Prediction for 2014: The FIFA World Cup in Brazil will be a bigger farce than usual...

Well, it's the end of the year, and we begin to look back and forward...

A blog post and a video that Brian Tuohy pointed people to several weeks ago indicates to me that the FIFA World Cup will be yet another Sepp Blatter Special -- corrupt as Hell.

On the day of the World Cup draw where both England and the United States got brutal draws, Brian wrote an article asking if the World Cup draw could be rigged in his new gig on the Sports on Earth site.

Well, start at the bottom of Brian's article on Sports on Earth.  A Turkish football official, on Turkish television, conducted a fake soccer tournament draw on the air, in front of everybody, and told everybody how the draw would go out, chapter and verse, and then proceeded to execute the EXACT DRAW he proposed, in front of an astonished set of broadcasters.

Why do I say this, in relation to the Brazil 2014 draw?

Someone, fairly quickly, sent a YouTube video and a blog post from Victor Val Mas.

Victor charges that the Secretary General of FIFA (a Mr. Jerome Valcke) who conducted the  "country portion" of the draw predetermined the entire nature of the World Cup draw.

Below is the entire 22-minute program, the same YouTube video Brian embedded into his Sports on Earth post:


A quick primer:

This is the draw for the Group Stage (the first stage) of the tournament.  The 32 qualifying nations draw into eight groups of four, round-robin.  Top two teams qualify for the 16-team tournament/knockout phase.

The first pot (Pot A) is the top 8 nations in the world.  Normally, it'd be the Top 7 plus the hosts, but Brazil is in the Top 8, so I can say that without loss of generality.

There is a pot with a yellow stripe and a blue X on it.  I'll get to that in a second, as it deals with a contingency and at least THAT is above table.

The other three pots are continental.  Pot B was the African and remaining South American qualifiers.  However, this pot only had seven teams.

This was because the allotment and the seeding process for Pot A left nine remaining European teams (in Pot D).  (North/Central American and Asian countries were in Pot C.)  This is where Pot X came in, which consisted of the non-European seeded teams.

No single group could have more than two European sides, so they had to effectively have a mini-draw to determine which of the nine European Pot D teams would be moved into Pot B, with Pot X determining which non-European seed (and, hence, which group) that team would be in.  The move into Pot B was the first draw done, as the clip starts (the team would be Italy).

So, now, to Victor's charge:

After each of the seeds is placed as the "1" team in each of the eight groups, each of the remaining 24 non-seeded teams was called by Mr. Valcke, and then a second draw was called by a Brazilian model (Fernanda Lima) to determine which number in the group they would be in, which would determine the order of teams they would play.

The draw was, purportedly, actually conducted by eight former soccer greats, one representing each of the eight nations who have won the FIFA World Cup in it's history.

The first ball drawn in Pot A is different, automatic, and above table:  The hosts are ALWAYS placed in group A, as Team A1 -- this ensures they will play the opening match of the tournament.

The problem comes in with the comparative conduct of Mr. Valcke and Ms. Lima.

It starts as the groups are drawn in turn in Pot A -- for position 1 in each of the remaining seven groups.  Mr. Valcke takes the ball, removes his hands from view, and, quite quickly, produces a completely unrolled version of the team which will occupy the spot.

Get used to this:  This is the crux of Victor's charge.  Mr. Valcke would have to unscrew the ball, take out the slip (which, as you see with Ms. Lima's openings, is supposed to be rolled into the ball), and unroll it.

The slip for Spain for Group B comes out effectively flat and pristine in so doing.

This is important, because, should the seeds hold, Brazil cannot face Spain until the Grand Final.

This continues through the course of the remaining balls in the group.  Valcke screws the ball in half to open it, but then his hands and the ball leave public view.  It does not appear as if his arms move sufficiently to be able to take out the slip and completely unroll it in such a pristine manner.

Valcke, Victor charges, would do this on all 32 balls.  You can see for yourself in the clip if he is correct.

Ms. Lima, on the other hand, as she does the position draws, keeps everything above-view, and you can see how tightly the paper is rolled into the ball, making it difficult, if not impossible, to make such a pristine unrolling without enough movement in his arms (and time) for everyone to notice.

By the time the draw is over:

• The United States gets in the "Group of Death" with Germany, Ghana, and Portugal.
• England's chances for going far are seen as almost nil (in fact, it is believed that, once England's position was known, the main person from England's FA in attendance did a throat-slash), as they drew another difficult group:  Italy, Uruguay, and Costa Rica.
• Brazil's group?  Croatia, Mexico, and Cameroon.  Their prospective second-round opponents, as long as Spain wins Group B?  Netherlands, Chile, Australia.

So you have to ask yourself?  Was there a guiding hand in the draw?  And, if so, would this indicate that, more so than usual (perhaps even as blatant as the complete farce in Korea twelve years ago?

I predict it will.  Even with a bow to goal technology and the like, I fully expect chicanery.  And if it starts here...

We'll be here to help you see it.