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FIFA referee chief defends brigade
Borderline calls in key spots put refs in spotlight
Posted: Thursday June 25, 1998 01:33 PM
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This questionable call was quite costly for Brazil (AP) |
PARIS (AP) -- The chief of World Cup referees defended his embattled
brigade Thursday, saying the quality of officiating was higher than four
years ago and that new evidence supported a questionable call by a U.S. ref
in a key match.
David Will, a Scottish lawyer who has run FIFA's referee office for eight
years, said overall officiating in the first 40 games graded to about a B
-- 8.3 out of 10, and getting better as the tournament progressed. Most
games were graded between 8 and 9 by the officiating supervisors, he said.
Refereeing in three of the first 40 games was judged unsatisfactory, Will
said. He refused to identify the matches but said none of the sub-par
grades involved red or yellow cards and that all were judged "on overall
performance throughout a match, not one decision that might have been off
target."
Will said the last World Cup in 1994 in the United
States produced four unsatisfactorily refereed matches, all in the
first round when there were fewer games than in this edition.
"We remain generally satisfied with the performance of the referees," he
said. "The overall standard remains high -- higher than in the United
States, to be sure. "
Will spoke at a news conference as criticism of the referees came from all
directions.
Players and coaches said the refs were inconsistent. FIFA president Sepp
Blatter said they were too soft on hard fouls. A government minister in Cameroon said
they were part of an anti-African plot, a theme carried today in an
official protest filed with FIFA by African soccer officials.
Will said his 34 men were doing their job properly.
"The referees play it straight," he said. "They call it as they see it.
They don't have the benefit of replays from five angles."
He said an instant-replay system to backstop calls would not work in
soccer, except perhaps on goals. But, he added, replays had found evidence
to support one of the most argued calls of the Cup.
Esse Baharmast of the United States called a foul on Junior Baiano of Brazil that set
up the winning penalty kick in Norway's 2-1
victory Tuesday. That moved Norway into the second round and eliminated Morocco, a 3-0
winner over Scotland.
Initial replays showed contact but no clear foul. But Will pointed to
photos taken from the Norwegian television network NRK that show Baiano
clearly grabbing the jersey of a Norwegian player in the penalty area.
Will, who generally will not discuss individual calls or games, went out of
his way to defend Baharmast.
"The referee, from his angle, took a decision and played it as he saw it,
direct and straightforward," the official said. "You can look at television
and photographs and pictures on the Internet. But at the end of the day,
the referee has to make a decision on the field in a split second as he
sees it."
Earlier Tuesday, Hungarian referee Laszlo Vagner nullified a goal that
would have put Cameroon ahead of Chile 2-1,
calling Patrick Mboma for pushing off a defender. Replays showed contact,
but no clear foul. The 1-1 tie, coupled with Italy's 2-1
victory over Austria, meant
Chile advanced and Cameroon was out.
That sparked attacks in the Cameroon capital of Yaounde by black fans on
white-owned businesses and harsh words from the government.
"What we saw is not a World Cup competition. It has been a festival of
scandal," Youth and Sports Minister Joseph Owona told the African Nation
newspaper.
The African Football Confederation, which saw all four of its
representatives eliminated in the first round, told FIFA Thursday that
teams from the continent had been singled out for "special treatment" and
expressed "profound indignation and many regrets" that the rules were not
evenly applied.
"Faced with this situation, all of African soccer suffers from a profound
unease: A feeling that her representatives are undesirables on the grandest
statge of soccer on the planet," confederation general secretary Mustapha
Fahmy said.
Will said charges of political favoritism were "just ridiculous."
"The referees are not the slightest bit interested in the political
situation," he said. "They are simply refereeing the game. They don't even
known who the two teams are. They go from match to match and round to
round."
Both Baharmast and Vagner were picked today in the officiating crews for
second-round games, although neither is expected to start. Baharmast was
named the substitute official for France-Paraguay,
while Vagner was given the sub role for Italy-Norway.
Will also said he did not believe that the refs had been influenced by
Blatter's call for more punishment against players who tackle from behind
or make other dangerous moves.
The 15 expulsions for rough play in the first 40 games -- equal to the
total of four years ago -- was "not higher than the number that we
reasonably would have expected," Will said. He said the explosion of five
red cards in two games the day after Blatter's comments, compared with four
in the previous 20 games, was "pure chance."
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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