SPORTS: Arbitrary Arbiters at Football World Cup

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 28 2002 (IPS) - Arbitration usually means to resolve

conflicts with the intention of imparting justice, but in football, the

decisions of the “arbiters”, the referees, are a source of disagreement,

frustration and injustice, as proved by the 2002 World Cup, which ends

Sunday in Japan with the final match between Germany and Brazil.

It will be difficult for the Federation Internationale de Football

Association (FIFA), the organiser of the South Korea-Japan World Cup, to

erase suspicion of favouritism towards the South Korean national team in

the wake of the erroneous annulment by Egyptian-born referee Gamal

Ghandour of two goals that the Spanish team made against the host team,

putting the Koreans in the semi-finals.

In the phase prior to the octa-finals of the tournament, other referee

errors helped the South Koreans to eliminate the Italian team, a

favourite going into the World Cup, feeding accusations that the squads

that play against the Koreans have been “robbed”.

The organisers of the World Cup themselves have admitted that the

referees’ decision have been a disaster at this year’s championship.

Although the semi-final matches played this week were relatively free of

controversial calls, the winner of the final match on Sunday – in which

Brazil and Germany will vie for the title – will likely face criticism.

The executives and the players of the Italian national team are

complaining, and with reason, that they have suffered the most. The

squad saw five of its goals annulled – at least three without cause – in

just four games.

The annulment of one of those goals was decisive in the Italian loss to

the South Koreans, a match in which striker Francesco Totti was unduly

expelled.

The Italians protested, threatened to withdraw from FIFA, accused the

Ecuadorian referee of that match – Byron Moreno – of corruption in

favouring the host team, and announced several lawsuits.

But the numerous errors made by referees were not limited to matches

involving the Italian squad. The Brazilian national team benefited from

a penalty call for a foul that did not exist in its first game against

the Turkish team in the first round of the tournament, as well as the

erroneous invalidation of a goal that Belgium made against Brazil in the

octa-finals.

The Brazilian and Turkish teams met again in the semi-finals on

Wednesday, with Brazil winning 1-0 in what was largely considered a

“clean” game in terms of the refereeing.

A penalty went unnoticed in the U.S.-Germany match in the quarter finals

last week, meaning the U.S. team did not have the opportunity to tie the

Germans in a game that the former ultimately lost in spite of playing

better that day.

The Mexican and Senegalese football squads also suffered the effects of

what many fans and experts consider poor referee decisions, with the

bulk of the mistakes being made by assistant refs. They have often

failed to call balls out of bounds, admits the FIFA chief himself,

Joseph Blatter.

One cause of the great quantity of errors can be found in the

contradictions of the organisation of international football

competition.

The referees are an island of non-professionals in a sport that has

become one of the biggest businesses in the world. They do not make

their living from football, as do the players, coaches or the people who

perform administrative duties related to the sport.

The referees are key actors that can determine the brilliance of the

spectacle or cause great “tragedy” for a team, but not even the most

well-respected among these arbiters claims a stable work contract or

million-dollar salaries like some of the players do.

In general, their income depends on some other job, and they are only

paid for the football matches that they actually referee.

Furthermore, the choice of referees for the football World Cups is made

by the FIFA based on geographic criteria, and many suspect that the

selection in fact is the result of political motives arising from

alliances between the international body and the national football

federations.

Blatter recognised the failure of this selection system and announced

that for the next World Cup, only “the best” referees will be called,

doing away with the current limit of just one from each member country.

The new system will also allow the referee and the two assistants to be

from the same country, with the aim of eliminating the communications

problems arising when the three speak different languages, as it has

been a source of further errors on the pitch.

The FIFA president also proposes training former footballers to serve as

referees, saying it would be a good way to take advantage of their

experience in the sport.

The indignation and frustration caused by poor referee decision at the

2002 World Cup could prove constructive — if they lead to correcting

the causes of the errors and reduce the possibility of tragedies, like

that occurred on May 24, 1964, at the National Stadium in Lima.

On that day, the annulment of a goal made by the Peruvian national team

in a match against Argentina to qualify for the Olympics, triggered

outrage among the Peruvian fans, thousands of whom invaded the pitch.

The police fired tear-gas against the crowd as people tried to flee the

stadium but found the gates closed. Official figures state that 364

people were trampled to death in what is considered the worst sports

tragedy in Latin American history.

The month-long World Cup that wraps up on Sunday has prompted

disturbances around the world. Two people were stabbed to death and

dozens injured in Moscow Jun 9 when Russian fans expressed their anger

about their team’s defeat in a game against Japan, 1-0, which they

claimed was the result of the referee’s partiality in favour of the host

team.

The alleged favouritism of the referees may serve to aggravate

rivalries, which can degenerate into desire for vengeance by footballers

and fans alike.

An example of this occurred during the 1966 World Cup, played in Great

Britain, when European referees tolerated very violent play by the rival

teams in matches against the Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay — favourites

going into that tournament. The refs made mistakes that clearly

benefited the teams from their continent.