Lionel Messi winning the golden ball at the World Cup is the latest nail in the coffin of Fifa’s credibility.

Did the little Argentinean perform well in Brazil? Absolutely. Was he crucial to his team making progress out of the group? Undoubtedly. Did he score a couple of excellent goals? Indeed he did.

But was Messi the best player out of the 736 that took part? Not a chance.

As the tournament entered the knockout stages, so Messi’s influence waned. He didn’t score in any of the four sudden-death games and started to look tired and jaded. Still an exceptionally good player to have in your team, but not the driving force he had threatened to be in the early stages of the competition.

Yet Fifa’s technical committee (a name that conjures up images of a room full of doddery old men drinking Ovaltine while pouring over dusty statistics) decided the award should go to the Barcelona player.

This committee in its infinite, yet secretive, wisdom decided Messi was more deserving of the award than the likes of Manuel Neuer, Javier Mascherano, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Neymar, Philipp Lahm and Arjen Robben, to name but a few.

And what about Columbia’s James Rodriguez? He was my player of the tournament without a shadow of a doubt.

I had barely even heard of him before June 12. But he literally took the tournament by storm, scoring six goals as he led a relatively unfancied team to the quarter-finals.

Considering Blatter barely raised an eyebrow when it was alleged his entire organisation was awash with corruption, surprising that man is quite an achievement

I can only imagine Rodriguez was ruled out of contention for the golden ball because he had already secured the golden boot and the technical committee wasn’t comfortable putting all their gold in one basket.

Yet that in itself is absolutely ludicrous. Why can’t the person who scores the most goals in a tournament be the best player in it too? I would have thought those two things are quite natural bedfellows.

I imagine Neuer was ruled out for same ‘we’ve already rewarded him’ reason, because he would have been my second choice after Rodriguez. A goalkeeper that not only masterfully commands his area but who is so assured on the ball it was like Germany had 11 outfield players.

But no, the technical committee ensured the Neuer household will not have to worry whether the glove or ball should take pride of place on the mantelpiece.

Messi’s win even shocked Sepp Blatter.

“I was myself a little bit surprised when I saw Messi coming up for the Golden Ball,” he said. Considering Blatter barely raised an eyebrow when it was alleged his entire organisation was awash with corruption, surprising that man is quite an achievement.

Traditionally the two ‘subjective’ awards at World Cups – the golden glove and golden ball – have been awarded by a combination of this infamous technical committee and the press.

This year, however, the press were removed from the equation, leaving the committee on its own to make their deliberations, presumably while puffing on their pipes and admiring each other’s moustaches.

What about us though? What about the hundreds of millions of fans who watched and loved every minute of this tournament? What about the people that actually know a thing or two about football?

Would it not be more fitting if we got to decide who we thought was the best player? It’s hardly difficult to organise a public vote in this day and age of internet and social media.

There is one final twist to this story: the ‘Golden’ awards happen to be sponsored by Adidas. And which player is the poster boy for all Adidas’ football marketing?

I’ll give you a clue. He’s Argentinean, he’s very good and his surname begins with ‘M’. And no, it’s not Maradona.

I’ll let you draw your own conclusions on that one.

Worthy winners

Love them or loathe them, you have to admit Germany were worthy winners of the 2014 World Cup.

From their opening demolition of Portugal to their considerably tighter closing victory over Argentina, they came across as a team that was always in charge of their own destiny.

They never needed to ride their luck and they never looked like crumbling under pressure as they combined traditional German efficiency at the back with energy and cohesion in the middle and attacking flair up front.

Even if you forget the 7-1 semi-final win over Brazil – which was a slightly freaky result if we are honest – it is impossible to not be impressed by what Joachim Low and his players achieved over the past month.

For years, this team has threatened to take the international scene by storm. They have been there or thereabouts for several tournaments in a row. Now finally they have delivered.

As much as it pains me to say it, considering I support a team of footballing no-hopers who like to consider Germany their fierce rivals, this was one tournament when the best team actually did win.

Final thought

One thing really got on my nerves during last Sunday’s final: the fact that the match officials seemed intent on making sure all 22 players stayed on the pitch.

Even the commentator pointed this out, saying something about the referee being desperate not to ruin the game as a spectacle by sending somebody off.

If this is true, then that referee shouldn’t be allowed any more big matches in his career, because, frankly, that is outrageous.

I saw at least two awful tackles that went relatively unpunished during the game, one of which would certainly have resulted in a red card had it happened in just about any other football match this year. Instead, the perpetrator just got a polite telling off.

I’m sorry but you can’t change the rules of the game just to fit the occasion. “Yes I know it was an awful challenge which resulted in a double broken leg but I couldn’t send him off with a billion people watching. It would have spoiled the party.”

If a tackle is worthy of a yellow card or even a red then you are duty bound to take action, not turn a blind eye just because it happens to be the World Cup final.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand a match official will be reluctant to ‘ruin’ such a big game especially when you consider they run the risk of being accused of trying to be the centre of attention.

But football has rules. Those rules include players being sent for an early bath if they carry out an offence worthy of such punishment.

And if some of the billion people watching don’t understand or like that, if some of those people would rather watch a ‘doctored’ game of football than a real one, then they shouldn’t have tuned in in the first place.

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com
Twitter: @maltablade