Everything in football has evolved for either the better or worse, depending on your point of view, but what has failed to evolve is the role of the ref. FIFA continue to thrust under qualified referees into the global spotlight, it needs to stop.
Players not referees should decide games
As Fred dropped to the floor imploring the ref to award a penalty, anger coursed through me. It wasn’t the diving, it wasn’t the gesticulating, it was the fact that no matter how tactically tuned, how physically fit a team is, it doesn’t matter. A team is not in charge of its destiny. The man in the middle with one exhale of breath can change everthing. This gentleman who is paid an every day wage is responsible for a sporting spectacle worth billions financially and an unquantifiable amount emotionally.
The power of the ref is something that has been concerning me for sometime. As a part Italian and fervent supporter of the Azzurri and Spurs, suspicions over refereeing is part of the package, but finally if Twitter is anything to judge peoples opinion by, the rest of the world is starting to wake up to bad refereeing.
Please note by rest of the world I am excluding ITV commentators and pundits, with Fabio Cannavaro the exception, primarily because Adrian Chiles was constantly cutting him off mid-sentence. Who knows what the 2006 World Cup winning captain believes, he was never given the time to express himself. Chiles was too busy worrying about a beautifully aimed protestor missile hitting his planet shaped head.
However, as the post chit-chat progressed, I noticed that more and more was given over to the “great news Brazil won” rather than “incompetence rescues home team.” ITV aren’t alone in ignoring the ref in pursuit of the bigger story of the host team winning, but it needs to stop. People need to realise that it wasn’t the power or skill of the Brazilians, although the incompetence of former Spur Stipe Pletikosa helped, it was the ref who gave them a new angle.
[linequote]As a part Italian and fervent supporter of the Azzurri and Spurs, suspicions over refereeing is part of the package[/linequote]
The power the ref has is nothing new. Search back through history and the tale of the crooked ref is told by every team that has lost. The Italians in 1962 still question Ken Aston’s impartiality, whilst the Germans will never trust a Russian linesman again. Fast forwarding to modern times, there are a catalogue of occurrences at Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge, ghost goals, phantom tackles and mysterious yellow cards to have even the least paranoid person in the world a shivering wreck.
The question is though how did it come to this? How did a game that developed into a sport, then into a science and now a Pacific Rim style monster of money come to rely solely on one gentleman?
Why was the first game of the 20th World Cup overseen by a Japanese ref?
Excuse my ignorance, but is the J-League really the best breeding ground for referees? Are they exposed to lighting quick skill and deception on a weekly basis? Are they ever thrown in front of a global audience?
“I think it was not a good idea to put a referee from Sweden in charge of such an important match….A big game with two important teams, that kind of game needs a referee with more experience.”
This was a comment made by Man City boss Manuel Pellegrini after his team were beaten at home by Barcelona in the Champions League last season. This comment earned him a three game suspension, but it should have earned him a round of applause.
Football is too big to be decided by incompetence. I am not saying the Swedish ref was bad, to be honest I vaguely remember a sending off from that game, but the basis of the comment remains. A professional game should be marshalled by a professional referee. A ref who is experienced, who understands not only the game of his nation but that of the world.
[linequote]Excuse my ignorance, but is the J-League really the best breeding ground for referees? Are they exposed to lighting quick skill and deception on a weekly basis?[/linequote]
If FIFA want a Japanese ref to control a huge game, why doesn’t he spend a season in Europe, or at least marshalling some Europa League/Champions League games? Players learn by going abroad, so should referees. This applies to only to referees from far flung outposts but English refs as well. A Premier League weekend without Howard Webb, Chris Foy etc would be quite refreshing.
Yorkspur wrote earlier this week that football needs Brazil 2014 to change our perception of the game and give it back to the fans. Personally I don’t think this will happen, the game has moved too far from the small percentage of us who are linked to their club through birth, community and/or visiting the stadium, but it does have a chance to make us believe in the sport again. For this to happen though games need to be decided by players, not the ref.
The World cup is an event I live for. I use it as a reference point for mapping where I was, what I was doing, where I was working etc . I can pinpoint exactly where I was, where I watched a certain game and how I felt. Along this timeline there is a lone dark spot, the 2002 Japan and South Korea tournament.
Fake fans screaming for throw-ins, 10am kick offs and Byron Moreno, perhaps the worst referee in the history of football. I urge you to Wikipedia him, type him into YouTube and watch in horror as he single handledly took Italy apart in a second round game versus South Korea. His last known address before he returned to Ecuador was a jail in America after he was caught smuggling Heroine. People claim Italians are paranoid, but this was a FIFA referee, jailed for smuggling Heroine. You can’t make stuff like that up.
[linequote] We could all save ourselves a lot of trouble, time and money and just have a one day event of ref v ref[/linequote]
However Moreno is the extreme, yet it serves to highlight the problem with hiring referees from smaller nations. This isn’t discriminatory, it is a simple fact that football in Ecuador, Japan, Sweden and other nations of similar ilk aren’t to the standard required for a World Cup. If games are going to be decided by a single gentleman, then we could all save ourselves a lot of trouble, time and money and just have a one day event of ref v ref, the winner being the hardest to bribe, influence or intimidate.
The World Cup makes me romantic about football. Tardelli’s celebration, Bank’s save, a young crying Pele hoisted on to his team mates shoulders and Saeed Al-Owaira tumbling through the Belgian defence to score a wonder goal. Growing old brings with it enough cynicism, so please FIFA get something right in the next few weeks. Try and repair some of your damage by appointing the right ref for the spectacle, not the home team or most powerful nation.
You have an opportunity here. Don’t fluff it.
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2 Comments
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13/06/2014 @ 5:55 pm
As i read this I’m watching Mexico V Cameroon and guess what, the officials have ruled out 2 perfectly good goals by ex spur dos Santos.
03/07/2014 @ 2:08 pm
It would be worth experimenting with an extra official or two on the pitch (although with set areas so they don’t get in the way of play). Maybe extra perspective would see fewer mistakes made and maybe even provide the ref with added confidence. I don’t agree with the clamour for replay. It works for sports like tennis, cricket and American Football where play stops frequently and naturally; I don’t think it would improve football.
And I agree that the referees are often a huge problem. Most of us despise diving and play acting but, watching Colombia getting kicked up in the air by Uruguay the other day, it became fairly obvious that unless you fall over you are usually not winning a penalty/free kick. It does not benefit a player to play tough. Referees have a tough job, but it would be made a load easier if they had the balls to book divers etc and play an proper advantage when a player is fouled but doesn’t go down.
Obviously that doesn’t help with general incompetence like New Zealand getting hosed by a star-struck Italian-loving Guatemalan in 2010 or the Japanese bloke caving into the pressure of reffing Brazil’s biggest home match in decades.