It seems that Louis van Gaal has inherited some of Sir Alex Ferguson’s traits as a manager as on Sunday he went on a Fergie like rant against FIFA and Brazil, accusing FIFA of dirty ‘tricks’ and a lack of ‘fair play’ by claiming that the World Cup fixtures give Brazil an advantage.
LVG is upset that on Monday, Brazil will play four hours after Holland meet Chile in Sao Paulo, despite having played their first two group matches before Holland. The late kickoff means that Brazil will know the identity of their second round opponents before they kick off against Cameroon.
If Brazil win Group A they will meet the loser of Holland’s encounter with Chile in the last 16 in Belo Horizonte on Saturday.
‘For every match FIFA have this advertisement around fair play,’ said Van Gaal. ‘FIFA plays these tricks and it’s not a good thing. It’s not fair play.
‘We’re going to focus on a victory against Chile and I don’t think that will be affected by the fact Brazil will play after us.
‘I am just assuming they (Brazil) will do their sporting duty. Why on earth are they (FIFA) doing that (with the match schedule)? That is the question.’
Van Gaal nevertheless claimed that Brazil would be keen to avoid a Dutch side that thumped Spain 5-1:
‘I can well imagine that Brazil doesn’t want to face Holland,’ he said. We have scored a lot of goals. True. And we have we scored fantastic goals. True as well.’
Love that LVG can create a controversy out of this. Imagine what it will be like next season if United and Chelsea are involved in the title race? LVG has shown that he is ready to go head to head with Jose “the world is against us” Mourinho.