I think almost everybody will agree the refereeing in Japan/Korea was atrocious, and costed several countries an early and undeserved exit from the World Cup, no need for examples, everybody knows. After this, I think I remember FIFA saying that they were trying to make the refereeing better in Germany 2006, by creating "teams" of refs to work together. I think this is a good start, but I think the bigger problem is FIFA is sacrificing quality for political correctness. In short, they are picking refs from around the world just to be fair. I understand their reasoning, world tournament= world referees, but, for a tournamnet this size and this important to billions across the planet, I don't think it's right to sacrifice quality of the referee just to be fair or politically correct. I think they should pick the best referees and (equally important as we all saw) assistant referees in the world, regardless of where they live. I don't care if they are white, all black, all latino, all muslim, all russian, all anything, I want the best referees in the world for this tournament, because it is so big and important and I don't want to see anymore teams exit the World Cup because of inadequate refereeing. And I don't say this with any bitterness, as my favorite two teams were not there, I say this as a fan of all football. Any thoughts?
I totally agree. It definately shouldn't matter what race/ehtnicity/skin color the refs are as long as they are the best. IMHO during the last World Cup, the reffing was either very good (ex: Collina), or very bad (ex: Moreno)
As specific as you have been here, you are still too general because there was one Moreno game where everyone pretty much agreed that he was very good (I think it may have been one of the US games) and another were they pretty much agreed that he was much less than good. I don't remember for sure and I'm too lazy to go look it up, but I seem to remember that situation. In my personal opinion, the biggest problem was with the AR's, not with the CR's.
Moreno reffed the US-Portugal game, if not other US games, and the really bad game was Italy-South Korea.
I agree with kev. Most of the problems were with the ARs. Moreno was excellent when he centered the US - Portugal match. Even in the Italy - S Korea match Moreno officiated, it was the ARs who made calls on potential Italian goals, and, to be honest, Italy screwed the pooch in front of goal. The could have been up three goals if they converted the sitters presented them. The worst call I saw during the world cup was the goal kick flagged by, I believe, a Burkina Faso or Togo AR in the Spain - S Korea denying Spain a winner in ET. That said, the best most experienced refs should go. How refs from some countries represented are able to gain the required experience, and I'll include the US for years we lacked a professional league like MLS, is beyond me.
I agree that they should use the best officials available regardless of nationality. Having said that, it would be foolish to think that having the best officials will prevent bad calls. Even the best referees sometimes see things that aren't there, and miss things that are. And some of those calls will end up having huge consequences. But having experienced referees and assistants from top leagues, chosen on merit (perhaps by other referees), would be a step in the right direction.
Although I realize it's not exactly the conclusion most of you have drawn, before someone does draw it, let me point out it all doesn't come down to what domestic league you referee in. I'll use examples. Lopez Nieto (Spain) and Wegereef (Netherlands) had two of the performances that are most commonly referred to as 'awful' (though I think Wegereef gets a somewhat bad rap in his match, as anyone would have had their hands full with that game). Anyway, two referees (allegedly the best from each country) from strong domestic leagues...two bad performances. Then you get people like Hall (USA) in the last World Cup, or Busjaim (UAE), who, for the most part, has had solid international performances (though I'm still ticked off he booked a Dutch player for a dive in OT of the 98 WC semi against Brazil). They come from not-so-powerful soccer nations. This gets taken even further. Hector Vergara of Canada is one of the world's best ARs. Period. If FIFA started to only take referees with top domestic leagues and top domestic performances, where would Vergara be? This is a man who's top matches (barring international duty) are A-League games, and he's probably amongst the top 10 at what he does. Same goes for a guy like Lubos Michel and his assistant Igor Smvraka (sp?) of Slovakia. The Slovakian crews have been some of the best in the Champion's League the past few years. So has Alain Hamer of Luxembourg and his French assistants. If FIFA only invited top refs from top domestic leagues, many of the world's best would be left home. The answer is balance. If someone has proven themself in international level (probably confederational cup play and WC qualifying) then they deserve the shot. Further, FIFA shouldn't bar a nation from sending multiple referees. If Italy or England or France has 3 guys that fall in the top 35 referees in the world (and, I think right now that at least Italy and France do, and England might) then they should send 3 refs each. But it shouldn't be a quota-system. If Hall and Stott both deserve to go from the US, then they should go. Conversely, if Spain or Portugal don't possess a World Cup caliber referee (and since the retirement of Melo Perreira, I don't think either do) then they shouldn't send one. The overarching theme (which all of you have expressed) is 'pick the best referees'. Just don't get too bogged down with the issue of nationality, or assume a domestic league's level of play is indicative of its top officials' abilities (or lack thereof).
Here's a question for you: Who are the best referees and how do you pick them? If UEFA had their way then all the referees would be from their confederation. Do you have each confederation nominate a number of CRs and ARs and they go to a camp where FIFA inspectors pick the best? Crowdie
- Possibly FIFA could form a panel (or several panels) to evaluate all the referees around the world. Each confederation would nominate people to evaluate, and this panel would go and evaluate the refs at several big games, such as world cup qualifyers, gold cup, afrian nations cup, euro, etc. And it would take several good ratings over years to get picked. Not like, you go watch one game and the guy is at the world cup the next year. And yes, obviously good experienced refs make mistakes, but they have a lower chance of making a mistake than some other refs.