Fairness in sports and other fairy tales

I think I've finally figured it out. Why American sports fans can't embrace soccer, that is. It's the inherint unfairness of it all. We, as a culture of sports fanatics, can't stomach the subjectivity and perceived bias in soccer. There is something within us that gets all crazy and pissed off when we see something like the no-goal in the England/Germany game the other day.

In fact I would speculate that it stems from the earliest days of this country and its need to distinguish itself from its comparatively class-based ancestors. I'm not suggesting that our modern society is not class-based, because it very obviously is, but there's an unrealized ideal in our culture that says that life should be fair for every person regardless of their station in life.

Anyway, I believe that we've been spoiled in the last twenty years by the use of instant replay in this country. All of our major sports leagues use it to some extent or another, and even college sports are beginning to adopt it. Hell, even NASCAR uses it. Tennis, rodeo, field hockey, rugby and cricket use it. We have been conditioned over the past couple of decades to accept that mistakes in sports should not affect the outcome of the contest, and we get infuriated when it does (or possibly does).

FIFA president Sepp Blatter suggested in a 2008 story for CBC (www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/story/2008/03/08/fifa-instant-replay.html) that the mistakes add to the fascination of the game. Wait, come again? The president of FIFA thinks that we WANT to see a team get screwed on a blown call? That, in my opinion, is a huge load of ka-ka. I think that even when our team's rival wins that we accept it if they won it fairly. Did the Irish team think it was "fascinating" that they were knocked out of World Cup qualifying by an obvious but unpenalized hand ball by French forward Thierry Henry? Of course not. They were pissed off. A lot. And rightfully so. Hell, even Henry came out later and said it was a hand ball, probably out of fear of a visit from some embittered Irish fans later on.

Blatter even came out and apologized to the English and Mexican federations this month after the painfully obvious bad calls in their recent matches. His solution? He says they're going to make the refs better but won't say how or when. Nice.

I know that game changing calls are something of a tradition in soccer, and the truth is that they used to be in American sports, too. But they happen far less often now thanks to the use of instant replay. I think all FIFA has done in this is to alienate the U.S. market for its game. To be fair, we're only a small percentage of the potential market when you consider the worldwide appeal of the sport, but we're a comparatively affluent part of that equation.

I'm not advocating that FIFA become like the NFL and try to milk every last cent from fans at all costs, but they ought to at least recognize that there is growing international opposition to their position of having human-only play calling. In the end I think FIFA might have just been twenty years too late to capture the fans of this country. Soccer games were seldom broadcast in this country before the past couple of Cups, and by that time we were unwilling to accept the "fascinating" nature of the Blatter's game. So, to Blatter I say, "Stop being a complete dumbass and embrace instant replay!".

Still, as low as my opinion is on Blatter, don't even get me started on Gary Bettman.