Wolfgang Stark Can Cross Italy Off His List of Holiday Destinations…
Because only the German referee himself knows why he gave Gianpaolo Pazzini this red card in the 4th minute of Italy’s World Cup qualifier vs Ireland yesterday.
I’ve watched the above video (spotted on – you guessed it – 101GG) a few times and all I see is a player jumping up for a header. But Stark imagined/saw something more sinister.
Yeah, Pazzini uses his arms for leverage. And he does accidentally catch John O’Shea. But emphasis is on the accidentally. There’s clearly no intent as Pazzini is looking at the ball the whole time.
Here’s how Italy WCB’s Julian saw it:
Pazzini’s sending off? Harsh at the very least. Maybe a yellow, and that would’ve been worse than fair.
The game finished 1-1. Not a horrible result for either team, but Italy can definitely feel that playing 86 minutes with ten men may have denied them all three points.
A quick glance at Wolfgang Stark’s Wikipedia entry reveals a man with a taste for flashing plastic at players. The two red/seven yellow card combo he showed to Chile in the 2007 U-20 World Cup semi-final resulted in him needing a police escort to get off the field safely. Always the sign of a good referee.
UEFA World Cup qualifying Group 8 now looks like this:
Bad news for Italy is that if and when they get to South Africa, they could be meeting Stark again. His name is on the 38 man shortlist of referees for World Cup 2010 duty.
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Comments
By Wayne | April 2nd, 2009 at 4:15 am 
It was a harsh red card, definitely. I think Stark saw the blood on O’Shea’s face and due to that he thought it was vicious.
Bad decision..
By Cesco | April 2nd, 2009 at 4:38 am What about the foul ON pazzini (and not BY) seconds before? That should have been a red too! Shame
By Mike | April 2nd, 2009 at 5:08 am He probably thought it was a repeat of DDR vs USA…
Posted from 
United States
By Wayne | April 2nd, 2009 at 5:30 am The Italian team are really sneaky though.
Noel Hunt was free only about 3 yards from goal and only had to tap in the ball. But Cannavaro, who was on the ground, was holding him back, which stopped him from reaching the ball.
Sneaky, or experienced. Depends on which way you see it.
By Jan | April 2nd, 2009 at 7:06 am To make Stark look even worse and level things out between Italy and Ireland: Chiellini knocked Hunt over in the box, which should have been a penalty for Ireland.
Posted from 
Germany
By alessio | April 2nd, 2009 at 8:24 am In fairness to Ireland, the guy was just fucking terrible all around. Last 20 minutes he had zero control over the match, and was just flashing yellow cards to try and get people to pay attention.
Posted from 
Spain
By Wayne | April 2nd, 2009 at 10:30 am Yeah I agree alessio. I remember he booked De Rossi for a foul even though he barely touched our player.
Then, minutes later he didn’t book Chiellini for a brutal tackle on Glenn Whelan when he totally should have.
Overall, poor game from the ref. I think he was constantly trying to play a balancing act after sending off Pazzini, not trying to look like he was favouring one side over the other.
By dave | April 2nd, 2009 at 12:15 pm the red card was clearly a wrong decision. but dont forget that stark didnt gave ireland a well deserved penalty.
and he decided very bad in some other scenes aswell.
By Mike | April 4th, 2009 at 6:34 pm i remember being at the chile game here in toronto for the u20 world cup semi final… this ref was terrible it was my first time ever seeing this ref and thinking this guy has lost complete control over this game..terrible referee and shouldnt be allowed to ref in the world cup or any other major competition
By Omaha Bhoy | April 6th, 2009 at 10:20 am I don’t think Italy had a decision on their half of the field go against them the rest of the half, though. Did anyone else notice how the GolTV announcers couldn’t keep the Irish players’ names straight? How do you not know who Aiden McGeady is, Roy?!?!?
Posted from United States
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