Fifa fines Spain and Holland
FIFA has issued fines to Spain and the Netherlands for their players’ poor conduct during the 2010 South Africa World Cup final.
Football’s showpiece match, held last month, saw Spain emerge triumphant but only after referee Howard Webb saw fit to issue yellow cards to eight Holland players and send off John Heitinga in extra-time. Spain’s players also failed to show good discipline as Webb issued five bookings to the Latin side. As a result, Fifa has decided to fine Holland’s national football association £9,080 and Spain’s governing body £6,053.
One of the more questionable actions in the game saw Manchester City player Nigel De Jong deliver a challenge after 28 minutes of action, which resulted in his boot being implanted in Spain midfielder Xabi Alonso’s rib cage. The 28-year-old former Liverpool star required treatment before he was able to continue playing and later described the tackle as "one of the worst tackles" he had ever been on the receiving end of. De Jong was booked for the challenge though many pundits were astonished that Webb had failed to issue the player with a red card for violent conduct.
'Anti-football' slammed
Holland legend Johan Cruyff had slammed Holland’s tactics they had employed in the match, calling their style “anti-football”. The man who is widely credited as having helped innovate Total Football - an attractive, flowing system which sees players swap positions on-the-fly – said to Spain’s El Periodico that: "This ugly, vulgar, hard, hermetic, hardly eye-catching, hardly football style... If with this they got satisfaction, fine, but they lost."
After the game, Holland manager Bert van Marwijk spoke of his retreat at both his players’ conduct and that of Spain’s as both teams marred the biggest match in football. He said: “It’s not our style to commit horrible fouls. It’s not our kind of football. As I said, also the Spaniards committed terrible fouls. It may be regrettable for a final. “That’s not our style, but you do play to win. It’s a final.”
The game saw the most cards issued in a World Cup final, beating the record set by the 1986 final where Argentina beat West Germany and six yellow cards were issued. The match also had the poorest disciplinary record of any of the 64 games played at the World Cup finals in South Africa. In total, the Netherlands committed 28 fouls in the match, with the Spaniards conceding 19.
Spain won the match 1-0 after an extra-time goal from Barcelona’s Andreas Iniesta. The midfielder, who was also booked in the game, latched on to a pass from Cesc Fabregas of Arsenal and fired a half-volley past Dutch goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg. This came after the Dutch finally received a red card, putting them down a man. Whatever FIFA's fines, losing the biggest prize in footbal because of poor discipline is a far bigger blow.
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