Berlin 14-07-2010
Pierluigi Collina , probably the best referree -foto Wikipedia -Christoph Hoerl
Both football players and fans go to stadiums all over the world or watch games on TV in order to see skilful, positive-attacking, and end-to-end action.
They also want to see the rules of the game respected and their favourite players who produce that positive play on the field protected from cynical fouls and injury from the less talented players.
Bad calls by referees are nothing new and part of the game of football, and have happened many times before – and will most likely happen many times in the future – they are simply brought more to the fore every 4 years a World Cup comes around.
Football refereeing or football officiating is not an ‘art’ and it is even less a ‘science’ – it could perhaps be said to be a bit of both.
However it is, along with a solid knowledge of the game, mostly about social awareness and social intelligence -being able to read a situation requiring a firm but flexible hand and the ability to inhibit one’s own personal prejudices while keeping an objective overall game view at all times.
It is not and can never be just about rules and edicts and issuing fast directive judgements on them.
A good referee should have a whole array of tools and if you like ‘weapons’ in his arsenal other than just the two colour cards he carries in his pockets – and one could say that the way the good ones differentiate and earn their reputations is how well they deliver on these skills.
He should use a stern look or grimace, a quick warning-reminder that ‘he-knows-what-you-are-up-to’ and if you do it again its yellow-card time, a ‘soft-lecture’ here and a ‘grave-shout’ there – the game can then be brought under control without yellow + red cards having to fly around.
There are written guidelines for referees and a lot of what he does or should do has been both prescribed and proscribed.
However he acts as an judicator – a neutral arbitrator – and like a judge should use his position with respect to the situation in front of him at the time and should be given the freedom to move within the rules and apply them as he deems appropriate.
If for example a referee is told that he MUST issue a yellow card for every challenge from behind, his hands are tied and he loses the autonomy to operate independently.
It means he must then dismiss a player in the first half of a game for 2 ‘soft-tackles’ which turns the game into the loser game and everybody is the worse off because of it. [I.e. see ‘Klose’ example below!]
If the limit of what is and what is not permissible is a bit murky at this World Cup we have only FIFA to blame for this.
While there has been much talk about adding more officials, and adding chips into the balls and adding cameras at goal posts -there is no certainty that any of this would ameliorate the present problems – the problems with officiating in almost 95% of the cases are human and not technical.
It should be noted that all referees at this and previous World Cup are ‘amateurs’ – in the sense that they are not full-time paid professionals and have other full-time jobs from which they have been able to take a leave of absence.
FIFA along with its individual ‘Football Associations’, looks for refereeing talent for up to 4 years between the World Cups. The men they chose to adjudicate World Cup games are supposed to be known as the best in their respective countries.
However by inserting incompetents [the likes of Undiano and Rosetti] one has to question their own competence and wonder whether perhaps internal FIFA politics or other concerns might be at play here.
3 Examples from this World Cup of very bad refereeing-
Referee Koman Coulibaly, whose faulty call in the 85th minute negated a potential game-winning goal meant that the US was denied a deserved win.
Australian Harry Kewell got a red card from incompetent Italian referee Roberto Rosetti – for ………..wait for it……….having a right-arm!
This very same right arm, passed on to him genetically from previous Kewell generations and his hand at the end of this same arm have helped him progress in life – eating, writing …shaking hands – meaning it’s not his fault that his arm is connected to his body – whatever FIFA may have to say on this matter!
The rule clearly states that the player must willingly move his arm or hands in a manner to interfere with the trajectory of the ball – if a ball is kicked onto the arms or hands of an opposing player, this in itself is not a hand-ball and even a 5 year-old would be able to understand this simple rule – but not the calamitous Mr Rosetti.
Germany’s Miroslav Klose was sent off by the equally incompetent Spanish referee Alberto Undiano – this just 37 minutes into Germany’s game against Serbia.
He had collected two yellow cards for two separate fouls, neither of which merited a yellow-card or were caution worthy and the loss of a player so early in the game turned a potentially great game into a dog - a definite loser game.
Both teams had shown a lot of respect for each other through-out the game and there was no-mean spirited or foul atmosphere between them. This loser ref wanted to impose his huge ego but very limited football ability onto the game – this he succeeded in doing, ultimately at the expense of the game.
This was clearly a case of the referee putting himself at the centre of the game – and in this Germany-Serbia encounter- Undiano managed to hand out an amazing 9 yellow cards, including the two which added up to the Klose red card and his ejection from the game in the first half.
Instead of a free-flowing offensive spectacle of players going end to end for goals, players and the public instead were treated to an irregular on-again-off-again/stop-start idiocy dominated by the questionable yellow-cards/whistles by the irritatingly incompetent Spanish referee Alberto Undiano.
After Klose’s dismissal, Serbia scored within the minute and ended up winning the game by 0-1 and probably could have won by even more.
In spite of a spirited German defence the game descended for them into rushed and sloppy desperation.
Faulty calls like this can and do ruin a football game -they are anathema, the curse of all players and fans alike – especially when their influence can help decide the end results of games in something as important as the World Cup.
Other notable blatant ‘bad-calls” – faulty refereeing at this World Cup
June 20- Brazil 3-1 Ivory Coast/Handball
June 27 – Germany 4-1 England /‘Virtual Lampard goal’
June 27 – , Argentina 3-1 Mexico/ Offside goal
July 3 – Spain 1-0 Paraguay / Penalty being re-taken penalty
Four good referees in the South Africa World Cup
Yuichi NISHIMURA Japan
Ravshan IRMATOV Uzbeqkistan
Wolfgang STARK Germany
Hector BALDASSI Argentina
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‘OTA-Berlin Constituency Blog’ is part of OTA-Berlin – the economical ‘Apartment-Alternative to Hotels’ in Berlin.
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