World Cup: FIFA Prez Apologizes for Poor Refereeing
- Author: Min-Q Kim
- Posted on: Wednesday June 30, 2010 at 10:00 AM
- Filed under: sports, soccer, fifa, world cup, sepp blatter, frank lampard, england, exclusive
FIFA President Sepp Blatter has apparently softened on his stance that technology has no place in football -- a new, reasonable stance that hopefully marks a new age for an organization that has been notoriously stubborn and unreceptive to the desires of its participating players, coaches, and billions of fans around the world.
Blatter: "Yes our refs have been bad, wanna fight about it?" (Photo: Reuters, via theglobeandmail)
The refereeing has been a point of contention for much of this World Cup -- with disgraceful behavior going unnoticed, and innocent behavior punished harshly, and in some cases changing the course of matches. We all remember the Ghana player who fell on his own and writhed around for 3 minutes to waste time, while the US tried desperately to score a tying goal. Or the Ivory Coast player who bumped into Kaka on Brazil, then went down holding his face, and got Kaka thrown out of the match...
But beyond the [really unwatchable] flopping and diving, the objective black-and-white mechanisms of the game aren't being honored, with legitimate goals being overlooked or disallowed for no reason. Thankfully, it seems goal-line technology, at the very least, will be open for discussion. “It is obvious that after the experiences so far at this World Cup," Blatter said, "it would be nonsense not to reopen the file on goal-line technology.”
It was this goal from England -- in its 4-1 loss to Germany -- that is front and center in this controversy. The mistake is most egregious, given that there was no acceptable reason for [presumably] trained professionals on the sport's biggest stage should miss such a clear goal. It was more than a foot beyond the goal line, and would have tied the match at 2 going into halftime.
If the ball crosses the goal line, and no ref is there to see it... (Photo: via The Mirror)
Unfortunately, Blatter will not budge on anything but goal line technology -- meaning no offsides reviews, no reviews of red cards or any other penalties that occur in the field of play. So his apology to Mexico? Kind of hollow. But baby steps, we guess...
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“ World cup rocks, but no one watches it like they used to because of other distractions these days. ”
