a card. If the referee doesn’t uphold the rules then there can be no real football game. The result was 135 minutes of frustration with no chances to score goals. Poor application of the rules has been a problem for ages during football world cups and this edition was no different. There is also a lack of consistency in applying the rules and when once in this world cup rules were applied and the American player Balogun was sent off with a red card Donald Trump intervened to bend the rules again so that their star player could play in their next game. It didn’t help the American team because they lost anyway. But it does fuel frustration of players and supporters because of the evident unfairness. Luckily we saw some compensation by the new rules to curb teams and players trying to stall for time every time a game has to be resumed after a ball went out or a foul. Gone are the days that players had to be miraculously revived from the dead after a tackle. I read that these new rules are also coming to regular national competitions, thank goodness.