Little Miss WRX

World Cup 2006: It's not the Referees That Should be Sent Home

Never has the president of any professional sporting organisation made as many headlines for stupidity as Sepp Blatter. Earlier this week, the FIFA figurehead managed to add to his ever-growing list of idiocy. In the wake of Sunday's shambolic tidal-wave of Portuguese and Dutch cards, Blatter publicly declared that the referee, Valentin Ivanov, was the cause of the farce and that he (Ivanov) should have been the recipient of a booking for his poor display.

That he could make such an assertion without even a modicum of self analysis, or without pointing an accusing finger in the direction of the cheats who disgraced their countries, defied logic. Can anyone recall a decision that Ivanov, by the letter of FIFA's laws, got spectacularly wrong?

This World Cup has contained some fantastic football and glorious games but it has also showcased the shameful side of our sport. For Blatter to willingly ignore the reasons behind the unsporting behaviour translates into him paying a massive disservice to football.

If the officiating is so unilaterally poor (and in relation to red and yellow cards it has been) then the major cause of the problem is not with the individuals refereeing the game, but with the conditions under which they are forced to carry out their jobs. Of course, inept refereeing is a contributory factor to the problem, as the much-maligned Graham Poll demonstrated, but it is not the main one.

Football has become almost un-refereeable because some of the rules are unnecessarily pedantic or wholly unsuited to a sport as quick as "The Beautiful Game".

FIFA directed the referees in this World Cup to clamp down on eight specific offences, one of which was "reckless fouls". While that looks like a champion idea on paper, the effective implementation of it is akin to trying to outrun Asafa Powell whilst carrying Ronaldo on your back.

Such is the pace of the game that the effect of an innocuous tackle, made without even a whiff of malice, is accentuated and the challenge appears 'reckless'. Two tackles that are mistimed by a fraction of a second, over the course of the game, result in the dismissal of the offender. In fact, two such tackles over three games (or 270-360 minutes of football) can result in a player missing the World Cup Final.

So, what should be done? Is the game beyond redemption?

FIFA need to do away with the yellow card or repeal many of the offences for which it is deemed a suitable punishment. In its present guise, the yellow card is an impediment to the modern game and serves no purpose other than to encourage cheating. Of course, if a player systematically fouls or is physically violent, he should still be red-carded. However, two mistimed tackles shouldn't result in the same immediate punishment as a head butt or right-hook.

In an ideal world, the yellow card would act as a warning shot to players and discourage them from repeatedly and deliberately fouling the opposition. We don't live in an ideal world.

Football players, noting the frequency with which the cards are now dispensed, are only too eager to exaggerate the effect of tackles to get the opposition booked or sent off. This, by extension, leads to players already on yellow cards being cynically targeted for the merest contact, as seen in the Portugal v Holland sham.

Failing outright abolition of the yellow card, ridiculous suspensions for two offences over the course of a tournament (or in the case of the World Cup over the first or knockout rounds) should be consigned to Room 101. This would prevent the all too familiar scenario whereby the latter stages of a competition are played minus the participation of first team players, who are left sitting in the stands for two nothing offences.

The act that FIFA have labelled "simulation" is blighting this tournament. There is another offence that is closely related to this cowardly practice. Players are now fouling themselves by running into the opposition and falling over. Italy's Fabio Grosso provided a prime example of it on Tuesday to earn a match-winning penalty against Australia. It is a blatant manipulation of the laws of the game.

The FIFA rule says that a direct free kick (or penalty) is awarded if a player "tackles an opponent to gain possession of the ball, making contact with the opponent before touching the ball." There is an inherent difference between that definition and Grosso initiating contact with Lucas Neill to earn a spot-kick.

These brands of cheating are difficult for the officials to clamp down on during the heat of battle. Referees have a millisecond to see the incident, often from restricted views, and must make a decision on something of which they cannot be 100% sure.

This is why, on numerous occasions, players will go down and neither a free kick for the foul nor a booking for simulation will be dished out. Referees are sure enough that the incident doesn't warrant a free kick, but not sufficiently certain to book a player and risk him incurring an unwarranted ban. It seems that quite often, the certainty of getting it 50% right is better than the chance of getting it 100% wrong.

This is where Blatter and his cronies should come in. They hold the key to stamping out the practice. If blatant cases of simulation, such as Thierry Henry's abhorrent clutching of his face when Carles Puyol made contact with his chest, were punishable retrospectively on the basis of video evidence, it would act as a deterrent to the exponents of these sickening theatrics.

To argue that imposing punishments retrospectively would undermine the power of the referee is an instantly dismissible excuse. Conning the ref, as many players are doing habitually, is undermining their authority and making the job an impossibility. For FIFA to abrogate their responsibility and blame the refs is a heinous distortion of reality. Yet, time and again, they do just that and refuse to use their power effectively.

While gamesmanship will always be a part of football, and people will always try to take advantage wherever and whenever they can, it is up to the guardians of the game to ensure that this happens as little as possible.

Presently FIFA's spineless administration of the game is allowing cheating to reach epidemic levels and we can expect to bear witness to more games, like Sundays, that go into disciplinary meltdown. For FIFA to stand by and allow it to happen, or to drop the blame exclusively in the lap of referees, is reckless. It is they, more than the players and officials, who are responsible for the disintegration of football’s integrity. They have created the conditions that are a breeding ground for refereeing mistakes and cheating.

Perhaps Blatter's comments about Ivanov getting a booking will result in the introduction of yellow and red cards for the referees during a game. It may turn out to be his most inspired move. If referees, hamstrung by FIFA's inability to understand the game of football, are removed from the equation we might just get a better and fairer spectacle.

(Source: SquareFootball)

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

Personnally I reckon they should introduce the yellow card sin bin into football as it is in Rugby or Ice Hockey! foul someone then get sent off for 10 minutes into the sin bin, after which the hainous crime is forgotten about and the player is free to rejoin this game and not worry about missing the next game. Football could learn so much from Rugby, like playing the advantage etc.

Just my 2p worth.