Blattered and bruised...and totally confused

Jose-Marcia Garcia-Aranda, FIFA’s Head of Refereeing, says he is “very, very satisfied” with the performance of the referees in the World Cup.

He went on to say that some of the decisions “are not good,” and he also said that “mistakes are natural for human beings”. Are you confused? I certainly am!

Why do officials make such brainless comments in an effort to protect all and sundry? Who is he protecting and why? Just call it like it is. Just say that Koman Coulibaly from Mali had a disgraceful game when the USA clashed with Slovenia last Friday. Perhaps however, therein lies the twist. That game was Koman’s first World Cup game that he has ever officiated in (and hopefully his last) and presumably Jose-Marcia Garcia-Aranda had some say in his appointment. Was he protecting his own job maybe? Whichever way you look at it, FIFA’s official response was spineless and stupid.

Andy Roddick recently gave a piece of his intelligent mind when asked about the disallowance of USA’s Maurice Edu’s goal in the 85th minute. At Wimbledon he was asked if he understood the rules of football. He snapped, “I understand the rules of football so well that apparently when two Slovakian guys mug an American guy, the American guy gets called for a foul.” Touché!

To this day no-one knows why the inadequate Coulibaly nullified the goal. It is a complete mystery and FIFA are compounding the issue by not being transparent and truthful. This blunder has been the most damaging so far, but no means has it been the only one. Teams have been vilified and players sacrificed.

The bottom line here is that this astonishing controversy could have been avoided. FIFA has imprudently rejected the idea to introduce the use of technology into football. The sporting world and its millions of followers these days deserve nothing better than being exposed to the correct results. Sport has advanced dramatically over the last decade and has now reached the stage that technological enhancements are such that they must be introduced wherever possible so as not to cheat individuals, be it players or spectators. Football has got to be one of the simplest games to determine the correct outcome in any controversial circumstance. One or two basic slow motion replays, sans any high cost bells and whistles, will be enough for an intelligent mind belonging to an officially appointed third party observer to arrive at the correct conclusions. We as sports lovers warrant that. What’s more I can guarantee that there will be more referee howlers to come at the sharp end of this World Cup.

Cricket’s governing body has got it right in electing to use technology in decision making albeit that this columnist firmly believes cricket is not using the correct process. Other sports such as rugby, baseball, gridiron, horse racing, athletics, cycling, tennis and even ten pin bowling have all embraced this progressive stance. Why not the global game?

FIFA President Sepp Blatter reiterated recently that sport should keep its human element, allowing everyone to have their say.

“When you are in a football match there is no social level, everybody is the same and everybody in the stadium and at their television is an expert,” he said at a media briefing prior to the start of the World Cup.

“Everybody is an expert and that is why we are not going into technology on the field of play, because if you have technology on the field of play, then there are no more experts.”

“Then the science is coming in the game, no discussions ... we don’t want that. We want to have these emotions, and then a little bit more than emotions, passion.”

Are you confused? I certainly am!

What garbage.