Did FIFA Fix The 2014 World Cup Draw?

Eurosport has claimed that Group F, involving Argentina, Nigeria, Iran and Bosnia-Herzegovina may have been fixed. Quoting series of social networking websites allegedly opened 24 hours to Friday’s draw, it claims that conspiracy theories are flying after a user on Twitter apparently correctly
predicted two major elements of the draw.

The Twitter account named “Brasil 2014 Fraude” and written in Spanish. It was reportedly shared tens of thousand times around the world. However, it was also being suspected as an elaborate hoax by a group of computer hackers. The first element correctly predicted was that Italy would be the European team to be moved from Pot 4, which initially contained nine teams to Pot 2, which had seven teams comprising five from Africa and the two unseeded South American teams.

“Brasil 2014 Fraude” also correctly predicted that Argentina would be in a group that would have Nigeria, Iran and Bosnia- Herzegovina. According to the blog, the twitter, using the hash tag “#FifaFraude,” the string of messages in Spanish started with a bold declaration against FIFA and asserting that the tournament winner had already been chosen.

The EuroSport blog translated the Spanish message thus: ““We profoundly lament that a sport that is so pure is manipulated by an international organisation that acts on its economic interests. “We are not trying to rid the World Cup of its excitement and euphoria. However, if this corrupt manipulation goes on, we will consider ourselves obliged to publish the name of the winner of the competition, which has already been dictated by Blatter and his company from Switzerland. “On the other hand, neither is it our intention to ruin all the drama of the World Cup draw. With that in mind, we will only publish the group in which Argentina will play. Let’s begin.”

According to Eurosport, there had been conspiracy theories running for years about possible ways of fixing the draw, with the favourite being that the balls are heated up somehow, or perhaps even vibrate via remote control, to let those doing the drawing know who to pick out next. Eurosport explained that the idea sounds ridiculous as the very best teams were already kept apart in the group stages by the seeding system. It was, however, intriguing that the predictions came the night before the draw took place.