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  Now, by no means do I profess to be an expert when it comes to The Beautiful Game, in-fact many of those who do possess a great knowledge or understanding of footballs so-called rules would adamantly suggest that I am far from qualified to comment on such a currently sensitive subject, however, when it comes to the team representing the nation from which I proudly hail, I would argue strongly to the contrary.

Yesterday’s 4-1 annihilation at the hands of Germany was not a cause for the intense media induced shame that has already begun and no doubt will continue for quite some time, but instead a call for concern, not for our own team but more for the very rules to which they adhere. After 37 minutes of play in the intensely contested tie there was a heinous display of incompetence from those officiating which worked to the detriment of the team in red. 

Referee Jorge Larrionda failed to give a goal which when later examined in video replay was confirmed to have been legitimate. I for one am convinced that England would have gone on to win the tie against our greatest rivals in a heroic display of the passion for which we are famed if said officials had either been able to do their jobs efficiently or been allowed to use modern technology to ensure their decisions were correct. So where do we go from here? Well, not very far at all to be perfectly honest, FIFA remain typically tight lipped about the whole affair and there will no doubt be absolutely no advancement in the battle for goal-line technology except for a few feeble noises from the tabloids but that is all.

After quickly scanning across my local newsagent’s paper rack this morning it became apparent to me that the mainstream press in our country have taken the angle that our players have no excuses for what happened over the tortuous 90 minutes in Bloemfontein and that they should carry the entire weight of the blame; headlines include ‘No defence, no excuses’, ‘Humiliating’  and perhaps most damning is The Sun’s headline ‘You let your country down’. For me - and I don’t think I am alone here - the psychological impact on the players of having a valid goal denied because of professional ineptitude would have been more crippling than anything the German attack had to offer. Those who seem to completely deny any sort of chaos theory in the minds of Footballers and claim that “If the goal had of stood the game would still have ended 4-2 to Germany” are clearly devoid of any logic when dealing with simple footballing tactics, the fact of the matter is, with so many players dedicated to attack, we were left exposed at the back, but remember this is not the error of Capello, the attacking tactic was not one made from option, but rather necessity.

The events in Bloemfontein should go down in history alongside some of the other great World Cup injustices, such as Diego Maradona’s Hand of God, Geoff Hirst’s dubious strike in the 1966 final and also one other injustice, one that occurred merely hours after the cause for our national heartache; Carlos Tevez’s offside goal against his South American rivals Mexico which paved the way for a 3-0 trouncing. 

Once again this injustice could have been prevented by the implementation of simple technology, however that is apparently not to be while Sepp Blatter and his band of ignorant co-conspirators are at the helm of FIFA. 

As I previously mentioned, I am maybe not adequately qualified to make comment on these issues, but the worrying thing is, it would seem the powers that be aren’t either.  

Alexander Williams