(no subject)

[fpb]

Something seriously needs to be done about the standard of refereeing in international soccer competitions. So far I have seen at least two perfectly good goals denied, one unacceptable one allowed, and three penalties denied. This is either incompetence or malignancy, and either way, it is just not good enough for a world-class game.

Comments

[norwyn.livejournal.com]

Malignancy gets my vote. I've not been keeping up, but I do know from incompetence among sport officials. Something about being required to demonstrate inattention to detail and a general lack of visual acuity and peripheral vision apparently makes up the lion's share of the application process...

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I did not say so, but I can tell you that you will hardly find an Italian fan to disagree with you. Many Spaniards, too, I would think. The fact that the more, shall we say, surprising decisions tend always to be handed in one direction, and that we by now have a history of such refereeing going back at least to the 1994 (USA) World Championship, hardly strikes our fans as coincidental; and I know that more than a few of them mutter darkly about the institutions of world and European soccer being placed in our unloved neighbour, Switzerland, and dominated by Swiss personnel.

[privatemaladict.livejournal.com]

Yeah - remember the world cup? What a farce. I'll never forget the bitter disappointment when Australia got knocked out... the whole game was such a joke.

[darkthirty.livejournal.com]

I don't understand the reluctance to used video, even if just as an appeal. But then, this brings upt the bigger, and probably only essential question, there'd have to be a history of appeals having ever been successful in any circumstance in football, and I don't think there are.