FIFA has a serious problem. There have been four goals wrongly disallowed for poor offside calls in the World Cup so far, and we’re not even out of the group stages. Four! They are: Two against Mexico (v. Cameroon) One against Switzerland (v. Ecuador) One against Bosnia and Herzegovina (v. Nigeria) The first three goal decisions did not change the
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Today, we saw arguably the best refereeing performance of the World Cup so far … and arguably the worst. Milorad Mazic (SRB), Argentina v. Iran FIFA really loves Mazic (above), that much is clear. I think he’s usually a pretty good referee, but I haven’t been quite so enamoured of him as they are. He was a bit hit or
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Update: Here’s a great new video clip that should put this to bed (thanks to reader Cicero). It’s pretty clear here that Zabaleta touched the ball very cleanly and the ball was out of reach before he ever touched Dejagah. What it was an Iranian corner, which wasn’t given. And to everyone who’s commenting on this, I am glad you’re here. I
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It all starts to get real now; we’ll have four games a day until the end of the group stage. On Monday, we’ll see two newcomers and a couple of referees who’ve already seen action. Both Bakary Gassama of Gambia and Nawaf Shukralla of Bahrain get their first matches of the tournament, with Netherlands v. Chile and Australia v. Spain.
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Boy, this is a tough one. When Australian referee Ben Williams (in his first World Cup match) disallowed Honduras’ second goal by Jerry Bengston right before halftime, pandemonium reigned. Honduras would go on to lose 1-2. Now, let’s be clear about something: This goal was not disallowed because of offside (though many on Twitter think it was). It was disallowed for
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Three more referees today, newcomer Ben Williams and two repeat referees, including the Dutch God of Refereeing, Bjorn Kuipers. Enrique Osses (Chile) – Italy v. Costa Rica I wasn’t nearly impressed with the Chilean referee in this match as I was in his first outing. But in his defense, this game was played midday in the heat and humidity of
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Dear me, Enrique Osses, dear me. In about the 42nd minute of the Italy v. Costa Rica game, Joel Campbell was racing toward Italy’s goal. He was controlling the ball and running forward. Giorgio Chiellini of Italy was beaten and he knew it. So, he committed a professional foul and pushed Campbell down from behind. Penalty and yellow card? You’d
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All the ladies will be glad to know that Dr. Dreamy is back! Yes, Dr. Felix Brych of Germany will referee Belgium v Russia. These teams have everything to fight for, but after shaky outings for each expect it to be ugly. At least the referee won’t be. (I love the above photo, from dw.de. He looks like he’s posing
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L’Arbitre is back! I love this guy. He’s researching and writing deeply informative stuff like this, while I’m sourcing shirtless photos of referees. Today, he addresses the additional assistant referees (like the ones used in Italy’s Serie A) and why they’re missing from the World Cup. By L’Arbitre During this World Cup, there are only three officials instead of five. The
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Two of refereeing’s old guard – Howard Webb of England (above) and Carlos Velasco of Spain – came out to play today. One performed well, and one performed…well…. Howard Webb (ENG), Colombia v. Ivory Coast Webb reminded us today why he’s one of the best. He was nigh on perfect the first half, keeping his cards in his pockets but
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PLAY THE ADVANTAGE 