Always a Card
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Amongst a huge weekend of New Zealand sport, a strange subplot has been the yellow card give to Chris Wood for jumping into the crowd while the OFC semi-final with Fiji was still taking place.
We all love Chris Wood; that’s obvious, but the defence of his actions has been a bit strange and cringe.
There is a lot to criticise FIFA for, but what they do better than any other sporting organisation is run consistent tournaments.
Same branding, rules, flag sizes, sponsors and rules. Games always start on time. And rules that don’t bend.
It doesn’t matter whether a game is being played in Dushanbe, Belgrade, Buenos Aires, Beijing, Wellington or wherever. There are no exceptions. That’s how it’s done.
And FIFA run a lot of tournaments, have done so for years, and that is their strength.
Wood climbed into the stands with the best of intentions on Friday night. He’s on an amazing high. But he took his punishment on the chin, which you would expect from a pro.
What has been interesting to see was that some thought he should have been exempt from punishment because we’re not like those ruffians here in New Zealand.
Seriously?
FIFA don’t do exceptions. They don’t do subjective judgements on individual members, no matter how cute they may be. They have a business model that has kind of been successful.
New Zealand, and even Chris Wood is not special. This is the one thing FIFA gets right