FIFA’s Answer To Getting Calls Wrong Is To Hide Them From Everyone In Attendance

The referees hired by FIFA have not had what one might say is a stellar World Cup. In fact, some of the calls have been downright atrocious. So, what’s FIFA’s official response on how to deal with those atrocious calls? Hide them from the people who they impact the most, and in doing so, everyone in the stadium.↵↵The fact of the matter is that FIFA was let off the hook by Mexico and England on Sunday. Both teams had incredibly horrific calls go against them in the second round, but rather than keep their respective matches against Argentina and Germany close enough to make the calls matter, they both folded under pressure. England should have been tied after Frank Lampard’s obvious goal off the crossbar in the first half, but rather than come out with some fight in the second half, they laid down for the Germans and made the bad call an unfortunate side note.↵

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↵↵Mexico was completely screwed by an offsides that wasn’t called on Carlos Tevez’s first goal for Argentina, compounded by the fact that the replay was shown on the big screen clearly highlighting the violation. But since there’s no replay in soccer, seeing that the call was wrong couldn’t change the fact that it was ruled a goal, even for the referee and his assistant who missed it. So, to avoid that controversy later in the tournament, ↵FIFA has announced they will limit the replays shown in the stadiums. That…makes sense.↵

↵↵⇥FIFA will censor World Cup match action being shown on giant screens inside the stadium after replays of Argentina’s disputed first goal against Mexico fueled arguments on the pitch.↵⇥↵⇥Angry Mexico players protested to referee Roberto Rosetti after the screens in Johannesburg’s Soccer City showed Argentina forward Carlos Tevez was offside before he scored the opening goal in a 3-1 victory on Sunday. FIFA spokesman Nicolas Maingot said Monday that replaying the incident was “a clear mistake.”↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥“This will be corrected and we will have a closer look into that,” Maingot told a news conference Monday. “We will work on this and be a bit more, I would say, tight on this for the games to be played.”↵⇥

↵↵This is absolutely unbelievable. Let’s break it down so we can understand just how embarrassingly unbelievable this is:↵

↵↵• The clear mistake, however wasn’t the wrong call, but rather SHOWING the wrong call in the stadium.↵

↵↵• The spokesman for the organizing committee in South Africa actually apologized for showing the Argentina goal that perpetuated the Mexico protest and helped lead to a halftime skirmish behind the benches.↵

↵↵• FIFA gave no additional indication of taking strides to correct these consistently terrible misses by their referees. Hiding from the problem seems much easier.↵

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↵↵It’s pretty clear that FIFA has no problem with the controversy and doesn’t expect to change it anytime soon. Hiding the controversial calls from those in the stadiums only serves to protect the immediate safety of the referees, and those in attendance, in the event of a riot, which there seriously could have been during the Mexico protest, if you know anything about some of their sociopathic faithful.↵

↵↵For the rest of us, we’re still talking about it, which means we’re still talking about the World Cup and, in turn, still talking about soccer. There’s far less conversation when the call is right, as applause will never sound as loud as jeers.↵

↵↵Forget about this much-debated “goal line technology” that puts a chip inside the ball to determine if it’s crossed into the net, FIFA won’t even let people in the stadium see the play on the big screen anymore. What’s next, now that they’ve taken away in-stadium replay, they’ll curtail the ability to watch the matches altogether? Should fans just pretend the calls haven’t been terrible and stick their heads inside a vuvuzela?↵

↵↵Wait, I shouldn’t give FIFA any ideas.↵

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