Not as good as the 2022 semi-final of blue-white-red against red-green-white but at least it's not full-mono à mono pic.twitter.com/zNvQvLGXpE— The Football Kit Podcast 👕 (@footballkitpod) July 7, 2026 These teams played four years wearing their traditional colors!!!
I vaguely remember an MLS broadcast in which one team was asked to change shirt colors for TV, and one player was livid. IIRC, it was Hristo Stoitchkov, which I'm sure is not a surprise to anyone.
The DC, MetroStars game at RFK that was delayed because someone had to drive out to the old Redskins training ground that United took over near Dulles - during rush hour - to grab DC's other jerseys? MLS Cup 2000 where ESPN rented a production truck with black/white monitors (it was 2000) forcing the Chicago Fire into white despite the league having announced that it would be the Wizards in blue and Fire in red earlier in the week? I think Hristo was in both those games.
I had this on a match earlier this year. Field player uniform on the left looks mostly white on the front on TV and on the match notification. It was the second week of the season and the goalkeeper on the right didn't have another color available from this year or last year. Two months later I got a match notification with the same colors. We contacted the league and got the gk to change.
As we await the next two assignments, some rumor-mongering. This guy isn't ArbitroInternacional, but he has seemed to be "in the know" on Asian stuff in the past. I know I said elsewhere I've seen no discussion about Collina stepping down, so wanted to acknowledge this prediction here: توقعاتي للمرحلة القادمة في عالم التحكيم:-تعيين ماسيمو بوساكا مسؤولا عن إدارة التحكيم في إحدى دول الخليج.-اعتزال بييرلويجي كولينا رئاسة لجنة حكام الفيفا بعد سنوات من قيادة الملف.-اختيار الحكم البولندي سيمون مارسينياك رئيسًا جديدًا للجنة حكام الفيفا.مجرد توقعات— عيسى سعيد (@issasaid232) July 9, 2026 I've heard elsewhere that Busacca is done after this tournament, so that part of the prediction tracks for me. Which makes me start to consider if this is more than "just expectations" from a random X account.
My expectations for the upcoming phase in the world of refereeing: - Appointment of Massimo Busacca as head of refereeing management in one of the Gulf countries. - Retirement of Pierluigi Collina from the presidency of FIFA's referees committee after years of leading the file. - Selection of Polish referee Szymon Marciniak as the new president of FIFA's referees committee. Just expectations.
These ref cam moments are priceless 😂 pic.twitter.com/NWEsn241xm— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 9, 2026 Funny
Good luck tomorrow, Mr. Pinheiro: Si de entrada este mundial ha dejado que desear disciplinariamente, desde ahora será más marcado:FIFA ha pedido a los árbitros amonestar solo en situaciones 100% claras donde el manejo o la interpretación no sea una posible.Collina y Busacca quieren evitar que se suspendan…— ArbitroInternacional (@ArbitroInteBlog) July 9, 2026 هذي المباراة لن تشهد اي إنذار إلا إذا كان واضح جدا جدا جدا معلومة وليس توقع كولينا شخصيا اجتمع مع الطاقم كامل واكد لهم هذي النصيحة— عيسى سعيد (@issasaid232) July 9, 2026
So, we will really go through all 104 matches without a 2CT red card? Really incredible and just shameless from Collina and Busacca the kind of environment they have created. Bring back Sepp Blatter.
Sad how refs are supposed to be courageous to make tough decisions, then they’re led by two massive cowards who handcuff their referees because they don’t want to hold players accountable for their actions that will “mess up the spectacle”. Like Lahoz in the Argentina-Netherlands game. These refs bust their ass for years to get here, then get told to not enforce the laws. All Joao Pinhiero has to do is give the cards that are deserved, AND WE WIN. Do it Pinhiero, this is a time for extreme courage!
Outside of this board, I haven’t seen anyone complaining about a lack of yellow cards. Which is presumably why they are doing it this way
I don't know about that. I don't think anywhere outside this forum is there a "hey, more yellow cards would be awesome" campaign. But at the same time I'm on a text chain with about 20 friends who play in an FPL (EPL) private league (only 3 of us are referees!)... almost every single match there's at least one "holy hell, how is that not yellow?" text. So the common fan, so to speak, is seeing it. They are just most likely seeing it in individual cases. I do think the more sophisticated observer of the game--and no, not just referees--recognizes that overall play would be better if more cynical play was addressed earlier. So, yes, more cards could improve the product. The problem is that the suspension rules are stupid and therefore more cards don't just free up attacking play in a given match, but make it more likely that start (or just starting) players miss matches. I've always had a radical approach here. Tell referees to give cards liberally but do away with all yellow card accumulation rules. I'd be perfectly happy with a tournament that had 5.5 yellow per game but no one got suspended unless they saw red. The on-field product would be better. But not enough important people realize that or think that way.
I don't really think the lack of yellow cards is primarily driven by the suspension due to accumulation in as much as FIFA doesn't want teams to go down to 10 players. I think that's 75-85% of the reason why. They have already softened the suspension rules as is to where they are cleared after the group stage and after the quarterfinals.
It's hard to put a percentage on these things, but I honestly think we over-estimate how much it's really about accumulation or 10 v 11. Sure, part of it might be. But you can further ease accumulation if necessary. And you could have instruction be "give yellows, but be 150% sure on second yellows" if it was the 2CT issue. My simplistic take is that it's always really been a (very misguided) feeling that more cards means more referee involvement and more of a feeling that the game is too physical or not about the players. I mean, you hear this all the time from our more, ahem, British commentators when. you start getting into the 5, 6, 7, 8 yellow card games. It never fails. The referee has become the star. The referee has made it about himself. The referee is card happy. That was ticky tack. That was his first one. Etc. etc. etc. If you just don't give the cards, commentators and fans can't say that. Voila, problem solved. We know that cards are management tools and can set the tone or be remedial. They can open up the game to more attacking soccer. They are a value-add, not a problem. But that philosophy is narrowly held outside a majority of the referee community (and, to be clear, we all know a minority of the referee community holds the British commentator philosophy!). Cards are bad. It's why Sandor Puhl got the 1994 Final after the 1990 Final happened. It's why so much of what we have now stems from the WC10 Final and the Portugal-Netherlands 2006 game (notwithstanding the valid argument that more cards earlier, including reds, might have helped both matches). Collina and Busacca might have an element of cowardice to them, but they are also doing their jobs as directed. And this "cards are bad" philosophy comes from the top.
I would suggest one of the following changes: 1. Suspension after 3 yellow cards instead of 2 2. Suspension only for 2 yellow cards in consecutive games
Tangental story: 20 plus years ago I was involved in "negotiations" with NCAA rules committee about number of cautions until a suspension. It used by to be 3 and then a suspension, and that carried over into the playoffs. Coaches were concerned about suspensions for the playoffs. I roll into the meeting between my group (representing the coaches) with the NISOA rep to discuss recommending a change to the NCAA. My group came prepared to aruge we should move from 3 to 4 for a playoff suspension, and we didn't expect it to go anywhere. The NISOA rep started the meeting by saying "we would be willing to move to eight." We had to slow down and take a breath so we didn't seem too anxious to say yes, as eight functionally ment an end to playoff suspensions for YCs. I haven't been involved w NCAA for about 15 years now, so I"m not sure where they are now, but I doubt they've changed. Basically cautions can be a game control measure for referees and you don't want to get too far in the weeds of having a player suspended for something that was discretionary for a referee. I do remember Sandy Hunt encouraging referees at a youth regionals (region IV) to go the administrators table to find out what players are on the verge of a suspension for YC accumulation, so that if there was, say, a wall that encroached you didn't accidentally card a plyaer on the verge of suspension, but you could choose someone else. Day 2 of the tournament we had referees for U12 girls games lined up out the trailer and into the parking lot to get caution info for a team's second game, i suppose to find out who was cautioned in game 1. Probably literally the dumbest advice ever given referees at a youth tournament. What you get is a whole nudder level of game management where a referee is dealing with things that do not even relate to the game in front of them. I know the World Cup is different than regionals, but only by degree and not by concept.
I admire Gary Kasparov for several reasons. Have followed him on X. In the past couple weeks I've noticed he was a full-on conspiracy theorist with FIFA and refereeing. His timeline on this topic is just... bad. Now he's taken the next step and published an op-ed in the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...d-cup-shows-machines-dont-guarantee-fairness/ It's very disappointing for a man this intelligent to not at least consider some of the factors that he doesn't know about.
Never meet your heroes. Seriously -- Kasparov is one of the world's most essential intellectuals in my book. This is depressing.
This is definitely part of who Kasparov is. I attended a lecture or two of his a few years after his groundbreaking loss to Deep Blue. He was still pushing his conspiracy theory that they had cheated. Semi-related, I recently tried to read some of David Mamet's political writing. I imagined that since he's a great playwright it couldn't be that bad. Turns out he's absolutely full of bats*** conspiracy theories. It's possible that people who are recognized as extremely insightful also develop too much self-belief.