>>>>>A dubious penalty in the last few seconds of stoppage time? Give me a break!
>>>>>Should have gone to extension.
>>>>
>>>>I agree but for the reason of the call just follow the money. Which teams will generate the most viewers worldwide, Australia or Italy? When there is a tough call to make the ref will go with the team that will generate the most money going forward. It's always about the money.
>>>
>>>Do you think the referee made all the "money" calculations in a split second of deciding on penalty kick? Seems like one of those conspiracy theories <g>
>>
>>No and thats a silly conclusion to draw. What my post implies is that the referees are instructed to favour the most popular teams in ambiguous situations which can affect the outcome of a game. The ref does not have to do "money calculations"!?
>>
>>The logic is quite simple - World Cup and FIFA are for-profit businesses. They will want to maximize their returns. Nothing wrong with that whatsoever, we all do that in our own businesses as well. Therefore they will want to maximize the number of viewers which in turn affects advertising and marketing revenues and related aspects. And yes referees at that level are more than sufficiently expert to be able to make split second decisions like that.
>>
>
>I think you're completely off base. If you think that was an easy call to make, try making it yourself sometime. In real time.
>
>We may have some conspiracy theories in common but this is not one of them.

Perhaps Mike :) When one looks at all the scandals of corruption in sports, including South Africa's not so long ago cricket scandal involving SA cricket captain Hansie Cronje and the current on-going scandal in Italian soccer, and considering the vast amounts of money and power involved is it really so unreasonable to suspect such things?

Was this particular call biased? Who knows and personally I'm stirring the pot more than anything else since it's not such a big thing in my life. But let me put it this way - if it came to light that some ref's were biased towards large fan base teams then would anyone really be that surprised?

25 mins to Brazil ...