World Cup 2010 – Adventures In Officiating

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Did my eyes deceive me or did all the good will of the officials so far in the tournament just get shattered?

I mean, certainly Uzbekistan referee Ravshan Irmatov has had two quality outings to start the tournament, but his was one today that spared the blushes of his two fellow officials.

The day’s opening contest between Germany and Serbia was marred by an abhorrent display from Spanish whistle-blower Alberto Undiano Mallenco, who managed to produce 9 cards in the contest, four with in the first 25 minutes and managed to get Miroslav Klose sent off for two tackles that at the absolute worst should get a stern ticking off from the official. Losing a controlled striker meant that Germany was forced to rely on the midfield to create all the opportunities until substitutes later in the contest. Between then and there, Lukas Podolski showed the world why his season at Cologne has been a disaster, to put it mildly.

This was given a half hour of shelf life until the following contest between the Stars and Stripes (who need a Monster or AMP Energy before these contests kick-off because they looked like bit players in a zombie movie) and Slovenia, who benefited late on in the contest by a gregarious call by Mali official Koman Coulibaly, who somehow contrived a foul against the U.S. as Maurice Edu was slamming in the winning goal. Before that, even, he had called several dubious calls in the Dragon goalmouth, including a yellow card against Michael Findley for a “hand ball” that even had commentator Martin Tyler’s blood pressure shooting up 30 notches.

In effect, two contests were irrevocably altered by needless whistles that put the spotlight on the officials rather than the contests, among which the latter was one of the best contests of the tournament so far.

What is the most troubling is FIFA’s unwillingness to at least allow the match official to explain their decisions outside of the match report at the end of the contest, and even then the official isn’t required to explain anything. The FIFA statement released earlier that the officials would not have to say anything basically screams that “Yeah, we know they F^#$ed up, but that would mean that there is some sort of possibility for error and we’re terrified of being wrong, so silence will be golden.”

I mean, if they said that, at least they’d be honest about it.

Extra officials wouldn’t have helped in this case. Part of the problem with having to pick officials from multiple regions is not so much the fact that they aren’t good referees (for the most part they are all top notch) but the leagues they officiate. The Spanish La Liga is a league in which tackles are seen like the plague and play is often very free flowing. Putting an official used to that game into the physical fray of Germany and Serbia will simply not work.

Perhaps a solution might be to take the elite and whittle them down based on foul calls per contest, based on a league average. As each league is different, if an officials falls into a certain criteria range in that league, he would be fit for the World Cup.

Another issue is the goalmouth wrestling. Face it, FIFA. People are going to grapple like it’s an Olympic tryout session, so calling petulant pushes and tugs is akin to disciplining a term paper for not being on the precise color of paper. If there’s something serious, call it either way or just leave it alone. A defender rides down an attacker like his name is “Bruto the Bull?” Call the penalty. Someone gets elbowed in the face? Call it. Don’t just say “everyone’s in their, but the defense gets the benefit of the doubt.” Make the correct call or don’t bring the whistle to your lips.

It might take some time to perfect, but it might be a suitable alternative to the issues that happened in today’s contests.