Big Question: Do the Bigger Teams get More Respect from the Refs?

Of course. Look at Brazil v. Austrailia today. While the ref was much better than the US v. Italy ref — Brazil definatly got away with a decent amount and Austrailia was not allowed to get physical or face cards. It didn’t change that game, but it makes it harder for underdogs.

But that is true in any sport and in any league.

Then again, have a look at both France games. Against Switzerland, no call on a handball, and against S. Korea, no goal given on the Vieira header that no doubt crossed the line.

Posted from  United States

The problem is that since refereeing for football is such a highly subjective thing, if the referee is unsure of what it was, it tends to go with the less controversial decisions, like deciding in favor of the “favorite” teams, including the host team there. Remember Korea/Japan, referees did a lot of mistakes, specially on the group stages (ie, Brazil vs Turkey).

I think today’s referee on the Brazil vs Australia match was okey though. He didn’t let the game get too physical, sure enough, but that doesn’t mean he’s being biaed unless you have a team that WANTS the game to become a fight. Remember Cafu, Robinho and Ronaldo also got yellow cards… three, against two from Australia (Brett Emerton, Jason Culina). FIFA didn’t start the “fair play” campaign today.

I don’t know whether you can say there’s a consistent pattern here. T&T said much the same thing as Arena about being the “little team” against England after Crouch’s goal wasn’t disallowed for that hair pulling stunt.

Referees are football fans and have their prejudices, just like we do. Some might be a little in awe of the big teams and give them leeway, others might want to teach the big guns a lesson, so to speak, and sympathise with the underdog.

I thought Markus Merk was ok for the Aus vs Brazil game. He was a bit trigger happy with the whistle but that’s what FIFA wants nowadays. I’ve seen a lot worse at this tournament! (I’m a Socceroo fan but we definitely give away too many, often quite silly, fouls when we play. It’s a real weakness.)

Posted from  Australia

Let me ask this question to all you knowledgeable folks: why isn’t there the ability to overturn ref’s decisions with instant-replay, as there is in American football?

It seems like it’d be a perfectly sensible addition to the game.

Posted from  United States

I think referees favours big shots (specially when is to book players). But this also happens in local leagues.
I think we should take the video ref, like in rugby, but fifa doesn’t wan’t to know anything about it.

werttrew99, I’d say there’s no instant replay because if every questionable call were overturnable, then there’d be an extra 15 minutes of stoppage time.

Already the NFL has had to make instant replay more difficult to do because of the extra time added. Imagine in a soccer game, where the game flow would be completely disrupted. What’s next? Timeouts?

Posted from  United States

20 years of reffing tells me of course, the doubt goes often to the big power usually without any concious thought. We too often “expect” the play to go the way of the big team and are less likely to see the sophisticated foul.

Posted from  United States

That has been known in soccer quarters around the world for years despite the rosy, diplomatic and respectable talk about it in the media. Any one who watched the game between the Ivory Coast and Holland will be in no doubt about the favouratism for the big names. How can a ref miss the clear penalty kicks for The Ivorians; that was really disgraceful. Imagine how much that country paid to prepare their team for the tournament and the end to be eliminated by the ref’s deliberate mistakes.

Posted from  United States

Re: uruguayan referee of us-italy match WC 2006: Fifa should not use a referee for World Cup who has previously been suspended for gros violations/irregularities.
As for his blatant abuse of referee’s rules in the us-italy match, he should be immediately dropped by the referee world cup comission from further officiating in WC 2006!!

Posted from  United States

A very pertinent point has been raised and it has been football’s most poorly kept secret. For confirmation, just watch Holland-CIV, Italy-USA, Brazil-Aus.

Posted from  India

The question: Do the Bigger Teams get More Respect from the Refs? has no basis because if it did, will someone please explain why in the last world cup, both Italy and Spain were denied legitimate goals against a “smaller” Asian team, where the result of blatant mistakes by the ref. was Italy and Spain being knocked out of the World Cup?

Posted from  Australia

do refs favour big teams? generally, hard to say. this time around in the world cup? it seems the answer is, overall, a narrow yes. i cannot see how anyone can seriously say the umpiring in the brazilian match was ok (24-9 foul count - several ‘fouls’ involved brazilian players tripping over the ball). the us was als0o unliucky.

the fact is, the problem could well get worse if it isnt, at the least, looked into. this is not asking too much. ignoring it with the diplomatic response ‘the umpire is always right’ could worsen things. there has to be some kind of standards imposed!!

Posted from  Hong Kong

“It’s natural, the losing teams mutter on about a lack of respect on the officiating, it’s not unusual in any sport.”

Just watch the Togo Switzerland game. Especially the first half and you will know what we are talking about.

Posted from  United States

No doubt that that Ghana was robbed against Italy. The referee did not give Ghana two penalties. The result of Ghana vs Italy could be different.

Another game where the referee did a bad job was Holland vs Ivory Coast. The referee did not give two penalties against Holland.

I think FIFA should do something about this problem of refereeing on the Small vs Big Teams.

Posted from  United States

GO SOCCEROOS!!!
GO Poppa, Chippa Grella and Mark Viduka!!!!
GO THE AUSSIES!!!!!
When Australia gets eliminated, GO THE AZZURRI!!!!

Mate, i reckon that American coach is a arrogant, stupid no-brained idiot!!! He said that The Socceroos were only in the World Cup to make up the numbers, but here is, with his pitiful excuse for a team going home early and the Socceroos going further than him!! the yankees got smashed by the Czechs and when they played Italy, The Azzurri were havin a very bad day! They won’t beat Ghana, and their World Cup dreams will end as quickly as they started! Bruce Areana, YOUR AND IDIOT MATE!!!! Don’t talk rubbish about The Socceroos, a team thats better than yours. If Australia played the usa, we’d absolutely obliterate them!!!! GO SOCCEROOS!!!

Posted from  Australia

AND ANOTHER THING, AMERICA SUCKS ARSE!!!!!

Posted from  Australia

Please excuse Lord Ice’s ranblings. We are a passionate nation where sport is in question. As FIFA has let Harry Kewell off, it seems that they are admitting that the standard of refereeing is poor. Now they have done so, watch all the teams put more pressure on the referees.
Most sport these days is decided by the performance of the referee/umpire/judge. look at boxing, diving, etc for poor results.

Perhaps the best officials in sport are the referees in Rugby Union. Why? Because they talk to the sportsmen in calm rational manner and don’t tlak down to them. Some referees are just as bad as the poor sports that play these days. Having siad that, Australia would now be through to the second round if the referees had been fair.

Posted from  Australia

No, they don’t get better respect.
They get better favour and bias.

They are human too so they are all
too afraid if the hooliganism
against them in the street by the
Bigger Fans.

Posted from  Australia

Mate I can’t believe people are
still bring up the 2002 matches
btw Korea vs Spain and Italy. If
those were goals before linesman
raise his flag I would have
agreed. However, in both
instances, it looks more like the
“favourite” team player either
wasn’t aware of the raise
flag and continue with the
“scoring” or they ignored it and
continue with the “scoring”, in
which situation a YELLOW card is
well deserved … but somehow
is hard to surpress as there is
just too much ego in the strong
teams as usual.

Note, I don’t support Korean
team, in fact they suck in
their skills. But for goodness
sake they gave 100% and fought
to last minute just like the
roos did against Japs under
scorching 38 degrees sun which
turn the game around. That’s
what was again displayed in the
game of SK-vs-France.

Just admit it, people like to
see favourite go through for
different reasons … and I wont
be surprised if much of that has
to do with betting!!

Posted from  Australia

It’s obvious that the score should be 1-0, U.S.

Ghana knee-checked Reyna and was able to get the goal as a result. Any other team would have been yellow-carded, fouled at the least.

Ghana is moving ahead because they’re allowed to injure the U.S. The refs are calling every twist from the U.S.

It’s obvious that all the refs have it “out” for the U.S.

Posted from  United States

Hey Turk,
You said “Ghana knee-checked Reyna” what about the forechecking in the game mate, that was good eh!. I wonder where was the pcuk in all that???

Posted from  United States