Institutional favouritism at the world cup

[Sandra_hakeem]

It's unfortunate that I have seen this thread late, but I really have to talk about that England vs Ghana match because I watched it. The penalty Ghana was denied towards the end of the match doesn't sit well with my head up to now. I was no fan of either of the teams but even the pundits agreed that that could have easily been a penalty. What is much more sinister is how they never even bother to do any VAR.
Honestly we clearly see through the cracks... Everything just feels rigged/tilted.

People just like to make everything about Lionel Messi. This is an example of an imperfection in the VAR system (though I can't tell if it's a plot and FIFA has a hand in it or it's just the manipulation by the internal referees) but it's nothing unusual. Ghana? The Europeans can't award a pen to a black country, especially when they know too well they don't have the ability to withstand the play, break the defense and equalize, so I guess it's easier to whisper in the referee's ear. Sometimes, I'm lost in thoughts of how George Weah won the ballon d'Or as a black man and no one else has been eligible.

[Cryptoprincess101]

It might be true that FIFA favors certain teams by placing them in groups where they will meet smaller teams, but the question is; if they place some clubs on easier groups, what happens after the group stage matches? the world cup already has a setting on how clubs will meet in each of the stages and it's not even as if they know which team will qualify for the next round. I see that you are saying that FIFA favors some teams and players more than others, it could be true but looking at the group of Argentina, they met Algeria, Austria, and Jordan and of course we can say that they are small clubs but as they advance further, they will still meet though teams. What about Portugal? the only strong team in their group is Columbia but still they couldn't even win them and one of the opponents. In the case of not giving red card to Messi when he committed that bad tackle, i don't really see it that he enjoys any preference treatment, maybe the referee didn't see it as big challenge and besides, the VAR didn't review the tackle, so it is what it is.

[Lida93]

These are unfound allegations and I don't think there are any concrete evidence to back these claims, there may have being some critical mistakes from the part of the match officials in some matches especially in the south Africa's opener against Mexico or in Argentina's opener with Messi being involved in a tackle that many people thought should have earned him a red card but the VAR thought otherwise, more also I don't think the fixtures of the knockout stages were manipulated to suit certain countries either.

There have been rumors going around that Messi is being favoured by fifa but just like you said there is no solid claim to prove that this is actually true. Messi getting involved in a tackle that was supposed to make him have a red card but they tend to forget that if VAR doesn't really spot this it wouldn't be decided as such.

yea that tackling was one that raised a huge controversy from many fans and I think that was one of the main talk of the twin about this unfounded talks about favouritism, that in my view was just one of many referees errors in the tournament but just that it happened with a big name in football and that's why it got that exploded rants.

[Dogedegen]

I believe that corruption in FIFA most often manifests itself in the selection of tournament host countries or in the sale of exclusive television rights. Frankly, I don't believe that FIFA's leadership advises individual referees on their work. 🙋

Referees are human. Like everyone else, they are subject to fears... In my country, an aggressive slogan is popular among football fans: "Turn the referee into soap" (unfortunately, there are many ultras among football fans). It's not surprising that referees are afraid to penalize star players. They fear aggression from fans. In my opinion, this is why we saw lenient refereeing towards Messi and other Argentine players. As for Ronaldo, I believe his punishment was typical of this type of violation.

FIFA is made up of sports officials, and officials are generally unpopular.  However, I think most of the accusations against them are more conspiracy theories than real accusations. For example, I don't believe they have any influence on the draw and the distribution of football teams into groups. Football is simply about strong emotions! That's why so many conspiracy theories arise around it.💁

This is very much correct, and those that claim that there is some institutional favouritism all the way down to the bottom of the chain that is the referees do not have data that confirm this and they do not even know how cover ups work. The data on FIFA corruption is clear, it is mostly concentrated to the top and is about some of the things that you have written here. This works because it is concentrated in a few people who have the power and can make those decisions effectively and keep most of the information and deals secret most of the time. When you think how many referees have participated over the years and if you know how coverups work one would easily realize that this would never work. Someone would tell someone else that they should not and it would start leaking from sources close to those that are involved, that is always what happens when many people are involved. That is why this is impossible, so either real proof would come to light or it is not a thing.