Poor refereeing decisions have been part of the game for a very long time but recently the man in the middle have been becoming more and more influential in matches, more match winners than match officials, stealing the thunder from the players.
We can say that of course they are human beings and therefore can make errors but they have become bigger than that. They can change the direction of a match with one decision that ends up influencing the outcome.
Some of the decisions the referees have been making have been of bigger consequence. How would Martin Hansson explain snatching the ball from an Arsenal player to enable Porto to take a quick free kick? That’s also not to say that one of the biggest mistakes he has made as the man in the middle is when he allowed Thierry Henry’s handball — in that infamous World Cup qualifier against Ireland — to stand. How would he explain a ball that was on its way out all of a sudden making a 90 degree turn towards goal?
Maybe the Henry handball incident can be put down to the fact that he was let down by the linesman but the Porto incident was just too much. The referee usually takes the ball in order to take control, not to facilitate a quick free-kick that is impossible to defend.
Mistakes have been winning matches and maybe it’s high time to bring in technology into the picture. Mistakes like the three yellow cards that Graham Poll gave to Croatian defender Josip Simunic before finally showing a red card. Who is to blame? Poll in this instance?
If his two assistant referees and the fourth official had seen that, they would have advised him otherwise. Norwegian referee Tom Ovrebo looks like he enjoys being in the spotlight more than the players. He is the man who turned down three clear penalties from Chelsea last year in the second-leg semifinal of the Champions League against Barcelona which Barcelona went on to win en-route to being crowned champions of Europe. He was back in the headlines last week in the Bayern Munich vs Fiorentina match, where he sent out a Fiorentina player in Massimo Gobbi on a straight red-card, but the sending off was very harsh because at most the foul should have been a caution.
Then he failed to send-off German International striker Miroslav Klose for a two-footed lunge on a Fiorentina player as he later scored the winning goal from an offside position.
In the English Premier League, referees who make so many mistakes are dropped from the referee’s panel for the following weekend’s games but Uefa don’t do that with their Champions League games or international matches because then the only panel left will be from the best leagues in the world — England, Spain, Italy etc. They also need to keep a balance so that they can make other member associates happy. Uefa and Fifa nevertheless need to acknowledge the potential for mishap inherent when the best players in the world are sometimes refereed by man who wants to steal the limelight.
Maybe its high time Fifa acknowledge their referees are making more and more mistakes and maybe it is time to introduce much-needed technology into the spotlight. The referee could hardly be blamed for missing the handball first time round or an offside goal and it was not his fault he could not consult a monitor. As painful as this situation may be to coaches, players and fans something has to be done soon. Clubs invest a lot of money for them to have their matches decided by officials is just too painful. Lets just implement a fifth official who will sit there with a monitor, that way we ensure fairness in the game, then the referee can always consult when he is unsure about a decision.
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