Poor refereeing has plagued every tournament in my living memory but generally the level of play and the drama of the momentum changes in games itself made one put those to the side.
I think the reason why this time around there seems to be more press against the refereeing errors was simply that there was nothing else for journalists to talk about! The games themselves sucked so bad that the referee mistakes were magnified 100 fold!
I think on the whole the refs did a reasonable job. Offside calls were remarkably more accurate than any other tournament I've witnessed. I'd say they got at least 90% of them correct. Obvisouly, it'd be better if they got them 100% correct. I think if there was any scope to introduce technology to assist the referees it should be in this area more so than "goal line technology". Lets face it, how many times was there conjecture over whether the ball had crossed the goal line or not? (twice from my memory).
The other facet that needs to be looked at is diving and play acting. I don't know what else to say. Its something that always seems very high on FIFA's agenda yet they seem to do fuck all about it. I've been screaming retrospective suspensions for divers for years but so far it seems to be falling on deaf ears! A 2 match ban for a first time offender will quickly eradicate this cancer from football.
I also think there should be consistency within the referees themselves in a big tournament like this. You had some referees who were handing out cards from minute one for minor tackles and then there were some that would let you get away with blue murder. This is something that needs to be addressed.
Other than that I don't think the refs were any better or worse than previous tournaments.
I think the reason why this time around there seems to be more press against the refereeing errors was simply that there was nothing else for journalists to talk about! The games themselves sucked so bad that the referee mistakes were magnified 100 fold!
I think on the whole the refs did a reasonable job. Offside calls were remarkably more accurate than any other tournament I've witnessed. I'd say they got at least 90% of them correct. Obvisouly, it'd be better if they got them 100% correct. I think if there was any scope to introduce technology to assist the referees it should be in this area more so than "goal line technology". Lets face it, how many times was there conjecture over whether the ball had crossed the goal line or not? (twice from my memory).
The other facet that needs to be looked at is diving and play acting. I don't know what else to say. Its something that always seems very high on FIFA's agenda yet they seem to do fuck all about it. I've been screaming retrospective suspensions for divers for years but so far it seems to be falling on deaf ears! A 2 match ban for a first time offender will quickly eradicate this cancer from football.
I also think there should be consistency within the referees themselves in a big tournament like this. You had some referees who were handing out cards from minute one for minor tackles and then there were some that would let you get away with blue murder. This is something that needs to be addressed.
Other than that I don't think the refs were any better or worse than previous tournaments.
