WORLD CUP 2014: FOOTBALL ROLLERCOASTER IN ENGLISH MEDIAS

The English media, as well as English football fans, had a rollercoaster kind of a summer this year. Prior to each of the last several World Cups, to which they qualified (1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010), English media and fans loudly and widely claimed there was nobody in the world their golden boys could not beat, so they were proclaiming themselves the world champions (in waiting) and waited impatiently for the start of each of the upcoming tournaments. In 1998 their was no "hand of God" around but the English were "cheated out" again by those canny Argentinians who dared to dismiss their golden boy of the pitch, in 2002 it was that "lucky goal" by Ronaldinho and Seaman taking a momentary nap, in 2006, that winking man from Canary Islands "they taught how to play" got their "great" Rooney off , and title was gone, and in 2010 lack of goal line technology in the 1:4 loss to Germany (I wonder how loudly they complained about the lack of same technology in 1966, when, at the score standing at 1:1, Soviet referee decided to give the proud and fair sons of Albion a helping hand, and created a goal which wasn't, as the ball never crossed the goal line).
Having learned from their previous humiliations, this time around during the 2013/2014 Premier League season nobody dared to repeat any of the "glorious predictions" of the recent world cups. But, as soon as the season was wrapped up, the hope for glory was back. Why not, Liverpool had such young, bright and already "accomplished" players as Sturridge, Sterling, Henderson, Southampton showed off Lallana and Luke Shaw, Manchester United Jones, Smalling, Cleverly, Arsenal Ox-Chameberlain and perennial great hope, Theo Walcott. Just add to this "galaxy of interstellar talent" the "best goalkeeper" in the world in form of young and tall Joe Hart, and "all-time great" Wayne Rooney, known in various places of a certain island as "White Pele". The camp and friendlies started and English "pundits" started to ponder aloud "Sturridge" great chances for sneaking the World Cup 2014 golden boot. Soon, the multiple voices were heard supporting the unheralded young starlets to spring a nice surprise, then, after Sturridge came up with a decent goal in a friendly, the concept of "bright young talent commandeered from the back by the old master Steven Gerrard, taking the world by surprise", was circulated quickly in the headlines. Then, the show took another turn, and everybody pondered Rooney and the position on the pitch he should be gracing the world around with. Eventually, it was the time to play ball, and the English team performances we can cover with silence, accept to note the following: Italy v. England, the first fall down, but soon the train was on the way up, as Urugway was to play the unfit Luis Suarez, who happens to be the most hated man in England, for daring to be the best player in the Premier League, in addition to several cultural and anthropological deficiencies. But, oh my God, Suarez scored twice, and it was a major down - not only he humiliated his detractors, but also kicked out England from the World Cup and finished their glory dreams, the football coming home mantra, etc. Came the third round of group stage matches and very good things for England started to occur, England drew with Costa Rica, a real accomplishment, but the best news came from the Urugway v. Italy match: Luis Suarez has struck again! No, strike it from the record, he has BITTEN again! O thank you God, thank you God, thank you Almighty! The old Eng(er)land was merry again! Oh, how joyous can life be? English media, pundits, fans and population at large was together again (forget the bleak Scots and their independence murmurs). Punish him! Ban Him! Eject him! Remove him from football! Guilty of all accusations, including of the fall (or demise) of British Empire! Be done with the savage! Hospitalize him! Institutionalize him! So much venom coming from quite a merry England. At this juncture nobody remembered about another humiliation of English football. Nobody was willing to finally admit that the English were in the league of Montenegrans, Swedes, the Poles, Norwegians, Hungarians rather than Germans, Dutch, Spaniards, French, or Belgians. So, the World Cup 2014 went on and the English spirits were much higher now, but soon somber moods prevailed, the black clouds were seen again over the horizon, the great armada of harbingers of oncoming evil were brought by the mixed winds from south-west, across the ocean: Germany and Argentina were still around... Oh, why do we have to be punished so heavily? The two most hated in Eng(er)land teams with a chance for glory? But there were still traces of hope left in the pundits voice...Perhaps Brazil would improve, perhaps Van Gaal - in couple of weeks to be OUR MAGICIAN - will vanquish the Argentines and their claims to glory? Glory to Argentina? But it might enhance their claims to Malvinas (what? what did you call it?). Unfortunately, it was time for another turn down on the rollercoaster as Brazil collapsed in front of methodical Germany, and Van Gaal misplaced somewhere his magic wand, and despite help received from the brothers behind the Canal La Manche (again, what did you call it?) he couldn't find it back. Ah well, so we have to watch in the World Cup final the two most hated teams? But, there is good news in it, at least one of them will lose! And let's pray for Messi disappearing from the match, so we wouldn't have to swallow and digest another great from Argentina, not after the Maradona's miracles, hands of God, etc. After all, we do not want to raise on pedestal short footballers... In merry ol' England we prefer the big lads, like Cristiano. That he has no vision and cannot dribble? Who cares, he is big, and he is ours, we schooled him properly in the solid ways of English football. He can jump to all our high and long balls. That he "winked" us out of the glory at the World Cup 2006? We are a forgiving and civilized nation. Bygone is bygone. Messi can't jump to our high balls... Besides, we refuse to put the dwarfs on the pedestal of our sport! Never! That we are politically incorrect? No, not true, we always are! Except, when it pertains to our football. After all, we have invented it, we made the rules and we decide who can be great or not. Yes, Brazilians stole the football from us, but look at them, they were punished severely just recently. It's a lesson to the whole world, hands away of our football. And this World Cup was a success -  we did not have to be humiliated by Germany again, we can come back to our island with the heads held high this time. In several weeks we will be best in the world again, thank you Almighty for the Premier League! And we don't have to suffer Luis Suarez's skills again... We will press FIFA and UEFA to ban him from all matches to be played by Barcelona on English pitches. After all, we invented football and deserve some lenience.

Janusz Andrzejewski is a New York City based attorney, writing on legal and other important community topics. You may contact him by telephone (212) 634-4250 or by e-mail: janusz@januszandrzejewski.com

ENGLISH MEDIA AND FANS HAD A GOOD WORLD CUP 2014 - LUIS SUAREZ HAS BEEN EXCESSIVELY PUNISHED FOR THE GLORY TAKEN AWAY FROM THE FALLEN EMPIRE

The whirlwinds blowing around Luis Suarez, the Uruguayan football player (or soccer player, if you are an American), do not seem to decrease in power. English football commentators, journalists, pundits and fans at large are satisfied with the FIFA Disciplinary Committee's ruling which imposed on the 27-year-old a ban of nine international matches as well as the four-month ban from all football and, in addition, a fine of 100,000 Swiss Francs. One might imagine that Luis Suarez will lose much more in advertising deals which would be either terminated or not renewed. Yet, there are present many voices protesting, if not the idea of punishment levied against the player, than its severity. Even the victim of Suarez's latest biting attack, Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini, has been offended by the severity of the punishment and making the player a celebrity pariah. As an attorney, I do not have a problem with disciplining Luis Suarez, although I have major problems with the severity of the punishment which would be unconstitutional, in my opinion, in the American legal system for it appears that various properties and/or rights were taken speedily away from Luis Suarez, without providing him with sufficient opportunity to be heard. The biting incident has brought a lot of sadness around the world, yet it seems that in England it resulted only with joy and satisfaction, judging by review of English press, comments to digital newspapers articles and blogs. Even though English national team has been eliminated from the World Cup in the first round (the group stage), without being able to win any match for the first time in history, the English football journalists, commentators and pundits, as well as the football fans, are quite happy and satisfied: Luis Suarez, a brilliant footballer and England national team's tormentor on the football pitch, has been punished not only for biting an Italian football player but, in English national psyche, for all their miseries including for daring to eliminate England from the World Cup, for ending another dream of World Cup glory for the Anglo-Saxon football empire, for 48 years of barren football years and mediocrity of England's national team, for having the temerity of being the best player in English Premier League, for being the top scorer in the Premier League, for his long known desire to abandon the riches of English Premier league for the Spanish football giants FC Barcelona or Real Madrid, for speaking Spanish, the language of hated former Spanish Empire and hated nowadays Argentines, crouching around, in English psyche, and awaiting for the best moment to pounce on the Falklands, which, oh my, they dare to call Malvinas, for the thorn of Scottish independence movement and the referendum, for Jean-Claude Juncker's presidency of the European Commission and for the European Union's existence, daring to silence, with cacophony of its everyday bureaucracy, the not so roaring lions of yesteryear British Empire.

Janusz Andrzejewski is a New York based attorney, writing on legal and other important community subjects. You can contact him by telephone (212) 634-4250 or through e-mail: janusz@januszandrzejewski.com

WORLD CUP 2014: WHAT TO DO ABOUT LUIS SUAREZ?

The third round of group stage matches at the World Cup turned out to be quite eventful. On Monday Brazil disposed of Cameroon by the score of 4-1 and advanced from Group A as its winner. Brazilians played their best match so far at this World Cup, however, their opponent was the weakest team, in fact one cannot call Cameroonian players a team, so devoid of any tactical discipline they were at this World Cup. The score was quite flattering to the Brazilians who still did not convince me, and unless they come up with the goods in the next game, they might be eliminated. Their young star, Neymar, bagged two additional goals and he is the current leader in the golden boot ranking with 4 goals in three matches. In the second match in group A, Mexico continued their good and spirited display by beating Croatia 3:1, but they will have to play in the next round the formidable Dutch team. In group B matches, Netherlands had to play without Robin Van Persie against dangerous Chile, yet they were able to prevail 2:0 over the South Americans, thanks to two goals created by Arjen Robben and scored respectively by Leroy Fer and Memphis Depay, both Dutch substitute players. Thus, Netherlands as the winners of group B will meet in next round Mexico whereas Chileans will play the hosts of the tournament: Brazil. My favorites are Netherlands, even though Mexicans will be very tough opponents, and, yes, I think that Chile can and will beat Brazil, based on the current display of form by both teams. Of course, Brazil have the advantage of being the host and the expected help of the referees, like in their first match against Croatia.
Today, in group C, Colombia crushed Japan 3:1 and won the group with maximum of 9 points whereas Greece advanced also, thanks to shock win over full of flair Ivory Coast 2:1, with the controversial penalty converted by Samaras in the injury time. Colombia before the tournaments was one of my 8 favorites to reach the quarterfinals, and even though they do not have Falcao at their disposal at this World Cup, they play impressive blend of physical and technical football and are unstoppable in their counterattacks. If they can continue like this, I see them reaching at least semifinals. In Group D, England was able only to draw with Costa Rica 0:0, who before the game already qualified as the winner of group D. The "English Lions" left the World Cup for the first time without winning any match. In the other match in Group D, Uruguay prevailed over Italy 1:0 thanks to Diego Godin's header, and controversial red card to Italian midfielder Claudio Marchisio. This match will be part of the World Cup folklore thanks to scandalous attack of Luis Suarez on Italian defender Chielini, just minutes before Godin's winning goal Suarez appeared to bite Chielini on his left shoulder, and then pretended that he was elbowed by Chielini. The referee, who it appears did not notice the bite,  did not react to the attack and failed to eject Suarez from the pitch. Costa Rica, the winner of group D will play in the next round Greece (I stick with the unglamorous Greek veterans) whereas Uruguay will be doubly unlucky to play Colombia, surely without Luis Suarez, who in all probability will be suspended by FIFA for the biting incident, third one in his career. Even though the tv recordings might not be enough to find Suarez guilty in the court of law for his criminal assault, apparently they are sufficient to FIFA Disciplinary Committee to  ban Suarez after the game, provided the referee did not witness the incident.  What a shame! Uruguay is as good as gone from this World Cup without Suarez in their encounter with Colombia in the next round. He is actually much better and more explosive a player than Cristiano Ronaldo or Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and I rate Suarez currently as no. 2 player in the world, only behind Leo Messi. It appeared that he was about to put his career in the highest gear as Barcelona are interested in acquiring him from Liverpool. Will they be interested in acquiring the genius forward who happens to be a serial biter? What to do about Luis?

Janusz Andrzejewski is a New York City based attorney who writes on legal and other important community topics. You can reach him by telephone at (212) 634-4250 or through e-mail: janusz@januszandrzejewski.com