As a newly-minted soccer ref myself—OK I haven’t actually ref’d a game, but I own the uniform—I feel well-qualified to speak on this subject. Given the status of the World Cup, and all the hoops the refs jump through to qualify for it, I expected better. The invisible foul that nullified Maurice Edu’s goal in USA v Slovenia, Tevez’s offside goal in Argentina v Mexico, and Frank Lampard’s obvious goal (except to the ref) in England v Germany stand out among the officiating screw-ups. Oh… let’s not forget Luis Fabiano’s double handball goal against Ivory Coast, unquestionably the most technically skillful and sublime non-goal of the tournament.
I watch my share of professional soccer. I can’t recall officiating errors as egregious and numerous in a similar period of European league play. This makes me think that World Cup refs as a group may have the credentials but not the requisite “big game” experience. Kouman Coulibaly, the ref who negated Edu’s goal, is a Malian bank auditor by day. With all due respect to Mali and other small nations of the world, is Mali’s professional soccer league, where Coulibaly earned his referee stripes, the logical proving ground for a World Cup ref?
If TV’s talking heads are correct, part of the officiating problem lies with FIFA’s boss, Sepp Blatter, who has, to date, resisted the use of either extra refs or goal-line technology. Apparently Blatter believes such changes would upset the natural purity and flow of the game and otherwise cause a great disturbance in the Force. He also thinks some controversy is “good” for the game. Given his recent statements Blatter may be relaxing his stance on this subject. I guess he’s taking a lot of heat.
Much is made of the low scoring nature of professional soccer. While I’m not one who thinks low scoring equals boring, I assert that a low scoring sport elevates the importance of officiating. A bad call in football (American) may result in a touchdown, but unless it occurs in the final minutes of the game, it's unlikely to change the way either team plays the game. In soccer, however, going down a goal often forces the losing team to adopt a more attacking style, which conversely makes it more likely to be scored upon.
Personally I’m willing to sacrifice a little natural purity and flow in a big stakes match if it means the right team wins.
I believe I heard Blatter say in a press conference that FIFA will now begin to incorporate goal-line technology...or at least they would "reopen the topic for discussion so that something like this does not happen again." I think the problem now is that they have hundreds of cameras covering each and every angle of the pitch at all times. These cameras are probably ten times better than they were ten years ago, and when something controversial happens on the field, they don't miss it. Lampard's shot was undeniably across the line and a goal for us and our ability to see the play close-up, from behind, in slow motion, upside down, or apparently even in 3D. Shots like that and calls like those are nothing new to the game. What's relatively new is our ability to go back and find out what really happened and get upset for our team when the right call wasn't made. If you go back ten, twenty, maybe thirty years this wasn't as much of a factor. I've watched the slow-motion replay for Maradonna's hand of god goal in 1986 numerous times and I still have no idea what part of the body he knocked that ball in with. I have also watched Henry's handball assist in the world-cup playoff game against Ireland this past season, and it took me one glance at the play slowed down and zoomed in on Henry to figure out what happened.
ReplyDeleteAnother aspect for consideration is off-sides. On ESPN i spent four weeks watching replays where they would draw lines across the field to separate the on-sides from the off-sides zones after plays had happened. They allow the millions of TV viewers to see this at home, but the refs on the field have to rely on their field positioning, the imaginary straight line they draw across the field in their heads, and their ability to make accurate decisions in a split second (because off-sides, more often than not, occurs in the blink of an eye when a player takes one step too early), to make the call. I feel that there is a reason they do not play replays up on the Jumbotron in soccer stadiums. It is because the replays have gotten so good over the past few years that I honestly think fans would riot in the stands over terrible calls in big games if they could see the truth.
So I agree. FIFA can't sit back and watch the technology grow exponentially on the side lines and think they are safe in some sort of safe, primitive bubble around the pitch. They are holding on to a dying tradition. One which may actually make soccer begin to lose popularity at this point.