World Cup Referees Continue to Disappoint

The 20th FIFA World Cup is under way and what better location for it to take place but at the home of five time winners, Brazil. Yet after the numerous protests, corruption allegations and delays in building the infrastructure, supporters and casual fans have to also deal with referees that continue to disappoint as the competition goes on.

On Thursday, on the Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Croatia kicked things off in an opener that promised to be a spectacle but besides the performance of the twenty-two that aligned themselves on the pitch, the sixty-two thousand in attendance and the countless viewers from around the world got to see a lot more of the referee than they should have.

Football (or soccer) has never been an exact sport. Many would argue that in its uncertainty lies the charm that bewitches so many fans, making it the most popular sport on the planet. A certain lack of clarity leaves room for debate. Dubious penalties, obscured handballs, with or without intention, an inch on or offside and one could talk forever about it. Fans became accustomed to the five percent unwritten rule in football (soccer) which implies that the referee will favor the home team by that percentage. More often than not the rule is respected, especially at the World Cup where one has to only go back in time to the 2002 one hosted by South Korea and Japan and remember the match between South Korea and Italy. Surely five had turned to fifteen or maybe fifty there. Now, the World Cup referees continue to disappoint fans of the event.

Back in Sao Paulo, at the score of 1-1, referee Yuichi Nishimura blows the whistle and points to the penalty spot as Fred falls after a contact with Croatian Lovren. Neymar scores and Brazil had the advantage in a game that finished 3-1 for the home team and the host of the World Cup. Could Brazil have won without Nishimura’s help? We will never know.

If by the weird unwritten rules of football (soccer) we can find excuses for Nishimura, another two matches proved that the officials are having quite the bad week and that the opener was no isolated incident.
In the much expected European duel between Spain and the Netherlands, they did it again. In the first half hour, adopted Spaniard Diego Costa dives in the penalty box. Italian referee Nicola Rizzoli proceeds to whistle and Xavi Alonso scores for 1-0 in the 27th minute. Luckily for FIFA’s already crumbling reputation, his error did not count for much as the Dutch rallied and demolished the reining world champions with the score of 5-1 as Van Persie and Robben both scored doubles.

As Mexico and Cameroon faced each other, the referee stayed away from penalties but decided to influence the score nevertheless, and for this reason and others, they continue to disappoint. With Chicharito Hernandez left on the bench, Mexico pressed on and managed to score thrice, but only once on the board. The other two goals, scored by Giovani dos Santos, were not considered as such by referee Wilmar Roldan from Columbia.

If Nishimura’s error is something fans may have expected, the blunders of the other two were not and one can only hope that this sort of incompetence will not spill over in the later stages of the competition and taint a World Cup edition already drenched in scandal.