Kuala Lampur, July 8 -- There are football scandals, and then there is whatever Fifa is currently serving at this World Cup: a flaming buffet of disappearing goals, political phone calls, red-card miracles and "independent" committees that somehow make independence look like a hostage video.

The beautiful game has always had injustice. A bad whistle here, a blind linesman there, a referee who appears to have borrowed his eyesight from a boiled potato. That was part of football's tragic charm. But this World Cup feels different. This is not old-fashioned human error. This is bureaucracy with a whistle. This is technology behaving like a nightclub bouncer. This is Fifa telling the world the rules are sacred, then quietly checking who is se...