I was warned a long time ago that if you attempt to write ironically, sardonically, sarcastically, satirically, with tongue-in-cheek, and with pin-in-hand to puncture the pretentious bubbles of both the high-and-mighty and the merely foolish, you run the risk of being misunderstood. Worse yet, some readers will believe your ironies, and then--The horror! The horror!--attack those beliefs, when your actual purpose was to make them change theirs!
The post of the press release from FIFA was a jest, a jape, a spoof, to try to make readers laugh, and then to make them think: Could any of this possibly be true? And the answer to that question is this: Yes, we have assessors out there who believe those things and who teach referees and judge referees based upon such nonsense. It's sad, I know, but perhaps publicity, satire, parody, irony (even if clumsily done) will bring about change. Read on for explanations, one by one as listed in the "press release".....
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