Originally Posted by Colie
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Article by David Ellery the day of the Australia game before it of course. Comical reading in hindsight.
Poll hopes to keep his flag flying
By David Elleray
Our correspondent says referee's cool displays will ensure that two 'home teams' qualify
THE match between Saudi Arabia and Ukraine in Hamburg will have had a significant bearing on whether or not the English FA’s second team will progress to the knockout stages.
Graham Poll, the referee, and his assistants, Glenn Turner and Phil Sharp, knew that a good performance would greatly increase their chances of being one of the 12 or 13 refereeing teams retained for the competition’s next phase. They would have been a little tense yesterday morning as they waited for the referees’ meeting, when all of Monday’s matches were reviewed by members of the Fifa referees’ committee, but the absence of controversy and a pleasingly “low-profile” performance should bode well for the trio. They were provided with encouragement last night when it was confirmed that they will officiate the group F match between Croatia and Australia tomorrow.
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Fortunately for Poll and his team, England’s qualification for the knockout phase does not reduce their chance in any significant way and the English official will not suffer as George Courtney did in Italy in 1990. Having refereed the third/fourth-place play-off four years earlier, Courtney, one of England’s finest international referees, was a pre-tournament favourite to emulate Jack Taylor, who refereed the 1974 final.
At the time, sadly for Courtney, Fifa had the strict rule that any referee whose national team progressed to the knockout stages was sent home. Fifa wanted only neutral referees, so there could be no accusations of referees influencing the outcome of matches in a way that might assist their national team.
The problem was that many of the best referees came from the top footballing nations, so most of the top referees were sent home, even though, for some, they would become “neutral” a match later if their team were eliminated. Fifa thus changed its policy and it was a good job it did because the world’s finest referee, Pierluigi Collina, of Italy, would not have been in Japan to take charge of the 2002 final.
Poll’s first match, South Korea versus Togo, went well. The only black mark was a bruise from a dead leg after a collision with a Togo player shortly before half-time. His name is probably pencilled in on the retained list.
Fifa will be looking to keep a mixture of neutral and “aligned” referees while political considerations mean that it would also like to have at least one referee from each continental confederation. Of the less celebrated footballing continents, the three Asian referees, from Singapore, Australia and Japan, have impressed me. Toru Kamikawa, of Japan, performed very well in England’s 2-0 defeat of Trinidad & Tobago.
However, the two African representatives have been less effective and Essam Abd El Fatah, from Egypt, may be a casualty, having failed to send off Tim Cahill, of Australia, for a tackle on Yuichi Komano — a lapse compounded because the foul should have resulted in a penalty for Japan and Cahill went on to score a second goal.
Until the weekend, the refereeing had been largely uncontroversial and most people I have spoken to have hardly noticed the referees, although they have commented on the greater number of cards being issued in the second round of matches.
The card rash exploded in Kaiserslautern with Jorge Larrionda, the Uruguayan referee, sending off Daniele De Rossi, of Italy, and Pablo Mastroeni and Eddie Pope, of the United States. This was only the fourth time in a World Cup finals that three players have been dismissed in a match. Few would argue with the sending-off of De Rossi for his elbow on Brian McBride. The two reds for the US were strict but not incorrect interpretations of Fifa’s instructions, so the referee broadly got it right.
For me, the most disappointing aspect was the ridiculous comments about the refereeing from David Pleat, a commentator who is usually rational and sensible about such matters.
The debate about whether or not Patrick Vieira’s powerful header for France had crossed the line before being dragged back by Lee Woon Jae, the South Korea goalkeeper, will intensify if France fail to qualify for the next stage. Fifa had hoped to have goalline technology in place in time for this tournament, but trials in Peru last year demonstrated that much work still needs to be done.
Fifa is appointing referees to the final group matches in small batches and, as the time for the announcement of each set of appointments nears, tension grows in the referees’ camp. A second match means that a referee has a good chance of remaining in Germany for the sharp end of the tournament. Poll and his colleagues’ performances in Hamburg should ensure a double FA representation; a chance of an English team in the final moves a step closer.
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