By Tendai Makaripe-Harare
Football is a global sport and its rules must be interpreted and applied with absolute
consistency wherever the game is played. It is however unfortunate that most referees have hogged the limelight for all the wrong reasons, deviating from their known duties and hence influencing the outcome of matches.
The referee is in charge. It is his responsibility to ensure that the game is played within the rules and without diminishing the competitiveness of the contest, i.e. that game is allowed to flow whenever possible. He should be fully aware of the rules of the game and be able to apply them wherever and whenever necessary.
There have been many controversial goals and goals disallowed by the FIFA officiating referees and their assistants in different tournaments.
This is known as poor officiating in this game of round leather we all love. Football or soccer, the indisputable most glamorous game in the world is round so is the universe. Almost every human being loves this game; even elephant, dolphin and other animals know what to do with football.
The bad news however is the state in which the game is right now. Poor officiating may be killing soccer. And FIFA, the sole organizer of football events seems to be taking the issue of bad officiating lightly. Many unpardonable errors have occurred in different tournaments like AFCON, Champions League, National Leagues, Challenge Cup and even the World Cup.
The just concluded 2013 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in South Africa in which poor officiating almost marred the January/ February fiesta should raise serious eyebrows.
It has been alleged several times that FIFA referees have committed errors in the cause of their officiating duties; serious errors that have untimely sent many football lovers to their early grave.
Some may call it an exaggeration but those relatives who have lost loved ones in this respect will understand this point.
Although these errors are fast impeding the development of the game, it seems Sep Blatter and his cronies are indifferent to this issue. The 2013 AFCON and the current UEFA Champions League have exposed FIFA’s incompetency regarding officiating.
If nothing is done to curb bad officiating, we might be witnessing a sad situation whereby football lovers would gradually lose interest in this most spectacular game in the world.
By not allowing England’s equaliser against Germany in their quarter final encounter at the 2010 World Cup in which Frank Lampard’s lob clearly a foot behind the line is another evidence of how FIFA is killing the game in disguise.
“Frank Lampard’s lob over the goalkeeper struck the crossbar and fell 18 inches behind the goal line. Neither the Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda, nor his linesman, was sufficiently up with the play to award it,” wrote Rob Hughes in South Africa.
Fans and spectators could not believe their eyes regarding such inexplicable decision.
“The performance by FIFA referees during this world cup is pathetic,” says one angry fan.
“The dumbest referees I’ve ever seen are in this world cup,” quips another.
Are referees allowed to disallow a clear goal and get away with it? For that is what it is: a clear goal that went behind the line. It was an awful decision as far as I am concerned.
Nigerian football enthusiasts were bemused by questionable calls by referees at the AFCON tournament in South Africa, especially in matches involving the Super Eagles.
They were particularly dismayed that a referee could award a penalty to Zambia after a healthy contest at the edge of the box between Nigerian midfielder, Ogenyi Onazi, and Emmanuel Mayuka of Zambia.
Observers questioned the ability of the Egyptian referee, Ghead Grisha, who was at the centre in the Group ‘C’ match between Nigeria and the then defending champions Zambia in Nelspruit on Jan. 25, to officiate in continental tournaments such as AFCON.
Stakeholders, players and fans alike expressed their bitter resentment of the referee’s act.They unanimously agree that punitive measures against erring referees are quite desirable but they insist that concerted efforts should be made to ensure fair play since the results of poorly officiated matches are never reversed.
“I don’t want to question the decision of the referee but I want to make a passionate appeal to the referees to be fair in their decisions, so that the best team will always win.
“It was bizarre officiating; it was the worst penalty award I have ever seen in my entire football career. Only God knows why they are doing this to us,” Nigerian captain JosephYobo said.
While Burkina Faso eventually prevailed 3-2 on penalties against Ghana following a 1-1 draw, all the talk after the game centered on Jdidi’s failure to award a legitimate penalty, his decision to disallow a valid goal and the red card he issued to Jonathan Pitroipa.
If Burkina Faso had lost that game it was not going to be because they were not good enough but because the man in the middle decided to be a Black Stars player.
Other refereeing foibles included Ghana’s goalkeeper receiving a yellow card instead of red for a handball outside his area in what was a blatant professional foul against Mali.
South African referee Daniel Bennett booked the wrong player, awarded two soft penalties and denied another obvious spot kick when Togo met Tunisia in Nelspruit.
“We would have expected a better standard,” Confederation of African Football (CAF) secretary-general Hicham El Amrani told a media conference.
And yet despite all this, Hayatou still maintains that he was satisfied with what he saw.
“The reality is that overall we are happy with the officiating,” he was quoted as saying.
“Yes, there have been some mistakes that have been made by some referees that troubled us. Those referees, however, did stand up and acknowledged that they had made mistakes which is why we had to re¬verse some of those decisions.
The rea¬son why we had to reverse the sanctions on the two affected players was based on the recommendations made by the referee.”
Despite Hayatou’s efforts to play down the poor standard of refereeing, it was without a doubt the biggest disap¬pointment of the tournament. In fact, it was so poor at times it looked like some of the officials had taken bribes to further the progress of certain teams.
Fans on the continent are tired of officials who talk at press conferences and do little on the ground to rectify the problem of bad officiating in the world’s most beautiful game.
It was the game the world was watching and it didn’t disappoint. The Champions League encounter between Manchester United and Real Madrid delivered drama and controversy, with the Spanish champions eventually prevailing 3-2 on aggregate after an enthralling second leg at Old Trafford.
With United leading 1-0 in the match and 2-1 in the tie thanks to a Sergio Ramos own goal early in the second half, Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir made a decision which caused a social media storm.
He gave United’s Portuguese winger Nani a red card for what he deemed to be a high challenge on Real full back Alvaro Arbeloa.
Ex-United full-back Gary Neville, now a top telly pundit, admitted Old Trafford had been left more stunned than he had ever known.
The former England right-back, now a coach under national-team boss Roy Hodgson, was adamant the winger did not deserve red from Cakir and tweeted:
“I have been going to Old Trafford since I was 5 and I’ve never seen the whole ground as in disbelief as they were last night at a decision!”
It has become a joke among football lovers that each team plays against 14 players, the extra three being the referee and his two assistants.
Howard Webb has been labelled a Manchester United player by a lot of people and the Manchester United games he officiates in are always viewed with suspicion.
FIFA must do something to prevent such anomalies if it actually wants to preserve this wonderful game.
There must be a standing rule to reverse the result of any game found wanting. Any keen football follower would notice that most of these errors usually occur from goals scored or disallowed at offside position, handball or reckless tackle in the box.
Whilst some errors by the referees are innocent, many have been attributed to match fixing like what happened In Italian Series A where some clubs were sanctioned for conduct unbecoming of football officials, players, coaches, organisers and so on and so forth.
Does FIFA mean Famous in Failure Absolute?
In this age of information and communication technology, it is disturbing seeing how blatant errors from the referees are slowly killing this wonderful game.
Such errors often give impression that FIFA secretly allows cheating in soccer. Until recently, FIFA had strongly opposed to using video replay back.
If FIFA had allowed such technology to be used, that case of Henry, England second goal against Germany, Argentina goal against Nigeria at the world cup 2010 and many other would have been reversed immediately.
More importantly, video technology should be used. Tennis and rugby are already ahead in this regard. Let’s Blatter and his comrades be more serious regarding football rules. Stop killing soccer in disguise.
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