In yesterday's rant, I carried on about referees and umpires and how they ruin every sport with their bad calls. Given that bribery is not involved, this can be attributed to mere incompetence. But what is the cause of most of these wrong decisions?

Listening to the SBS's Craig Foster and other commentators describe why seasoned Italy got through to the quarter-finals over newcomer Australia, it suddenly dawned on me. The reason, they all say, is that Italy is an experienced international competitor. What they really mean is that the Italy team are masters at cheating. They are not the only ones, of course; all the teams in FIFA's soccer establishment are guilty. The Aussies were only playing football, but the Italians were doing more. They were using their "experience" to con the referee into making faulty decisions favouring themselves.

There can be no doubt that Fabio Grosso took a dive over Lucas Neill with seconds left in the match. The Italian defender must have done so with the instinct honed from many seasons of resorting to such unsportsmanlike conduct. His dive set up the penalty shot for Francesco Totti, who celebrated his success by running around the pitch sucking his thumb.

According to Foster, from where the referee stood it looked like Grosso was tripped. Had he been standing somewhere else, with a different view, he might have given Grosso what he deserved for his theatrics, instead of giving the match to Italy. How utterly random and arbitrary was the outcome of this match decided.

To his discredit, Grosso continues to deny the dive. But so does the sleazy Italian coach Marcello Lippi. Like so much of what happens on this planet of woes, their contempt for ethics is par for the course.

What we saw in this match is a microcosm of what we see everyday in every aspect of life. To some degree, everyone cheats. Social convention requires it. Our politicians are its role models. It's as if that part of the brain that deals with the higher aspects of evolution is dormant. Heroes and prophets have tried to awaken it, but the Golden Calf always wins.

Grosso's dive is a local example of what is universally wrong with the human species. How small it makes us. How pathetic is our fear of the noble instinct. And yet, when we act honourably, there is no greater feeling. In honour is freedom.

-- Hyper Roland