Is the World Cup rigged?

You have probably been reading too many conspiracy theory novels...

Anyways, I do take heart with some of the stuff you say. For example, take Cote d'Ivoire. The most promising African team. And what group were they in? The group of death (group c). And many injustices over the years. You know what? You just might be right! After all, Sepp Blatter's being investigated on corruption charges by the Swiss police as we speak...

I think it is rigged, I have been following the betting odds and I notice that whenever the odds is favoring one side too much ie. when everybody think they know the winners aka Brazil-France, Brazil to win and England-Portugal, England to win, and where the odds of either France or Portugal winning is 1-5 for every dollar bet, you can win 5 dollars on a 2-punch night, this is when the game starts to get weird especially since many who lost the first bet would usually double up on the next sure-thing bet.

Last world cup was the same, this world cup is no different. It is not about national pride, fair-play etc etc that they are trying to make us believe, it is about the MONEY.

In this world cup, it is about buying off the referees. Who are the buyers? You name it the mafias, the yakuzas, the triads, the bookies... and who remembers a referee's call a year from now or even his name, so if you are the referee and you have been offered a retirement fund would you not grab whatever cash you can off the table when you are in a position to do so?

Not rigged, just poorly conducted by the referees. I am Portuguese and I was astonished by our Russian referee in the game against Holland. It could have been a normal, well played match - Portugal only made 10 fouls and Holland 15 - but the Russian madman gave away 20 yellows and four red cards, almost a booking for every foul. He totally ruined the game, making it look like war.

The world cup is so unpredictable. The ref was not doing a very good job of making it one sided if that's what he was supposed to be doing, because he sent off an italian player and left them to just defend for virtually all the second half. I think if you watched the whole match, you will see italy struggled but they defended really well and australia put all their attack into it. Italy just had a lucky break though...

Nah, I don't think they go that far. They just have some REALLY bad referees (and line guards!); I still can't believe he gave the Italians that PK, but...like all the other World Cups, this one is full of crap calls that screw *somebody* over. It's a shame; Australia should have moved on.

Many of the games have been controversial. Last night Italy were given a penalty that gave them the game. Sure makes you wonder....

The past soccer power - house countrys get protected becouse they have the population and are expected to win.

Small populated countrys like Australia get robbed in the last minute of a game to get the past yes PAST big named soccer country through.

I don't know if its rigged, however, they sure need some new ref's, especially after the Portugal/Ned game last night.

Personally, I'm quite sick of hearing about the World Cup. I'm only answering to say how cute your cat is.

I agree with "unbridled" everytime someone went down in yesterday's match it was like my kids "mama he hit me" but the other wasn't even crying until I came in the room