FIFA World Cup 2014 – Thursday 26 June 2014

When I sat down to watch the games last night, I promised myself I would only be writing about the action this morning, but unfortunately I don’t feel I can.

The fact is the biting incident has cast a shadow over the tournament. It happened; we can’t turn back the clock. The 2014 World Cup will be always associated with it and you know down the line in years to come that piece of footage will be shown time and time again. However, it’s not just the fact that it has occurred; it has been the reaction from those who are trying to defend Suarez. Whilst we all have had occasions where we need to close rank whether with friends, family or work, to deny that anything occurred is simply stupid. For the Uruguayan captain Diego Lugano to state in a press conference, “what incident?” and the President Jose Mujica to say, “I didn’t see him bite anyone” is inexplicable and does no credit to people who have responsibility that comes with their position.

FIFA need to act decisively, but whatever the punishment the story will rumble on with the games on the pitch feeling like little more than a side-show.

Rather like Suarez, I made all the wrong decisions yesterday in my selection of viewing. I let my heart rule my head and went for the ‘Fulham’ connection hoping that Ashkan Dejagah could inspire Iran to a victory that would take them into the last sixteen. In sticking with the game which saw the already eliminated Bosnia win 3-1, I missed a bit of a belter as Argentina beat Nigeria 3-2. Worse was to follow as I opted for France v Ecuador and was rewarded with a 0-0, although some credit goes to Ecuador keeper Dominguez who managed to get in the way of everything France tried. As a result I missed a decent looking hat-trick from Xherdan Shaqiri as Switzerland confirmed their progress into the knock-out phase with a 3-0 win over Honduras.

There is a World Cup tournament out there, but I’m struggling to reconnect with it right now.