Croatian flag face paint

Congratulating Brazil on its victory at the World Cup opening game against Croatia – Thursday 12 June – I cannot but notice that the world leading media outlets seem to be in agreement that the Japanese referee Yuichi Nishimura “gifted” brazil a penalty shot that kicked off a winning streak for the Brazilian team.

“ With 20 minutes of normal time remaining, referee Nishimura adjudged that Dejan Lovren had fouled Fred and pointed to the penalty spot. It was a bewildering decision, with television pictures clearly showing that the Brazil striker had fallen over and not been dragged down by Lovren…” write’s CNN’s James Masters.

“A dubious penalty call saw Neymar chalk up his second to give Brazil the lead in the 71st minute…” comments ABC’s Dean Bilton.

BBC’s commentator and former UK team player, Chris Waddle, reportedly could not believe how the penalty shot was awarded against Croatia. “…the game was led by a bad referee who decided the game”.

“The game turned on a controversial penalty awarded by Japanese referee Yuichi Nishimura in the 71st minute when striker Fred went down inside the area under minimal contact from defender Dejan Lovren. Neymar scored from the spot and the Croatians were furious.
‘If that was a penalty, we should be playing basketball,” said Croatia coach Niko Kovac. “Those kinds of fouls are penalized there.’’
‘That is shameful, this is not a World Cup referee. He had one kind of criteria for them and another for us. The rules were not the same,‘’ said Kovac, writes The Guardian/Associated Press

“Brazil were level minutes later courtesy of Neymar sending a shot spinning beyond the Croatia goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa via a post from 22 yards out.
Nishimura’s night managed to get progressively worse when he somehow spotted a foul on Fred by Dejan Lovren that never was.
It was a clear dive, but Nishimura pointed to the penalty spot before booking Lovren rather than Fred. It was a stinking ‘home-town’ decision that used to be famous during prize boxing matches in North America.
You do wonder how many referees are influenced by what is going on outside of the stadium. Namely, the need for Brazil to do well against a backdrop of protesters unhappy with the use of the public purse to host the finals.
Neymar planted the penalty to the right of Pletikosa, who should have saved…
There was time yet for Nishimura to continue his error-strewn ways when he disallowed a legitimate Croatia equaliser after Ivica Orlic was deemed to have fouled the Brazil goalkeeper Julio Cesar in the air on 82 minutes. It was another dreadful call, but one in keeping with the general poverty of his decision-making…” writes Desmond Kane, Eurosport

“…Brazil’s penalty was, undoubtedly, the turning point of the night. It came in the 71st minute and if one positive comes from it this will be the last we see of this referee for a good while. Brazil were on top at the time but labouring. Croatia were not a goal threat but were holding fast at the back and a gutsy draw was beginning to look a real possibility.
At which point Fred – not as exciting a forward as his name suggests, by the way – backed into Dejan Lovren and then fell beneath the merest contact from the Croatian defender. Nishimura needed no second invitation to do the bidding of the Arena Corinthians and pointed to the spot. Brazil’s No 10 did the rest.
There may even be a question over the legality of the Brazil’s penalty… Nishimura’s infamy may take longer to live down… So, not a good night for referee Yuichi Nishimura of Japan who will feature in many conspiracy theorists most fevered speculations from here. He was almost certainly useless, not corrupt, but it is true that his three big errors were all to the benefit of one team.

FIFA only have themselves to blame, therefore, for this fresh round of slander and negativity. They are now regarded as a rogue organisation – an administrative axis of evil, if you will – and it is a very small step from believing events around the game are corrupt, to thinking the same applies to the game itself.
The need for Brazilian success here has been universally agreed and the disgust with FIFA is now so great, all too many can imagine them facilitating results like any other backdoor deal.
Of course, if FIFA were so desperate to ensure Brazilian progress they would surely not have placed them on a potential collision course with Spain or Holland – both of whom could be a real threat on this evidence – in round two, but logic won’t get too much play over the coming weeks if there are too many repeats of travesties like this.
It wasn’t that the best team didn’t win – they did – but the way it happened left a sour taste…” writes Martin Samuel of Daily Mail.

And so the same story is repeated in the majority of world’s mainstream media. The referee Yuichi Nishimura and FIFA acted dishonourably, snatching away Croatia’s fair chance at victory in this game. But then again, nothing surprises me when it comes to FIFA – it started chipping away at Croatia’s chances of victory some months back when it made the decision to exclude Joe Simunic from the game, wrongly and wickedly deciding that his chant “For Home” at a soccer game was a WWII fascist chant! One could see the politically ill winds against Croatia blowing from FIFA a long time ago. If corruption allegations in relation to Qatar 2022 currently afoot against Sepp Blatter, FIFA president, prove to be true, who knows what other nasties will crawl out from under the FIFA rock? Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)

Croatia Team: “We did not deserve to lose”
Photo: Sanjin Strukic/Pixsell