The person who runs most on football field is not a midfielder playing for one of the teams but he is the referee of the match. On an average referee runs almost double the amount an average players run in 90 minutes. Surprising isnt it, just imagine along with strong lungs he also requires hawk eyes to spot every foul, every dive, every act of gamesmanship and has to make a right decision time after time and every time. Players can have an off day but referees cant, they dont have an option of being substituted on when the lungs just busted. They are held for incompetent decision when 20 odd replays not able to confirm the decision they made in 2/10th of a second. The other day Argentinean forward Crespo explained how his team is denied three goals due to boggy decision making but not once did he talked about the decision on Hienze who escaped with just a yellow when a red one was mere a formality. I accept the performance of referees in the world cup is just average but it is far better than the one in Korea Japan 2002. The only incidents which exceeded 4 year black marks are Portugal Netherlands match which created a world record for cards in a single game 16 yellow and 4 red. Secondly Graham Poll blunder of showing three yellow card to single player before showing him a red and then blowing the whistle when the ball was going in goal. How we can better the referees across the world First and foremost there should be a session between referee and players before the game so that players should able to understand what is expected of them and how is the referee going to run the game. Lots of uniformization has come in the way referee run matches but a meeting before will build mutual respect and players & referees expectations from the match. Secondly use of technology in the game - first time in this world cup the referees are given ear phone to interact with linesmans and support staff. I wish people can also hear referee players interaction on field. This will help in ending swearing from the game of football as rugby so efficiently able to do it. Thirdly use of technology in decision making this is one area where FIFA is most conservative about using the technology. The explanation is that it will break the flow of the game and consulting every decision with 4th referee will be time consuming. To my mind technology will help in eradicating the errors which referees are committing the most. Inconclusive whether the ball has passed the goal line or not. This is the most and it can be done without stopping the game. If the ball has crossed the goal line then sensors will automatically tell rather than fate of France which kept appealing in the match against Korea where they were clearly robbed of one goal. Sending divers, cheaters out for ten minutes with the help of technology. Three rights of a team to contest decision, in most games we have one or two controversial decisions so each team should have three opportunities to contest a decision and decision will be taken using technology. It will come handy in settling off-side decisions. Technology has to come in play as making right decision today is more important than making a fast decision. In this field Football can take a clue from American sports which so extensively use technology in making decisions. |
