Football’s governing body Fifa tried on Sunday to calm the growing furore over World Cup refereeing but admitted match officials had made mistakes.
Spanish players claimed that Egyptian referee Gamal Ghandour had robbed them of victory over South Korea in Saturday’s quarter-final after disallowing two ‘goals’ for Spain, one in regular time and one in extra time.
South Korea went on to reach the semi-final by winning in a penalty shootout after the match had ended goalless.
The Spaniards’ protests echoed similar complaints from Portugal and Italy after they were beaten by Korea earlier in the tournament.
”What happened here was robbery,” said Spanish player Ivan Helguera. ”The goals were completely valid.”
In a fresh twist to the protests, Spanish radio reported that the president of the Spanish Football Federation, Angel Maria Villar, had resigned from Fifa’s referees’ commission in an apparent protest at the refereeing in the quarter-final.
Villar, who is also a Fifa vice-president, was reported as saying he had resigned for a variety of reasons but would be giving a full explanation to Fifa president Sepp Blatter.
Senes Erzik, the Turkish head of Fifa’s referees’ committee, admitted errors had been made in the tournament but defended the overall performance of the match officials.
”There have been one or two mistakes which is a cause of concern but overall the referees have been very well prepared for this World Cup … and every match is reviewed,” Erzik said in a statement read to a press conference.
”But referees are only human and mistakes can be made.”
Fifa representative Keith Cooper said Erzik ”did not differentiate between referees and their assistants. They work together as a team.” Referee’s assistant is another term for linesman.
Cooper said video replays to help referees decide on contentious incidents were ”not on the agenda at the moment”.
In a decision that Fifa knew will be scrutinised closely, Swiss referee Urs Meier was appointed to take charge of the semi-final between South Korea and Germany.
Meier officiated in the Koreans’ match against the United States and also refereed the politically-charged encounter between the Americans and Iran at the World Cup in France four years ago.
His assistant referees will be Frederic Arnault of France and Evzen Amler of the Czech Republic, while the fourth official will be experienced French referee Gilles Veissiere.
Fifa President Sepp Blatter said on Saturday that he wanted a review of the entire refereeing process.
”The whole system of selecting and designating referees needs to be looked at,” he said. ”We must return to a trio of officials of the same nationality because lack of communication has been the cause of several mistakes.”
Up until now, Blatter had backed the need for the best referees, regardless of nationality.
The two decisions which infuriated the Spaniards in Gwangju were when Ruben Baraja nodded into the net via a deflection off Kim Tae-Young five minutes after the interval but referee Ghandour had already blown for shirt tugging.
Fernando Morientes then also headed home two minutes into extra-time from a Joaquin cross – yet assistant referee Michael Ragoonath of Trinidad and Tobago had flagged for a goalkick.
The Fifa representative said the reason for that decision was confidential as it was contained in the referee’s report.
South Korean coach Guus Hiddink dismissed the Spanish
complaints.
”When you are a big team you must punish a little team in normal play,” he said on Sunday.
”I think it’s rather easy to go on blaming referees or linesmen. Of course they make mistakes just as players or coaches make mistakes.
”But there were some situations for a red card (for Spanish players) but we didn’t complain about that, we accepted that.” – Sapa-AFP