FIFA President Sepp Blatter: "These refs stink!"

[cstaylor]

Blatter slams officials... and Italians

'The refereeing has been the only negative aspect of this World Cup,' Blatter said, replying to howls of protest in Italy over a string of controversial decisions which eventually saw them knocked out by South Korea on Tuesday.

[kamome]

I've got mixed feelings on this. Yes, the refs have been inconsistent and made mistakes. I was shocked when Ronaldinho got the red card against England. He barely touched the other player. Even the British announcers called it "a shocking card". I also couldn't believe it, in the Germany-US game, when the refs didn't even see that a) the ball had crossed the line of the goal, and b) the defender in the goal used his hand to knock the ball out again.

However, Italy is a bunch of sore losers, and maybe even racist. I doubt they would have raised such allegations of steroid use and anti-Italy conspiracy by FIFA if they had lost to England or Germany in the same manner. They need to stop whining like babies and accept their loss as evidence that S. Korea had a better game.

[cstaylor]

They need to stop whining like babies and accept their loss as evidence that S. Korea had a better game.

I believe they would accept it if it was true. Korea did not have a better game in that match nor the Spain match.

I don't know why it's taken FIFA so long to introduce video replay into the ref'ng. Sumo has had it for years.

[tokyojoe]

Blatter slams officials... and Italians

'The refereeing has been the only negative aspect of this World Cup,' Blatter said, replying to howls of protest in Italy over a string of controversial decisions which eventually saw them knocked out by South Korea on Tuesday.

What was the deal with the Spanish goal that was disallowed in the game against Korea? They said something about shirt grabbing but there didn`t seem anything wrong in the replays. Shouldn`t they at least have gotten a PK?

[kamome]

I believe they would accept it if it was true. Korea did not have a better game in that match nor the Spain match.

Come on, that's purely a matter of personal opinion. The fact of the matter is that Italy and Spain didn't get it done against S. Korea. Spain has been very classy with respect to that fact and hasn't raised the absurd allegations raised by Italy. Yes, the officiating stinks, but the same bad officiating can penalize the Koreans just as much as help them.

[cstaylor]

Spain has been very classy with respect to that fact and hasn't raised the absurd allegations raised by Italy. Yes, the officiating stinks, but the same bad officiating can penalize the Koreans just as much as help them.

Well, I guess someone hasn't researched this too closely
Spain chiefs launch official complaint

'I don't think the referees were correct, they made mistakes and if anyone had won, it should have been Spain,' Villar told Marca. 'There were a lot of important mistakes like the goals we had disallowed

He resigned in protest by the way.
And from FIFA president Sepp Blatter:

'What we have witnessed in past matches, and specifically matches where the home team of Korea was involved, I have to say I have difficulties understanding our referee committee concerning the designation of the referees and the linesmen,' he said

And, most importantly when it comes to international politics, you need to read the official denials and pick them apart:
FIFA dismiss fix theory

But, as the Spaniards prepare to lodge an official protest, FIFA vice-president David Will claimed that any criticism is merely sour grapes on the part of losers.

'This is absolute and complete nonsense,' he said.

Ad hominem attack. Classical ploy of the guilty.

'Referees and their assistants are totally independent people. They can't possibly influence the progress of teams, nor would they try. This is sour grapes on the part of teams who have gone out'

More ad hominems. It's a false statement anyways, because they aren't independent if they're both paid to do the same thing.

He continued: 'There is no question that anyone from FIFA has spoken to the referees and told them to look after Korea and Japan.

'If that was the case you'd have to ask why haven't Japan also gone through?'

They're looking the wrong way. *If* there's been a payoff, it hasn't been from the top-down, but most likely straight to the judges themselves. This is a typical strawman debate tactic: "I'll give you a weak analogy, beat it up, and by proxy I have disproved your original statement". The statement was that Korea was favored, not both home countries. If no one in Japan ponied up any cash for good calls, then why should the refs do the wrong thing for free?

He said: '99 per-cent of conspiracy theories cases prove to be unfounded.This is one of those 99 per-cent of occasions.'

Again, strawman. No one has disproved or even investigated whether there was some dirty dealing with the judges, so how can he be certain that its not true?

[kamome]

Well, I guess someone hasn't researched this too closely

I presume you're referring to yourself, then, CS? If you look at that article you quoted, you will see that Spain raised no allegations of bribery or steroid use by the Koreans in its complaint. Italy, on the other hand, has made both accusations. Although I haven't seen the actual complaint, it appears from the article that Spain is simply contesting the quality of the officiating in their game, which I also agree was poor.

So my original statement stands: Spain has been classier about this than Italy. And you haven't addressed my other comment, which is that bad/inexperienced officials can penalize Korea as much as help them. So far, Korea has been on the lucky side of those bad calls, but it could go the other way in their next match.

[cstaylor]

I presume you're referring to yourself, then, CS? If you look at that article you quoted, you will see that Spain raised no allegations of bribery or steroid use by the Koreans in its complaint

Okay, compared to the Italians, yes, the Spainards were slightly less apoplectic in their response to the outcome of the match. According to this article, Spain "wuz robbed"

Much has been made, for some unknown reason, of the fact that the referee and linesmen were 'tercermundista' (Third World), an offensive adjective which is used in Spanish to suggest that something is defective and inefficient

Doesn't sound very classy to me.