Time and again, year after year, tournament after tournament - after all the hype to a big game - more often than not, the world just talks about the refereeing as the highlight of the game. This article comes on a day when two blatantly blind linesmen killed two games and two teams - England and Mexico - in the process. iSporter Anmol Singh Diddan presents his thoughts on the days events.
It has been happening since generations; be it a failure to spot Maradona's hand of god or Geoff Hurst's goal that wasn't but it won England, interestingly against Germany, their only World Cup back in 1966. Technologically, that was a different era altogether.
The Germans earned their sweet revenge today, 44 years later. But, that is not the point. Sport being a great leveller over time is alright but we live in a generation where we can take that out of sport.
The refereeing at this World Cup has been woeful to say the least. It seems as though the referees are not satisfied with the heavy pay packets that they take home. They want to steal the omnipresent limelight from the superstars on the pitch. The rate at which they splutter yellow cards at the slightest offence is appalling; that too in the wake of FIFA's decision to not cancel out yellow cards received in previous games until the Quarter Finals.
The most recent instance of a stupid referee asserting his unwanted authority was the Spain v Chile game. Before that it was the Brazil v Cote d'Ivoire game when Kaka was sent off because the referee just wanted him to not feature against Portugal.
Even before that was the Switzerland v Chile game when Behrami was sent off early in the game and the Swiss ended up losing it. That loss, even after pulling off the upset of the World Cup with their victory over Spain, sent the Swiss home. In the next game against Spain, Chile suffered a similar fate as Marco Estrada was sent off wrongly. Luckily, the Swiss failed to get past Honduras and Chile still made it through.
There has been an innate willingness of the referees to assert themselves on the games. The Brazil v Portugal game was another example of a referee killing a game with a spate of yellow cards in the first half which eventually took the fizz out of the contest. No team was rightly willing to risk a sending off or a ban in the round of 16. The assertion is fine up until a point where it is not killing the game in which so much is at stake.
The yellows and reds are an issue but the stubbornness of FIFA to not use any video technology for offside and line calls is absurd. In an era where cricket has its own hawk eye review system, tennis also has a similar hawk eye, then why is FIFA turning a blind eye to the use of something as regular as video?
The decision of disallowing Frank Lampard's goal was laughable to say the least. In real time on television, it looked like a clear goal! The linesman must certainly have been blind as the ball was easily a meter past the line; this amidst a fiery English comeback from two goals down. One game killed and you would think that was the only big decision we would talk about today.
Come the Argentina v Mexico game and Mexico are putting up a brilliantly unexpected performance in the first half hour. But the game was destined to be killed by another awful call by the linesman. Tevez is offside by a good two yards but a blind linesman lets him blissfully head into an open goal. The wise man in the middle also went over to discuss with his deputy but the goal still stood!
There is a sense of grievance at this World Cup as there is at any big tournament. It was FIFA's decision to not use video replays at this World Cup and it is their time to be red faced with two woeful calls today. This too at a time when every stadium has at least two huge screens telecasting the matches. Is it such an effort for a referee to look up at the screen?
This might not be the last time we are talking about awful refereeing decisions at this World Cup. There might be more to come. Mind you, the stakes are getting higher and these decisions will leave FIFA more and more red in the face. Well, we can just say they deserve it.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/hide comments
a guest
said:
 |
... I think technically footbal is not a high quality game. In many maches referee did not take proper action. |
Chaitanya Sridhar
said:
|
... Good one Anmol. I can't agree more with you. FIFA's stubbornness against video technology is causing much harm to the Sport. They surely have a lot to think post World-Cup. |
Anmol Singh Diddan
said:
|
... Sepp Blatter is so adamant with his stupid reasons post these matches.... He says he has said sorry to both contingents and the video issue can't be implented as football is a flowing game!!!! its absurd!! He says the only recommendation that might be implemented as it was for a while on a trial basis are two extra officials behind each goal line.... I don't understand how that will help offside calls like the Tevez goal!! so FIFA is definitely on course to embarrass itself again without any thought being put into it |
Show/hide comment form
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
