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Russia blinded by the light

Fabio Capello’s side hardly lit up the tournament with two draws and a defeat before tumbling out. And the former England manager was feeling particularly prickly after the 1-1 draw with Algeria that led to their elimination. But rather than focus on the lack of illuminating football played by his team as the reason for their exit, it was a dazzling light in the stands directed at his goalkeeper that bothered him. “There are pictures. You can see that in the footage. This not an excuse, it is a fact. There was a laser. I have never come up with excuses to get by in my entire life,” growled Capello. Asked if his complaints deflected attention from the performance of Algeria, Capello responded: “Never, never. I would never do that. You have to listen to when I speak so that I don’t have to repeat the same things.”

Boateng lashes out at lack of Princely treatment

Kevin-Prince Boateng, not a man who is shy of speaking his mind, channelled his inner Roy Keane in Brazil, getting himself booted out of the squad for criticising the Ghanaian Federation for treating the players like normal people. “It was a nightmare from the first day of preparation until the end. I never thought that you could organise a World Cup preparation and a World Cup that badly: hotels, flights – everything in an amateurish way. Our flight from Miami to Brazil took 12 hours. We were in economy class, packed. The legs hurt. For a pro, that’s an insult. Meanwhile, our president sat in business class with his wife and his two kids. In Brazil the people responsible managed to lose my luggage. I did not have my football boots for days, no tapes, nothing. It was a disaster.” And it got worse for the poor lad. “Prior to the match against the US we slept in a sleazy hotel. This one can never have been recommended by Fifa. The rooms were wet. I had to change my room because it was like a swimming pool. There was water dripping from the ceiling.”

Herrera blows his top

Mexico’s coach, Miguel Herrera, doesn’t need much to get him excited – his emotional explosions at the World Cup making him an internet star. So when his team was knocked out by two goals in the closing minutes of the last-16 tie with Holland – one a dubious penalty after an Arjen Robben tumble – he wasn’t going to go quietly. “We ended up losing because he whistled a penalty that did not exist. Out of the four matches here in all of them the refereeing was disastrous. Robben did three dives and he should have been cautioned. You should caution a guy who is trying to cheat, and then if Robben did it again he would be sent off. And why did Fifa choose a referee from the same confederation as Holland instead of one from South America, Asia or Africa? The doubtful decisions were always against us. We have to say it in capital letters, in three matches we had horrible refereeing. The man with the whistle knocked us. I want the referee committee to take a look and that the referee goes home just like us.”

Bosnia blame the ‘enemies’ back home

The Bosnia defender Emir Spahic turned the mixed zone into a very awkward place when he started finger-pointing at journalists from back home who had taken aim at his side after their elimination. “Criticism is part of our job. You have it all the time; all your life. And we must accept criticism because we didn’t play so well,” he said. “But some other things became a little bit too personal; the criticism was too heavy. And I didn’t expect that from my own people but obviously I have a lot of enemies. For those people, history means nothing. I’m hurt by this. But I’m proud because I’m Bosnian. I’m proud because of my people. We showed the world what Bosnian football is all about and I’m proud of that fact. They [the Bosnian media] cannot change that. They cannot take that away.”

Keshi bashes the ‘bias’

Having watched his Nigeria side left bruised by some rough stuff from France and then have a goal disallowed during the 2-0 defeat in the last-16 match, Stephen Keshi wasn’t going to slip out of the door quietly. “I am not happy with the officiating because [Ogenyi] Onazi, on two occasions, he had a very bad tackle and nothing was done by the referee,” he growled. “I think the referee was just … for me, I think he was biased. This is the first time I will speak about the referee in my life as a coach but it wasn’t good. If you look at the goal we scored, I don’t think there was any infringement. The referee is a human being, bound to make some mistakes, but a lot of mistakes is questionable. I am not happy about it but he’s the man who decides whatever goes on the pitch.”

Croatia lost in translation

Vedran Corluka was pre-emptive with his parting shot, all but giving up the ghost after the 3-1 defeat to Brazil in the opening match in which the Japanese referee, Yuichi Nishimura, made some highly contentious decisions. “I have never seen a referee in a World Cup that doesn’t speak English. He was trying to speak to the players in Japanese. It is ridiculous,” he fumed. “If this continues then no one should play against Brazil. We should just give them the World Cup and everyone can go home.” Croatia did go home, pretty quickly, after a win and two losses did for their hopes – but not before they were photographed naked at the hotel pool, prompting them to blank the media. “How would you feel if someone took naked pictures of you?” the Croatia coach Niko Kovac asked. “They are adamant that they won’t speak to you lot any more.”