Referees' Performances

To be honest, thought Kaka got his just desserts. Had way too much cnut about him the 3-4 minutes leading up to his red card.

Just because you're a superstar and a great player doesn't give you the right to be a complete t**ser on the pitch.

To be honest, thought Kaka got his just desserts. Had way too much cnut about him the 3-4 minutes leading up to his red card.

I don't disagree with that - the Ivorian deserved a yellow for his dive that's for sure.

As far as I'm concerned, the performances of most of the refs at this tournament have really caused many games to become disjointed, and are having way too much of an influence on the game, especially with the dishing out of yellow cards, causing players to miss games or be sent off for minor indiscretions.

To be honest, thought Kaka got his just desserts. Had way too much cnut about him the 3-4 minutes leading up to his red card.

To be honest, thought Kaka got his just desserts. Had way too much cnut about him the 3-4 minutes leading up to his red card.

but, in the Kaka 'incident' the video would clearly show that keita (ivorian) clutched his face after being hit in the chest = simulation (or, if you prefer, being a f**king cheating bastard)

therefore it would be fairly easy to decide that he'd brought the game into disrepute and then slam him with a six week ban

players would then stop cheating in that way

on that basis c ronaldo would be lucky to see out a single half of football for the rest of his career

The simulation thing just doesn't seem to be well handled.

Commentators often look for whether contact was made, however the worst simulations are often where minor offences are made out to look like like major life-threatening offences (to dupe a referee into booking an opponent, or into making a 'big' decision - eg penalty). Hence a minor offence that might otherwise go unnoticed (eg shirt pull in the box) might get the big call. Very tricky for referees because such an incident may well indeed a foul and punishable by a penalty. However, if they pinged every shirt pull in the box there would be an awful lot of penalties per game (aside: maybe that's what needs to happen for a time!).

I think there is a case for our Guatemalan friend to award the penalty to Italy (because, yes, by the laws of the game it was), and then book De Rossi for simulation (or being an arse). That would have been interesting!

I would be interested to know if one can be booked for play acting (=simulation), even when contact is made, because my observation is that the worst play-acting is often after a modest foul (or even legal contact). Witness the Kaka incident.

And it is a blight on the game.

Edit: FYI, Wording from the Laws of the game "... a player must be cautioned for unsporting behaviour, e.g. if a player: (inter alia)attempts to deceive the referee by feigning injury or pretending to have been fouled (simulation)"
Still not clear in the De Rossi case (exaggerated behaviour attempting to influence the referee).

responsibility also lies with Managers who consistently select� players who seemingly have reckless disregard for the rules. All it takes is a hard line 'in-house' about how you conduct yourself on the field and the respect you should so to the ref and your opposition.Selection of divers, whingers and cheats says the Manager believes and encourages those tactics.

The call in the Argentina v Mexico game is far worse than the England v Argentina imo. The A/R was in line with the defence - I think he was watching the ball rather than the position of the 2nd last defender and completely missed Tevez's position when the ball was played.With Lampards shot at goal - you cannot expect the A/R to run at the same speed as the shot. Looking at the footage, the A/R is about 17 yds out, in line with the 2nd last German defender when Lampard took his shot, the A/R had already checked his run towards the goal, as had the defender from the intial blocking tackle as the ball looked like it was heading upfield again. So to expect the A/R to make up 17yds in about one second to be in line with the goal line to see whether it has crossed the line is ridiculous.IMO then.Argentina v Mexico - an example of poor officiatingEngland v Germany - one of the deficencies in game officiating at present - it's a well known conumdrum on how on earth A/Rs can be in a position to call the ball crossing the line of shots taken from a distance when the defence is quite high up the field.

possibly fair enough El Grap re CR compared to Kaka in that match, but i do find his self-preening arrogance pretty sickening

re refs spotting dives, perhaps the offending players could be tasered as part of their punishment and videos taken and compared to vids of real fouls

just to help the refs do their job, of course

A colleague of mine who used to referee suggested the vuvuzelas may have an impact on the number of poor offside calls at the World Cup. She says that linos watch the line of the defenders, but listen for the kick of the ball. However with the horns the linesmen cannot hear the kick. I don't know how much there is to this theory, but it is food for thought - the offside calls have been particularly poor. I would have thought a regular full-house crowd chanting would make it difficult for linesmen to hear the ball being kicked though. She's done a bit of refereeing in the past (cannot remember at what level) and she knows her stuff, so she may have a point.

managers will select them (except for noble Sir Ricki of Herbert)-so it's up to fifa and the national associations to sort it out

Ricki got rid of G**, Daniel sorted his "Balance" out, and Timmy B may have been shunted aside by Ivan due to his theatrics after all.