World Cup - Worst referee of the tournament election

willemvanoranje

Curitibano
Joined
Jan 12, 2001
Messages
8,207
Location
Amsterdam/Stuttgart/Curitiba/Lima
After the game of Australia against Croatia I already wanted to start this thread, but then realised it might be too early for many more bad referees would come. After Portugal - Holland we have enough material to start this thread though. Here is the system: everyone can 'make a case' here. Just name the referee, the game and the reason for nominating him. After the final we will have the actual election. ;)

Case #1

Graham Poll
Australia - Croatia

In this game English referee Graham Poll, and all his brother-referees, just totally lost all control of the game, if at all he ever had it. Only gave Australia one penalty while it deserved three, let Australia score in off-side position and blew the final whistle when Australia was about to score. On top of that he gave a Croatian defender two yellow cards, and then after the blew the final whistle a third, followed by a red card, only to blow that same final whistle again.

Case #2

Ivanov
Portugal - Holland

Starting out really well with harsh but fair calls and correct card giving. Did, however, let the game slip out of his hands. Some hard fouls weren't called for, one imaginary foul meant a red card, yellow cards were given easier and easier as time advanced and only 6 minutes of extra time were added while 15 minutes would probably have been more accurate.

Case #3
(by Dell19 and Marla Singer)

Carlos Amarilla
Ukraine - Tunesia and Switzerland - Togo

Marla:
During the Ukraine vs Tunisia game, Amarilla is basically responsible of Ukraine's victory and Tunisia's elimination. An ukrainian backward makes a handball to avoid a Tunisian shot to get into the net and it's not whistled. 5 minutes later, an Ukrainian forward dive with no Tunisians touching him and a penalty is whistled for Ukraine. In the end, Amarilla is simply the one who decided Ukraine to reach the 2nd round.

Furthermore, Amarilla made other obvious mistakes during the Switzerland vs Togo game. There were actually TWO unwhistled penalty which should have been granted to Togo, one of them being so obvious that we can't imagine the referee wasn't able to see it. It was about Muller tripping Adebayor with his leg well extended behind him. A referee who can't see this has nothing to do in the world cup..

Case #4
(introduced by Hitro)

Luis Medina Cantalejo
Italy - Australia

Cantalejo must have had some appointment going because right at the moment when extra time seemed the result of a 0-0 draw, he decided to give a penalty to Italy..in the 93rd minute. In an attack by Italy, the only mistake the Australian defender made was to excist. He did not kick or hit the attacker, nor pulled his shirt or leg, but simply refrained from moving a muscle. The Italian attacker runs into him, and got himself a penalty, which was scored.
 
Ivanov was for me the best so far, in all of his matches not a single really wrong important decision.

Poll was of course the worst, that can hardly be contested. But many others were bad as well, and not just those from "exotic federations" but also big names like Merk.
 
Unfortunately I didn't see the Australia - Croatia match.

The Ukraine - Tunisia probably deserves a mention since the referee played a major part in allowing Ukraine to win that match after not awarding a Tunisia penalty and then awarding a Ukraine penalty for a dive/trip.
 
Dell19 said:
The Ukraine - Tunisia probably deserves a mention since the referee played a major part in allowing Ukraine to win that match after not awarding a Tunisia penalty and then awarding a Ukraine penalty for a dive/trip.
Very good point. When the sheer result is concerned (i.e. Ukraine advancing instead of Tunisia) that was by far the worst performance.
 
I stick with the one who refereed the South Korea-Spain four years ago.

I mean, two valid goals annulated, and he whistled against one team. You can't beat that. The Portugal-Netherlands at least expelled two players from each team.
 
Ivanov is definitely not the best ref of the tournament but i think he has done a good job
 
Wasn't there a referee that gave a player 3 yellow cards in one game?
 
I think that was Graham Poll from the Croatia-Australia match that was mentioned in the first post.

He was the worst, and I am not a particularly big fan of the Italy-USA ref either but at least those calls are somewhat debateable for why the ref would call them.
 
it depends what your criteria are.

When it comes to overall competence, clearly Poll in Australia-Croatia was the worst, but at least his "performance" didn't affect the outcome, as Australia won anyway.

The ref in ukr-tun clearly turned the game arount though, and not just with not giving a single goal or not giving a penalty.

after seeing the replays on por-ned again, I have to say that Ivanov's performence was actually quite good. He was even a bit too lenient in some cases.
 
What I don't understand is, why are people insisting the ref 'talk to the player and give him a warning' instead of carding the player? You think guys in the World Cup don't know the rules? "Oh, we're not allowed to tackle with both feet and studs up? Thanks for letting me know ref." "Oh, it's their ball and I should give it to them, my mistake. I thought you said it was our ball."

It's not as though by being lenient, you get a cleaner game. The players play just as, but probably more, dirty. It's just that at the end of the game, you don't have the same number of calls and you say, see, the game was clean.

There has definitely been some horrible referring. And in the Australia-Croatia game, at the end, you had no clue what was going on. Why was the goal not counted, why didn't the player get send out with the second yellow, etc. That was atrocious. And when the ref decides the winner and changes the outcome of the game (Ghana-USA should have been a draw, France beat Korea, etc), it's even worse.

Having a foul plagued game is the fault of the players and coaches. Not the refs. Where is the clamor by media, commentators, etc on the players to play better? Refs are always the constant scapegoat. There were few fouls in the Japan-Brazil game, not because of who was the ref, but because of the coaches and players that game. Another day, those same people might behave differently, but you can't blame the refs when the players misbehave.
 
kingjoshi said:
What I don't understand is, why are people insisting the ref 'talk to the player and give him a warning' instead of carding the player? You think guys in the World Cup don't know the rules? "Oh, we're not allowed to tackle with both feet and studs up? Thanks for letting me know ref." "Oh, it's their ball and I should give it to them, my mistake. I thought you said it was our ball."

100% agree, what's more: Isn't the Yellow Card intended to be exactly that? a warning to the player? after all, a yellow won't have any impact on the game at all, it's just a warning to the player to not do similar things again. If they do they're sent off...
 
KaeptnOvi said:
100% agree, what's more: Isn't the Yellow Card intended to be exactly that? a warning to the player? after all, a yellow won't have any impact on the game at all, it's just a warning to the player to not do similar things again. If they do they're sent off...
You're right if you only look at the rules. But a yellow card is often used to warn the whole team, to indicate where the line is drawn. If you have to warn every single player individually, then you have to pull 17 yellow cards like Ivanov yesterday did. The result is a terrible game! Good refereeing means that you have a feel for the game, not only the ability to interpret the rules.
Going on a card-waving spree, is not always the best solution! Sometimes it is better, for example, to call the captains of the two teams with you and explain that the sitution is getting out of hand and that they have to warn their teammates to behave themselves. I know that it won't work all the time, but in the past it was a technique, used by many referees. Nowadays, you don't see that anymore.
 
Graham Poll...

As much as I want to say Ivanov, he wasn't that bad actually. Poll on the other hand was a complete disaster.
 
Darkness said:
Graham Poll...

As much as I want to say Ivanov, he wasn't that bad actually. Poll on the other hand was a complete disaster.
I agree. Ivanov wasn't that bad, just way too greedy with cards. His worst error was Boula's second yellow which he should have presented to Figo for acting. I doubt that this turned the match though.
 
Top Bottom