L’Arbitre is back, this time discussing what the referees are wearing. I, Jenna, find this kit really attractive. The colours tend to look good on most of the referees, and the style and pattern of the kit is flattering as well. The red kit, particularly, seems to be universally flattering. Like this post? Visit L’Arbitre at Refereeing the Beautiful Game! By L’Arbitre Fashion, just
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I’m sort of getting sick of playing this game, but I’m tired of arguing about it in comments, so here we go: Yet another edition of “Penalty or Not?” This is the penalty shout for Russia’s Kanunnikov against the Belgian who’s name I’m sicking of looking up for spelling. Kanunnikov had stepped on the ball before contact was made. If
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Marco Rodriguez of Mexico and his love of hair product (see above) will open the proceedings on Tuesday with Italy v. Urugay. Mark Geiger of the US is his fourth official. Djamel Haimoudi of Algeria has been invited back for Costa Rica v. England, who have only their pride to play for now. Portugal’s generally excellent (and quite dreamy) Pedro Proenca has
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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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PLAY THE ADVANTAGE 