The third place play-off: The match that no player wants to play

So after one month carnival of drama, entertainment and brilliant football, the 2014 World Cup enters the last weekend. Before the tournament comes to a grand conclusion tomorrow at the Maracana, tonight the losing semi-finalists would be battling for a consolation third place at Brasilia. But this match has always been derided as a meaningless match which none of the players take care to participate after the heartbreak of missing a place in the finals. And for a team which might have reached the semi-finals having won all their matches until that point, there is a chance that they might lose two games in a row. There has been an instance when a team has bluntly refused to take part in the third placed match when the USA won the third-placed match at the inaugural tournament in 1930 after Yugoslavia refused to take part.

Every World Cup witnesses the coaches of the losing semi-finalists’ teams complain about this unnecessary match which offers nothing but burden. Even this year, Louis Van Gaal has been very much vocal against this match. The third-place match has a history of competing teams fielding their reserve teams, allowing some squad members to see game time, if they have missed out in the tournament up until that point.

Also this match seems to be unfair on the part of the players, being forced to play one more game of football after an exhausting World Cup campaign culminating in the failure in their bid to win the World Cup. Instead of being still playing around, the players could have wanted to return home with a rare chance to get some much needed rest before the club season starts in no time.

Tonight’s match would be particularly hard for the Brazilians. It wasn’t meant to be like this for the hosts. The World Cup was planned to be a triumphal march for Brazil at their home, ending at the Maracana for the grand finale at the ‘Mecca’ football stadiums. But instead they suffered the most humiliating night in the Brazilian football history and now the Brazilian players must again take the field to salvage something from the World Cup. In reality, the Brazilians don’t care about finishing third, for them not winning the World cup is ultimately a failure, it does not matter if you have lost in the finals or the first round.

Though there has been calls to scrap this match from all quarters down the years, FIFA has not yet relented. But perhaps it is time FIFA follows the suit of their European counterparts, who dropped the consolation game from the European Championship, football’s second-most-popular national team tournament, after the 1980 tournament.