Spain certainly has now shaken off the stigma of being an underachiever. It is interesting to see what will happen in the future. I think Spain will still be the favourites to retain their euro-title in two years time but in four years time in Brazil in another world cup, there will be new stars again. Are there young and hungry Spanish players waiting in the wings to replace the retiring players?

Spain and Germany will probably play some epic matches in the major-tournaments for years to come as the Germans are a really young side but getting better and better. I can't believe that countries such as Italy and France will be as useless in 2014 as they were this year.

This Spain squad is still pretty young. The only ones that wont be there in 4 years time will be Puyol, Capdevila and maybe Xavi who will be 34, but he could play for ever, he is hardly athletic! David Villa will be 32 but he is a bit of a late developer so he could be OK. Casillas is 29, but keepers peak in their early to mid 30s.

The rest are still in their early-mid 20s. I think Spain needs a couple of young fullbacks and it is the challenge for the next 2 years to find them.

I predict 4 more years of dominance!

Not to worry.
Apparently the UK Govt. in their infinite wisdom have allocated the Dingles their very own special location.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...ed-island.html

I simply hope that by 2014 FIFA has initiated a video replay system of reviewing blown calls- and a better system evaluating ref's performance.

If the WC was the 'showcase'- the best of the best of soccer (OK- Football for you all) , then I shudder to see how poor, biased and even corrupt things are at lower levels.

In 20 years of following and playing football I have never come across corruption. Incompetance and poor eyesight yes, but never even a hint of anything more.

There is the odd case that comes up every now and then, but they are extremely rare and so make headline news.

No shortage I don't think.
Thought the Ities would head the list, but they only made sixth place.

http://www.sabotagetimes.com/footbal...-leagues-ever/

Was there not a case in England a few years back regarding Bruce Grobbelaar and others in a bettimg scam,though maybe not enough evidence to prove it?

It used to be common in non-league football also at one time.
Refs visiting certain favoured clubs could be sure of finding a nice wad in their inside pocket after changing and arriving home.
No deals ever made,no words ever spoken,no evidence, just a simple and effective invisible transaction.

How many games of football must be played each year? 100,000s, millions? You are talking about incredibly rare events.

My Dad played non-league football for 20 years and never came across anything dodgy.

As with most things,the ones that come to light may well only be the tip of the iceburg.
Back when professional and amateur football were seperated,not only the refs got illegal payments, but players as well.
The top amateur clubs in the North attracted huge crowds and good financial backing, and so some of the best players stayed with their local clubs and walked home with a nice fat wad every week,( illegal of course), rather than play in the top pro. division which had a maximum pay limit of £20 per week.

In the old first division,Sunderland,the Bank of England club back then, were caught making illegal payments,way over the £20 maximum ,and got into serious trouble.

Agree, and it's quite difficult to prove, gathering evidence is not easy. There have been cases where strange betting patterns have taken place and the bookies have stopped accepting bets, there's no doubt in their mind something fishy was going on. There are currently around 270 cases under investigation in Germany about match fixing.

Been googling again? Yawn.