Cheats will continue to prosper in absence of instant replays

Do a search for ‘World Cup’ and ‘simulation’ on the internet and you’ll find all sorts of predictions, most of them wrong.

The unpredictability of this tournament has been like a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately the other sort of simulation has been like a whiff of noxious gas.

Arjen Robben is one prominent case, and though it’s unfair to single him out, the whiff seems even more persistent in his case because he is an immensely gifted player who shouldn’t need to cheat, and he’s been doing it for the past decade.