Referees at the World Cup are “facing a new kind of storm, triggered by several surprising, even questionable, decisions from FIFA,” according to Dupre & Menetrier of LE MONDE. This World Cup had “gotten off to a rocky start,” as on June 6, five days before the tournament began, local authorities turned back Somali referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan at the U.S. border. Another question concerns referee assignments, as each match, with the tournament advancing, “carries higher stakes than the last.” FIFA’s decision to appoint Ilgiz Tantashev for the round of 16 match won by France against Paraguay (1-0) on July 4, who was handling only his third match of the tournament, “came as a surprise.” It “falls to FIFA’s referees committee,” chaired by Italian Pierluigi Collina, the “world-renowned former official,” to evaluate and assign officials match by match. The expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams and the increase in the number of matches also meant a bigger pool of referees. The end of the competition “promises to be rocky for the refereeing corps, already facing mounting scrutiny” (LE MONDE, 7/8). In Boston, Frank Dell’Apa wrote refereeing controversy “has marked this World Cup since the opening game,” when three red cards were issued in Mexico’s 2-0 win over South Africa. The situation “has intensified since” (BOSTON GLOBE, 7/8).
INTEGRITY QUESTIONS: REUTERS’ Hatem Maher notes Collina “defended the officiating” in Argentina’s 3-2 victory over Egypt in the World Cup round of 16, “dismissing allegations of bias” and saying that “match officials operated with complete independence.” Collina said that criticism of referees “was part of football,” but he “condemned the questioning of the officials’ integrity” after Egypt complained about the officiating following the defeat. Collina: “Nobody can question the integrity of the FIFA World Cup match officials ... Nobody can claim that FIFA refereeing can be influenced by anyone, not even by the FIFA president (Gianni Infantino)." Collina said that such allegations “could provoke threats against referees and their families.” Egypt exited the tournament but claimed that they “had been treated unfairly” after Argentina overturned a 2-0 deficit to snatch victory with a stoppage-time winner from MF Enzo Fernandez. Egypt Coach Hossam Hassan alleged that after the match there “may have been pressure on the referee to keep Argentina in the tournament.” Egypt argued that Egypt LW Mostafa Zico’s second-half strike “was incorrectly ruled out for what it described as a non-existent foul in the build-up.” Collina said that VAR “had correctly recommended” overturning Zico’s goal “after identifying a foul” by Egypt MF Marwan Attia on Argentina D Lisandro Martinez during the attacking possession phase (REUTERS, 7/9). In London, Will Castle noted Egypt “have filed an official complaint” to FIFA “demanding the ‘exclusion’ of referees from the World Cup after their controversial loss to Argentina.” The Egyptian FA made a statement confirming their action to FIFA in a bid to “preserve justice and the integrity of the competition” (London INDEPENDENT, 7/8).
VAR CONCERNS: The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Jason Gay wrote, “We need to talk about VAR.” Gay: “This is my rule with sports replay: If someone is explaining a decision and it makes you scrunch up your face like they are telling you they live inside a walnut tree and talk to all the neighborhood squirrels…it’s a bad call." Replay should “feel rational, attached to reality. Not disconnected from the action it is trying to officiate.” Gay wrote we “tell ourselves this stuff should be limited, that replay must only be used for specific situations, but we never limit it. It only expands.” Gay: “We’re wrecking our entertainment with granular forensics. We’ve turned the games we love over to zero-tolerance killjoys who would interrupt the Jupiter symphony because they think the oboe player held a note a half second too long. We need to take a lot of this vaunted tech and smash it with a bunch of hammers” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 7/8).
RAISE AN EYEBROW: GOAL’s Donny Afroni wrote FIFA has “sparked a massive debate ahead of the World Cup quarter-finals by appointing an entirely Argentine officiating crew for France’s clash against Morocco.” The decision has “raised eyebrows across the footballing world given the intense recent history and bubbling rivalry” between France and Argentina, as well as the fact Argentina are “likely to be a main challenger to France winning the entire tournament” (GOAL, 7/8).
