Yes, finally some recognition for the refs. I am sick and tired of Balboa's advice about foul tactics and players who are cheated by the refs. And Wynalda's arrogance is even worse. His feeling is that " there are 2 kinds of refs - bad and worse." Well, there appear to be many alleged professional players who try to cheat their way to victory.
The cheats need a slap, not just a yellow card
By DES KELLY, Daily Mail - June 28, 2006
Football's justice system seems to be modelling itself on the British courts. The sport seems more preoccupied with protecting criminals' rights than punishing the lawbreakers.
After two national teams behaved so disgracefully at the World Cup they set a record low for indiscipline, there were people clambering over one another to shift the blame away from the players.
Suddenly these misunderstood souls were 'victims' who had been preyed upon by a ruthless authority figure.
In the hunt for an excuse for the shameful 16 yellow cards and four reds racked up by Portugal and Holland, everyone opted for the easy option; it had to be the fault of the man in the middle.
Never mind that the referee was surrounded by a dysfunctional kindergarten of cheats who spent the entire match diving, head-butting, shirt-pulling, elbowing, complaining, time-wasting and generally kicking lumps out of one another. There was certainly no need to punish them for it!
The pundits claimed the Russian official Valentin Ivanov should have dealt with the endemic misbehaviour in a more measured manner, that he needn't have stamped his authority on the game so early and should have used more discretion. Blah, blah, blah.
Perhaps he should have also paused for a moment to remember how little Arjen Robben suffered when he was five years old because — and get this — mummy turned up 10 minutes late for his first school team match.
Yes, Mummy took away Arjen's self-esteem that day. Mummy ruined his life. So now Arjen throws himself to the ground at every opportunity to 'express himself'. He doesn't mean to cheat. He just can't help it.
Why the ridiculous excuses? Let's blame the true culprits. The players behaved like spoilt brats and they were punished. The only more appropriate sanction would have been to slap the backs of their legs and send them up to their rooms without their tea, but since that response is banned by FIFA, the referee had to wave his cards.
Yes, there have been some shocking mistakes made in Germany, most noticeably by our own Graham Poll. But referees are bound to slip up when players set out to con officials and steal decisions at every single turn.
The phrase being lazily bandied around every TV studio after Portugal's win was that the official had 'lost control'. From my vantage point, this referee was one of the few participants who could actually remember what the word control meant. Everyone else seemed off their heads.
