Soccer is the most watched game all over the world. It has also been nicknamed as a beautiful game by fans in all countries. There are different levels of football which include leagues, world cup, and friendly amongst others. All these categories are governed by the international body FIFA which serves to ensure quality standards are maintained in this lovely game.
Recently, FIFA made new regulations on how world cup qualification slots would be contested by the six continents. To start with, all places will have equal chances of hosting world cup no matter their socioeconomic predisposition. Nowadays, an open draw determines the play-off cycle, as opposed to the past where pre-planed qualifications were the norm. In the new era, play-offs can feature fifth positioned team emanating from South Caribbean America. To add on, fourth-placed team from Central or Northern parts, fifth from wider Asia and the first placed in Oceania qualifications will be considered for world cup slots.
In Africa, there would be five qualifiers represented in Brazil for the 2014 contests. South America has a greater advantage than other cup contestants as four other teams would be automatically picked apart from the host. Moreover, a sixth can be chosen as a result of play-offs. FIFA executives announced the news earlier this year at Zurich. FIFA also publicized its most updated financial report that confirmed over the past four full years it made a total profit of around 387million pounds, even though the economic director admitted that most of the profits emanated from the just ended World Cup. However, the man later confirmed that the institution has enough financial reserves and does not entirely rely on the contest.
FIFA also promised that it would try as hard as it can to fight the ever increasing betting scams surrounding the game; but the combat would be tough since most of these illegal activities take place via the internet. Much more, European clubs expressed dissatisfaction with some FIFA calendar aspects saying that they stressed their players and affected game results. For example, a player can miss out an important club game while playing for a world cup qualification match back home; they want international matches not to clash with club timetables. Nevertheless, the organization’s president confirmed that something will take some time since there are myriads of club games to cater for.
Just recently, ECA called for more transparency and democratic dialogues on how both international and club matches are regulated. They criticized FIFA for excess international call-ups followed by lengthier seasons rooted by some soccer chiefs. Consequently, the president argued that such movements would be listened to but not sympathized with because international matches are equally important. There were great concerns over the methodology used to determine whether the ball has crossed goal line or not. Some people argued that sometimes the referee may be too far from the post to make accurate decisions. FIFA agreed to try out the new ‘goal-line strategy.’ But it would first have to be tested for efficiency before being implemented.