June 21, 2002

Merry King Sepp's low blow. : [nyt reg req] "The refereeing has been the only negative aspect of this World Cup magnificently organized by two countries" Blatter said. Coward. You are supposed to stick up for your men, especially with the semis and finals coming up. This increases the odds of even worse officiating than there has been so far, although that's hard to believe.

posted by Voyageman to soccer at 09:48 AM - 5 comments

Why are the refs Blatter's men?! He didn't hire them.

posted by StarFucker at 09:56 AM on June 21, 2002

I believe FIFA chooses the refs.

posted by Voyageman at 10:44 AM on June 21, 2002

Voyageman is correct: The refs are from FIFA. Also, I think the refereeing has been pretty darn good except for a few games (which everyone will point to as representative of all refereeing). The inclusion of tougher rules against "diving" (in the box) and "theatrics" (outside the box) has required refs to make even more judgement calls. In the high-temperature cauldron that is the World Cup, officiating the best in the sport (and all the accompanying gamesmanship) is a tight-rope-walker's job. Of course, the inclusion of refs with suspect prior records doesn't help.

posted by worldcup2002 at 11:41 AM on June 21, 2002

Well whatever, why is Blatter a "coward"? If he WAS a coward i think that he would stick up for his refs and say that they did nothing wrong. I think you have your perspectives mixed up.

posted by StarFucker at 01:56 PM on June 21, 2002

He has supposedly been the one pushing refs to call offsides more aggressively and to yellow/red card players more frequently who fake fouls. Now when refs do what he asked, he blames them. He should blame himself first for having provided such bad refs in the first place.

posted by Voyageman at 04:15 PM on June 21, 2002

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