It is now time to switch to a new Money AM football blog as the world cup is now over and we all look to the future.....World cup 2010 is over, Bravo Espana, and Forlan, once again and bring on the new season !.....I never expected the last thread to be such a success...thanks all.... so this new one might go on for years without the need to edit the title...we shall see...

A clear penalty, the Croatian defender clearly pulled the Brazilian forward's shoulder putting him off balance momentarily, I agree the fall was "theatrical" but make no mistake it was a stone bonker penalty and the ref. should be congratulated on the correct decision.

The media always look for something to go on about (when there is nothing) for their own ends remember.

Come off it Stan.

If thats the standards we are going to abide by in this World Cup might aswel make it a NON contact sport and have all sissy boys playing the game.

What a shambles it will be if all the teams now instruct their forwards to keep going over in the box.

You miss the point G/F.

NO i think you miss the point, as this is a spectator sport we dont want it ruined by piss poor refs that FIFA have briefed before the play starts.

Have you played the game at any level?

The fall was theatrical //sissy boys ,sounds like a game of football to me ..

Yes I was a semi pro junior for Huddersfield Town.

I played in a game against your own steve kindon.

But please Stan dont tell me that back then the penalty would have been given....YES it would but we are in a different era now.

We dont want refs spoiling the game for spectators.

Nothing to do with spoiling or not, the referee made the correct decision and should be congratulated and not castigated for it.

The laws of the game were upheld.

Well if you want to watch a World Cup for a month with cheats dominating thats up to you. I certainly dont and I dont think the majority do either.

He didnt pull him back he just placed his hand on his shoulder and then he dived.

Even the croatian coach says "we might aswel go home if this is whats going to be the norm in games".

See BBC fax site.

Now that I've tipped the Brazilians to win this....not sure ....further down the line : better teams and less home luck await....

People's lack of knowledge of the laws of the game never cease to surprise me.. even the so called professionals within the game who don't know the basic Laws.

The problem in competitions like the world cup is that : players go down like they've been shot when running into the penalty area....what pisses me off is defenders holding forwards with arms blocking players movement....goes unpunished all the time...

RF yep home luck played a big part last night especialy with a ref who just wasnt up to it. Always seems to happen at World Cups remember the Ref who gave the 'hand of god goal' against England. Plenty of more cases all set up by FIFA ideology.

Brazil will get better I think but their goalie and defence werent the best on the night and apart from Nymer their attack looked light especialy with the 'Fred the diver' hardly touching the ball apart from getting the disputed non penalty.

"defenders holding forwards with arms blocking players movement"......................

Yep its crept into the game and is all part of it now, but would you use this World Cup to lay the laws of the game down and spoil the entertainment for millions and millions of people who have been waiting for it for 4 years??.

If were going to get back to where we used to be lets do it AFTER this world cup and not ruin it for the spectators who lets face it have nasty news after nasty news to view eg, Iraq on the TV every day.

Once again it's not about going back or forward it's simply about upholding the present Laws of the game. We have had far to much slippage in that area over the years with weak refereeing. Hats off to the ref. who simply got it right last night.

No he got it wrong.

Not one person on the panels on both BBC and ITV thought it was a penalty.

It was trending on twitter out of about 500 people 2 thought it was a penalty.

He also ruled out a perfecly good goal for Croatia aswel.

Weak ref. BUT sticking to FIFAs pre tournament instructions.

Id rather be entertained than turned off by sticking to an out of date rule book.

Anyway Stan if your so set on rules why arent you mentioning the fact that the Croatian goalkeeper moved verticaly forward (not horizontaly along his line)before Neymar made contact with the ball.?

If your going by the rule book the ref should have blown up and warned him and Neymar would have had to start again.

Yet again (how many more times) you fail to understand that just as in general life unless the Laws of the game are going to be upheld (with some discretion as football is sport) then it's back to the jungle like in the Thatcher years.

However if it's purely entertainment that you want then try day time TV I suppose.

What happened to football in the Thatcher years then?