Big Question: Are the Referees Ruining the World Cup?

I think FIFA should incorporate a ‘20 yard rule’ for fouls. The opposing team should be able to place the ball at any spot 20 yards from the spot of the foul (some thought needs to be given for placing the ball in the penalty box, but you get the idea). Placing the ball at the spot of the foul, in my opinion, gives an unfair tactical advantage to the fouling team.

Posted from  United States

Big Answer: Civil War, Terrorism, Natural Disasters, Racism (any kind of -ism), the Plague couldn’t RUIN the World Cup. I’ve been angry, too, much of the time–never so angry as when a phantom penalty sent my very own dear team away–but I’ve decided we all should lighten up and enjoy this game we love. The referees, bad or good, are part of it.

Enjoy!!! It’s beautiful.

Posted from  United States

The inconsistant and incompetent refereeing combined with blatant cheating (flopping) most flagrant being the Italian dive in the penalty box in Australia is depriving the games of validity and sadly, teaching kids that faking injury is the way to win games. How many players have we seen writhing in agony, strechered out only to sprint back in in one min. It is pathetic and changing the outcome of games.

Posted from  United States

Congratulations to the socceroos-we are proud of you….FIFA wants to get itself in order and stop all this “little girl” stuff that goes on. If these teams that are guilty of feigning for free kicks had real talent they wouldn’t have to resort to such cheating. They should be red or yellow carded and that will stop it. They aren’t playing the game they are playing the refs who fall for it hook line and sinker.. Perhaps they should look at having a big screen and an extra ref. In some cases the linesmen weren’t too hot either.

Posted from  Australia

I don’t think the world cup is ruining because of the mistakes of many referees; however, I do think these stupid referees are taking away from the excitment of the game. I have read many comments or proposed solutions that will turn the game into basketball 2-3 hours for a 48 minutes game and that would be even worse than the referees. I am not for the idea of technology either, that would ruin the game. There will be mistakes even with technology, example for the americans, Dallas-Miami NBA fianls game 5, the call on Wade. Reviewing the action, one can see there was no fault, but can one see there was no fault, but can you say there was no fault before reviewing the play? I think the problem is when there are too many of these calls, like we are seeing in this world cup. We don’t need technology to make the referees make the right call, we just good referees, without an agenda. For the rest of the games, I wish these stupid referees can slow down on the red cards. If there is something that should be allowed to be challenged is a red card. The manager of a player kicked out of the game can challenge the card with the officials off the field, please dont stop the game.

The problem is the players are too “smart”. ???? Please explain!??!?! When friggin Totti dived and that ref in the swiss vs kor game, they where both within 5-10 metres of CLEAR VISION. I agree there has been some inconsistency which kinda annoys the pace of the game and its style. I am all for a just game, and Italy didn’t deserve to win that match.

Posted from  Republic Of Korea

I would like to ask the question if Italian clubs are under investigation at the moment for suspected wrong doing and 13 of the players in the world cup belong to 4 of the clubs how come they are allowed to be still cheating (diving etc) and playing.

Posted from  Australia

FIFA runs the world cup by telling the refrerees what to do.

FIFA wants Germany vs Brazil in the finals so that is what the fereree gets paid for.

I said before the first game, this horrible German team (that strangly only wins during world cup, looses half the other games not in a world cup), will get to the finals and play Brazil.

Germany needs a boost anyway in their social and economic sctructures. Their morale is low, unemployment is high, the race will die out by 2050 (the real German race, not the whole tutti-frutti milkshakes) and you will see Germany beat Brazil 2-0 in the final at least.

I told you all already now as I told everybody here in Brazil that already thinks Brazil won.

FIFA is corrupted, it is just about the money for them. Also, in Switzerland reporters found out about high FIFA officials investing into Germany corporations a few months before the world cup, that also worries me a little.

Posted from  Brazil

Also, yesterday that was not a dive from the Argentinian a few yards next to the goal. The ball got plaid a away but both his legs got blocked at the same time as he jumped over even being hooked with one of the opponents legs.

Instead of getting a penalty, he gets a yellow card for acting as a swim instructor….

Also, somehting that bothers me is the fans, at least many of them. Bottles fly into the field, eggs, the fans shout and yell bad things at opponent players.

This fucking football is out of control. Even in Brazil, where I don’t even waste one minute with these fucking idiot teams we got here.

I think they should make each ticket at least 500 Euros. Cancle out the mass population and the general unintellectual from attending the games.

The only ones that should be getting rebates are the Japanese, Koreans and the ones that play with their heart.

Too bad this can’t be like in the 60s where people go dressed up nicely, no fights amongst the fans, class and behaviour. Now, everytime they show the fans, half the times it’s fuck ups, hooligans, just primitive low populations of the country that plays.

At least that’s the good thing with teams like Brazil. For a Brazilian it is so expensive to travel, the fans you have are at least higher middle class, as well as other countries like Equador and so on, but look at the some of the German fans, I could swear that if machine guns and pistols were handed out while entering the stadium, the bloodbath would already begin before the game starts

Posted from  Brazil

I wouldn’t say the referees are ruining the games. FIFA is. Because FIFA is fixing almost every match. FIFA is telling the referees who to favor.

One way to tell which team is being favored is by how, when, where, and why free kicks are being given. All these little calls add up (FIFA hopes). One prime example, the ref in Argentina-Mexico game called most of the little dives, flops, and fall-downs by the Argentine players. Everyone in the soccer world knows the Argentines like to dive. Yet, the ref keeps calling free kicks most of the time when Riqueleme, Saviola, or Rodriquez feel a challenge coming and fall down. It’s hard to tell sometimes but if you watch the game again and slow down the video, you can see these guys buckle their legs BEFORE any contact is made or not.

So, in the Germany-Argentina match suddenly many Argentine dives and flops weren’t called. You could just see Riqueleme losing interest in the match because the ref wasn’t calling all his little fall-downs. And why wasn’t the ref? Because FIFA instructed him to favor Germany.

Another example would be the England-Portugal game. What is a ref from Argentina doing there? Well, obviously helping FIFA with their favorites. For whatever reason, FIFA has taken a liking to Portugal. It may be because Portugal were promised Euro 2004 but the Greeks beat em. So the debt remains on FIFA’s plate (how far we don’t know). Anyway, an Argentine ref being from a country which with no doubt stands in the top 3 of diving nations takes control of a match featuring Portugal, a team which may dive and flop more than any other.

Another way to tell who FIFA favors is by red cards and/or penalties. Today’s red card for England was a clear indication of corruption and bias in FIFA. There’s no way in the world that that is ever a red card. Anyone who thinks otherwise can look back at all the video of every match to see if any other little push got a red card.

In the quarterfinals, Germany, Portugal, and France were all fixed to win. Italy, I don’t know, because Ukraine weren’t good enough to necessitate it.

My suggestion to anyone who agrees is to boycott each and every sponsor of the FIFA World Cup. That’s all they care about: cash.

Posted from  Canada

The bias and inconsistency of officiating, and the dreadful dishonesty of the drama-queen diving players have ruined the otherwise magnificent World Cup of Germany. I just returned from 2 weeks in Germany, attending 8 games and watching every other one. I can not remember anything like this one for diving and blatantly biased refereeing.

FIFA has to wake up and start using video. The semifinals are now a joke and a farce with unfair elimination of several teams. Italy’s dive to win over Australia, Henri’s theatrics, Rooney’s red card for a gentle push (push is foul, striking is a red card – try reading the rule book, ref) – and using an Argentinian ref in an England game in the first place!!!

Most of the Germans I met consider FIFA a modern Mafia. Budweiser and MacDonalds call the shots, and anyone who thinks the Juventus corruption scandal is limited to Milan is just naive.

The beautiful game is being killed by drama queens and bad referees.

Posted from  Canada

ROONEY DESERVED RED CARD

First of all, it was a gentle pull then a harsher push.

Second of all, that is considered “STARTING A FIGHT”

Thirdly, Red Card well deserved. Any player that does that shit should get a red card. It’s a dumb thing to do.

Posted from  Brazil

Like f****** fat ass Ronaldo, he should have gotten a red card too.

Posted from  Brazil

I THINK THE REFS RUINS THE GAME BECAUSE THEY DONT CALL ENOUGH DIVES AND DONT CALL ENOUGH ON VERTAIN TEAMS!

i believe that the world cup is completely fixed and corrupt. i think people just pay off the refs. i am a big netherlands/holland fan and i watched all their games, and the final game they played, against portugal was a complete joke! there were so many cards, but there should have been so many more. portugal is the biggest joke in soccer, diving and falling down every time someone goes near them. and Figo! he should have been suspended surely, he head-butted a player! and if rooney got a red card than thats a suspension! he only didnt get one because he didnt get a red card and that wus becuz the ref didnt see it. i know holland dives too (sometimes tho and only one or maybe, 2 players) but OMG wut a joke. i still like watching the cup tho. and itally is like that, wut a bad call against australia.

Posted from  Canada

Marcelo – So what you are saying about pushing being a red card then is that Portugal’s goalkeeper Ricardo should have been red carded for pushing Peter Crouch after Crouch didn’t immediately kick the ball out of play when Portugal were (faking?) another injury. Ricardo pushed. Marcelo sayts push=red card. Ricardo gets red card. But no red card came. Hmm.

Posted from  Canada

Not to change the subject but, let’s. Allow me interject right now that I have no stake in the outcome emotionally. I am an American and the Americans suck and deserved to lose. Frankly, I have no idea how they ranked fifth in the first place. That said, let’s talk about England. I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest that Beckham is a pussy and should have stayed in the game. That is when England fell apart, and I am unmoved by his crying on both occasions of his being sidelined. I saw Beckham walking quite nicely in video the other night. Maybe he could have been useful in penalty kicks if nothing else. Rooney at least has a pair. If he stomped on someone else’s pair I don’t know. Fire the English coach and move on

Posted from  United States

How come the BBC virtual replay service doesn’t have the matches where the referees seem to have made match turning mistakes. Brazil Australia (when you click it gives you France Korea) and Brazil Ghana? Or am I right in suspecting that what really counts is the advertising revenue when it comes to whistle blowing?

Posted from  Italy

Oh no, not another one of these finals. Italy vs France. SFORZA Italia is all I say and the rest is up to you pizzaoilos de napoli and moratore de bresca.

Last game I’ve ever watched in terms of soccer today, Portugal playing ALMOST as horrible as Brazil (always when it is most important people don’t give a crap anymore), just this time it was the other way around. The best paid players fought till the end, the crappiest paid players didn’t give a rats ass.

I don’t get this anymore, send me a mail once the Refs are replaced by robots wired to the best computers in the world, maybe then I’ll watch again.

Posted from  Brazil

As Mr. Scolari said, Portugal was not meant to reach the finals. Everybody wants Zizou to abandon the French team in glory. We would have liked the same for our Luis Figo, but who cares?
Anyway, biased views of referees did distort football in this Cup.
I’m not saying that France’s penalty against Portugal wasn’t deserved, BUT Henry was REALLY clever, his dive shows how experienced he is…
What I want to point out is that a PENALTY AGAINST FRANCE WAS CONVENIENTLY IGNORED by the referee, though everybody could see C: RONALDO WAS PUSHED WITH BOTH HANDS when he was trying to catch the ball.
Considering the way both teams played, I mean, NO TEAM WAS BETTER THAN THE OTHER, a penalty against Portugal would have given BOTH TEAMS the chance to try their luck on final penalties. BUT THAT WAS TOO THRAETENING FOR FRANCE, THE EXPECTED WINNER at this stage, now that Germany is off the race, so… there’s the result: a VERY MEAGRE victory for France… but a victory anyway, that’s what really matters.
Now I can no longer say “may the best win”. I can just say “Be careful Italy”, you can not match Zizou’s Status and mythical aura. Sorry, but you should prepare yourselves for the grand finale : Zizou being worshipped on Sunday… Which means that you should be really aware of this “truth” of football: it’s nobody’s fault that Zidane decided to quit now, but there it is “ZIDANE=FRANCE” will win. Bad luck for the other teams. That’s life…

Posted from  Portugal

FOOTBALL = Boring middle-field ball passing.

What happened to all the offensive attacks from the sides over the past years? You rarely see them in the game. I remember 10 years ago how semi-finals etc were met with 3-0, 3-1, 2-0, seldom a boring 0-0, or 0-2 in the last few minutes and so on.
Football has become a boring sport indeed, all is done with passing around the ball in the middle field.

I remember 94 with Branco making a 35 meter goal against Holland, Romario and Bebeto and even ROMANIA playing more beautiful.

These days football is defensive, seldom offense and the players are loosing the ability. I also don’t know what is wrong but players also seemed to become more LAZY and more out of shape (I guess they eat really good with the money they have).

Who pays the price?

The poor population that all they dream of is to see their team do their best. Who cares if you loose 3-0 just present a nice football.

What I hate the must is when those stupid players hugg the opponent players after a game to be all like FAIRPLAY after a ugly fuc*en game.

I just hope Romania, Belgium, Russia, Cameroon and definitely Ghana (too bad they lost against Brazil or were forced to the way I saw it), too fuc*en bad.

FIFA refs a total DISASTER ! ! ! If FIFA doesn’t see that and doesn’t take any actions against that.

Now let’s see the game between the loosers for 3rd place, wooow, there’s money to be made out of everything, why don’t we play for 5th, 7th and all that sh*t too ?

Fu*k Football, I’m done watching essa bosta

Posted from  Brazil

PORTUGAL

Don’t complain now please, it was not the fault of your coach alone. Players like Costinha, Pauleta, Simao (the swimming isntructor) and that idiot that got the penalty for France etc shouldn’t be on the field.

Figo, the highest paid player PLAID the best, the most and I love that guy for it.

Don’t blame Scolary, he did with your team what your previous useless dumb coaches failed in.

He has thrown away that useless Victor Baia and set a new record for the team, your B players FAILED in showing heart and your middle field is the worst of all teams and you should have used the sides which would be Portugal’s strentgh….

Scolary did good, if you blame him now, you’re just another ignorant analphabet, sorry but it is true.

Posted from  Brazil

To Zeca

Nobody said, nobody says that it wa Scolari’s fault that we lost agains France. We didn’t play our best, but still were not worse than France, the proof is that without that penalty France wouldn’t have scored either.
But Zeca, please don’t contradict yourself. It’s clear we should have used the sides; it’s also clear (though you didn’t mention it) that Pauleta needed to be replaced much earlier; it’s also clear (though you didn’t mention it either) that after the penalty two attackers at the front would have made some difference, the French defenders were too solid for just one attacker, in the case Pauleta. So all these things are not the strategy of a team, but the strategy of one coach. You cannot say that we should have done this or that and say that Scolari did good…, it was Scolari who told the players how to play, not the opposite, as you seem to suggest.
Anyway, NOBODY HERE is blaming Scolary or the team. WE ARE VERY PROUD of both. We are sad, ok. Something more could have been done, and that includes both the team and the coach, obviously. The fact that this is true doesn’t make us complain about Scolari or the team, believe me. WE ARE COMPLAINING ABOUT THE BIASED JUDGEMENT OF THE REFEREE, because FRANCE WAS NOT BETTER THAN PORTUGAL. Believe me, it’s hard to lose because of a penalty in the middle of the game and knowing that several yellow cards were not shown to the French and that a penalty favouring Portugal was not “seen” by the referee and his two assistants. So let’s leave Scolari and the team alone, ok?

Posted from  Portugal

Hang on to your hats guys and gals. We are about to witness a diving competition better than the olympics could ever offer between Italy and France. Who needs skill when you are so clever at diving to the ground and getting the result you want.
Hope the refs dont get confused and give the team who they have been advised to let win a mistaken penalty or red card.
Good luck to FIFA they have made a farce of a world rated and followed game. Hope the consequences are worth it.
By the way who is on the FIFA board-names I mean?

Posted from  Australia

Referees/FIFA orders and the players fake faults of try to Full the referee and the world defenetly ruined this Great World Cup. We are in the 21 century with all the technology of Tv and wireless personal systems available would of made this world cup the best ever on the other hand the Corruption or Human error factor, should not be a factor for either team playing.
Just look at Basketbal, American Footbal or other sports that today rely of technology for acurate performance results never benefiting team but benefiting the game. is time to end corruption/bad referees/fake faults.
I never thought I would be so a shamed of the Soccer/FIFA way of allowing this scam/corruption/bad refrees/fake faults.
IS A VERY EASY FIX IN A WORLD CUP WHEN THE WORLD IS WATCH PLEASE USE THE TV TO CORRECT REFEREES AND IMPORTANT PLAYS AND PUNISH THE PLAYERS THAT INTENTIONALLY ARE FAKING PENALTIES. I WOULD PUNISH ANY PLAYER THAT ON CAMERA CAN SEE HIS INTENTIONAL FAKE FALL JUST FOR THE PENALTY: GIVE THEM ONE YEAR OF TIME OFF WITHOUT INCOME AND THAT WILL RESOLVE THE PROBLEM AND WE MUST START USE THE CAMERAS/TV IN THE CRITICAL PLAYS OF THE GAME LIKE THE PENALTY AGAINST PORTUGAL THAT TURN OUT NOT TO BE A PENALTY AND THE RESULT WAS A FRENCH TEAM AT THE FINAL THAT HAPPEN TO BE THE WORST TEAM IN THE GAME AND JUST PLAIN SIMPLE FOR A MORE ACURATE AND FAIR RESULT EVEN IF THAT MEAN A SHORT STOP IN THE GAME….

Posted from  United States

I loved watching the World Cup, I considered it the best sports tournament, but this time around I realized something very sad. It has changed the way I see the competition. I used to think that winning the cup was so difficult that only some of the best nations had ever accomplished that feat. Now I see that only some nations will ever win because some nations (6-8) are always more favoured than others. The world cup is no different than the club leagues. Fifa or UEFA (depending on the cup) will and do always prefer to have the big 8 teams in the quarter-finals, the 1st groups have already been arranged that way. The semi-final competitions are meant to be big derby affaris with Euro and S.America nations like Germany, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, France, Spain or England. Smaller nations like Portugal, Croatia or Bulgaria have to defeat their larger adversaries outright to make it to the semis and once there you can count on seeing the refs intervening to favour the bigger team simply because Fifa and the big business behind the World Cup wants a derby between two powerhouse teams and not a “uneven” match against an underdog. This is so disapointing, so unfair, so corrupt, dirty…

Posted from  Finland