Last week we had this horrific scene on TV of one of the opponent players landing what looked like a karate chop on the star Brazilian player Neymar.

Neymar has a broken vertabrae and he has to thank his stars if he is not paralysed waist down for his entire life. Even if it is so, the news will be out only after the world Cup is over.

There is no statistics to tell as to how many of the youth have been paralysed while playing football at the club, provincial or national level in their countries. No one knows how many of them had their knee made mash and leg bones cut into two by the opponent's boot.It is the incessant propaganda by the TV news channels, hospitality and advertising industries that has made this "dangerous game" a "beautiful game".

At least in a sport like heavy weight boxing the opponents use only their hands and fists and what to expect. But in the guise of dribbling the ball with their feet all other martial arts like karate, kung fu, judo etc. come into play and make victims of innocent youth who just want to bask on instant glory in front of a crowd.

Really can't understand what is so beautiful with this game. Can anyone accept if the wicket keeper grabs the bat from behind and prevent the batsman from playing the ball. Or the bowler grabs the non-striker from taking a run. Or a Carlsen grab the hand of Vishy Anand from making a move. Yes they can and they will only if the game is nicely packaged and thrust down their throats by the media as per the diktats of the advertisement and hospitality industries.

Here we see the players grabbing the shirts of their opponents any number of times, preventing them from taking control of the ball.

There is this unbearable stink of narccism, when they claim that it improves the reflexes and the functioning of brain people playing football. Unlike a comparatively small swinging new cricket ball bowled at 145 kmph, to be seen by the opener like Sewag and despatched to boundary in a fraction of a second, the goal keeper is found woefully inadequate. He is forever moving in the wrong direction and the goal is saved most times by his own team players crowding around and deflecting the ball. If and when the ball gets kicked straight in his direction, he makes a big scene in diving and grabbing the ball but rarely there are any reflexes.

If at all the football goalies want to improve their reflexes they should take to cricket, stand in slips when the new ball is bowled try catching a few edges and try to emulate cricket players like Bobby Simpson and not be narcist about their game.

In the end, one really can't blame the players, when all the blood flows to the feet and not to the brain,man becomes what we call cattle or "kaal nadai" in Tamil.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Right time to ask Brazilians

The game you are criticizing is fanatically played and watched by more than half of the world and played in all seasons at various levels. Countries and people from all race, language, religion love to play this game be on grass or on beach. It tests stamina, skills, team work and strategy and is extremely competitive.

Injuries are part and parcel of every game including cricket, remember cricketer Raman Lamba died after being hurt in field !. Horse riding , polo is worse from back injury perspective but is one of the oldest played game by royals. similarly there are many other dangerous but not so entertaining games.

I wonder what will you do when a ball is rolled in your direction in an open park ?

That the game is fanatically played is accepted. But there certainly are doubts whether it is to test the skills, stamina etc or to hurt the opponent in the garb of doing so.
Another of the hoax is the claim they are using lots of brain like in a chess in making formations like 4-3-4, 4-4-3, etc etc, just like a chess player. But in the end we find all 10 players crowding around their goalie. Raman Lamba was standing close-in and did not make direct contact with his opposition player. Nothing comes closer to the injuries suffered by the football players, hurt by their opponent players, may be other than heavy weight boxing. Even in heavy weight boxing, nobody grabs the opponent hands from landing a punch unlike in football. The referee too runs all the time with the players, keeping a whistle in his mouth may be to keep it shut and not call foul.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

For someone who has watched nearly every world cup game since 1986 and loves watching and playing football, I must say ramar you are clueless.

1) The fact that Naymar got hurt very close to paralysis in unprecedented. Yes in world cup there are many injuries but it is extremely rare that someone has been fatally injured and Naymar was close

2) The injury on Naymar can be taken as malicious, but the jury is out on that .. I actually believe it was a harsh unfortunate tackle and not malicious. But again we can debate that forever

3) If you feel football has no strategy then you don't watch football .. or you have seen a few games only for a few minutes or just seen highlights. You are clueless to the rules. Infact many of the fascinating and thrilling football games go in goal-less draw but for anyone with some understanding of what is going on and the strategies at play will understand.

4) It is a team game, it has lots of drama with many twists and turns .. things change in the last minute.

5) Unfortunately it is full of bad referring and faking. Something I hope FIFA will address more and more, but this world cup was much better than any before.


6) And the millions and millions of people who watch it all over the globe just go to show how entertaining and beautiful it is.

7) And san-hugo is absolutely right. Football players are considered the most athletic individuals .. for god sake they run like 15+ kms every game .. in the heat!

Really appreciate your interest in the game from as early as 1986.

As you have rightly pointed out do not and could not watch the game beyond a few minutes. For the simple reason that from the scoreboard on TV, do not know which of the team had scored and taken the lead and which one is lagging behind. All of them appear as if running away from a fire mishap.

But even from Maradonna's hand of god 1980s, had never failed to get irritated with the game. Even from these days, they do not have the common sense to make the color of the team's score on the board, the same as that of the team's jersey.

After great thinking and deliberation, they have displayed the country's flag beside the score and I have to run and search for my son's atlas book thrown in the attic long time back.

Again can't really blame them. It is the problem of all the blood flowing to the legs.

-----------------------------------------------------------------