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...

Very weak refereeing throughout this tournament has just sent the message to certain teams that they can get away with it, and they have sadly.

What VAR has done for the game is unclear and has only confused the issue.

There's something strange going on in some camps , if you remember the Panama team were in total disbelief the Ref was booking them , a bit the same as others like last night , told not to wrestle and seconds later obvious and stupid penalty given . whether they think VAR is there to aid them in their tactics , don't know . But why the Ref stood arguing with them for nearly five mins , don't know that either .

Hot headed latin blood....it's in their nature to argue with everything!
How good of Rashford to step up and coolly take a penalty. Not sure why some of the other senior players didn't volunteer.
VAR is still subject to modification, but in general I think it has improved the game. The major complaint was the delay between offense & VAR review. That has now almost been resolved.
England v France final would be a win, win for me......with England victory, of course!

VAR is still subject to modification.

Harry, the 1st big mistake was to trial VAR at a major tournament, other trials have normally been tried in the lower leagues first. Probably not practical with this particular piece of gear but certainly paying the price now.

Maybe Stan, but do you really want a system which is absolutely infallible.
The game is played by humans and refereed by humans, all of whom make mistakes.
You could say that the Colombian players who deliberately tried to damage the penalty spot before the final shootout are subject to a yellow card.
In my opinion, there is always going to be a certain amount of bending of the rules. Human nature!

Not a case of bending the rules Harry more like tearing them up in front of the ref. and getting away with it, contact sports have never been easy to ref. but if you don't crack down on the basic laws broken then as we can see its a slippery slope downhill.

Huddersfield and District League back in the 1960s was peak of my playing days. Refs only stopped the game for an obvious broken leg and any arguing with the ref was met with a sending off (no cards in those days). Funnily enough, it did not happen very often. Time wasting antics these days a disgrace. Disappointed when Dier (not Rashford) came on for Dele Alli, inviting them on to us, but reconsidered after the final penalty!

Indeed a form of zero tolerance with some.. and I do mean some small flexibility.

Ed: Apparently goal line technology is separate from VAR which I had thought was now included in VAR.

Ed: I was wrong about VAR not being used first in the lower league, as it was used in some early FA Cup games last season.

Gareth Southgate's initial reaction to winning reminds me so much of commander Dorf's when Klingons die.....a cry from the heart !....wonderful !....

Please don't tell me that Maradona has said that England cheated Colombia......please.....pathetic if correct considering that they cheated/fouled all the time....

He's very " Hand's on " sort of guy Maradona it may be true they're all snorting something over there .

Lance Armstrong lost all his titles and was disgraced for taking performance enhancing drugs. Meanwhile a proven cheat and drug taking buffoon is made an ambassador by Fifa. Sport it is not. Has anything changed since the days of Havelange and Blatter?

Things have definitely changed since Blotter done the exit.

Now the money is bigger, and corruption is follows the money..

Sepp got a few bags of sand on Russia to win it!!!!!!!!!!!

Awesome matches on Friday.
The very best of world football.
My take.....France......and.......sooo tricky..... think maybe.....Belgium!

Certainly refs going to need to be on their game , the drama queen championship of the world on show today in conjunction with how to act like you've been shot .

This is the world cup of surprises....so ?....normally you would say France and Brazil...…..but who knows : Uruguay and Belgium are not to be underestimated....I agree with Harrycat...I think it's going to be a France-Belgium semi-final....in fact any of those four would be worthy finalists....

France it is......clearly favourites now.....barely broke sweat.....but the semis will be a lot tougher....

Belgians already 2 up!

Superb semi-final ….France-Belgium…..: "Le Crunch"..!......