World Cup 2014, Brazil.

Not at all. This is unfounded and to be frank, insulting for me.

You could say that if i was the only one claiming it was fishy. Or even if the Croats are only claiming it. But it's not the case. Browse a bit trough the comments and match reports of your fellow countrymen, and you'll see my opinion isn't reserved only for those who might be biased in judgement.

 

But I'm talking about that one match.

 

Well, as a referee I find it insulting that you are accusing a fellow referee of match fixing so don't give it out if you can't take it back.

 

Why? Are you really that thin skinned?

 

Looking at it another way, who paid the Croat GK? He should have done better than he did. I don't think the Referee was bribed, he just wasn't as good as he should have been in a major match. We will see plenty more controversial decisions before the Tournament is over, gives us something to gripe about, you never know England might get a Penalty awarded, but not if Rickie is in the XI, that is regarded as an unfair advantage!

 

Sticking for your own. Then who's biased here?

To be fair, I didn't say referee was corrupt. I said he was either corrupt or incompetent, so a left both possibilities open. I described it as fishy, but not before I checked the meaning of the word. It says in the dictionary 'Inspiring doubt or suspicion'. And it sure does, for me and the hell of a lot of other people. And it's because of the reasons and explained earlier, not because I'm biased. I'll accept if you consider my reasoning as faulty, but I'm not biased.

 

Trip to Brazil: Expensive.
Getting photobombed by Gary Lineker: priceless

 

It's nothing to do with that. People on here are making completely unfounded accusations of match fixing just because of a couple of dodgy decisions. it's pathetic and as a referee, I feel insulted by that. If someone accused me of match fixing without any hard evidence I'd be absolutely furious.

 

I don't mind dodgy or controversial decision. Brasil is the host of the tournament, hosts are always a bit favoured by the referees, it's nothing unexpected or out of the ordinary.

But there was nothing dodgy or controversial in that penaly. It was, simply, imagined by the referee.

 

more like.

 

As you say, the accusations are completely unfounded. So why does it bother you? Getting irate about it just lends them credibility. Just roll your eyes and carry on.

 

Sepp Blatter is as corrupt as they come, sure, but match fixing is something else. They know that they'd be under ridiculous scrutiny for everything from now on, so to pay off the ref in the opening game of the world cup that millions and millions of people are watching would be really quite stupid - I mean, it's not like it's gone unnoticed, has it. If there were a number of truly shocking decisions, then sure, but really none of the decisions were worse than some you'd see on an average Premier League weekend. If this kind of stuff happens every Brazil game then I'll change my mind.

 

The thing is, both the penalty and the disallowed goal were wrong decisions. BUT in each case you can at least see why they were given. For the penalty, Lovren did have his hand on the guy's shoulder (the referee would be thinking, "why is he doing that if it isn't with the intention of stopping the player from running?"). As for the "goal", well how many times are perfectly good goals disallowed for non-existent fouls on the goalkeeper. Absolutely nothing new or unusual about the decision.

Two bad decisions but honest ones.

 

don't players regularly have their hands all over each other so they can keep track of each other without having to look?

 

If that's a penaly, then there are about a dozen of them every set piece situation.

 

After a night's sleep I feel a bit more objective about last night's game. I still feel very angry about the incompetence of the referee but for the moment, until there is more evidence, I will back off about accusations of corruption. As has been pointed out, some of his decisions did favour Croatia and he didn't make any attempt to protect Marcelo.

Here's the thing though: people are saying that penalties like that are given all the time. Well tournament football is all about consistency from the referees, so I will expect to see a penalty given at the very first corner in the Mexico v Cameroon game this afternoon. Every time a corner takes place in any level of professional football you will see jostling and physical contact far worse than we saw Dejan Lovren commit on Fred, but to my knowledge, penalties are hardly ever given. I think I am right in saying that the only one given under these circumstances in the Premier League last season was for Jose Fonte grabbing Mertesacker at the Emirates.

If the referee last night was merely incompetent, then he should be sent home to Japan. If he represents the standard expected of all officials at this World Cup then I despair. If he is part of a conspiracy to make sure Brazil win the tournament in return for the vast fortunes FIFA and its sponsors will make, not that I actually think that is the case, then heads need to roll.

 

Personally I think FIFA should have appointed Howard Webb to last night's game. He wouldn't have bottled it under pressure from the crowd.

 

You are so right there always is a melee when free kicks are taken into the box.......Until referee's make a stand and get the players to cut it out. After all having your hands on or around a player is actually a foul. The trouble is referees have over the years let more and more go and not blown for this sort of thing.
Sadly it is a sign of the times......having said that though we should now see consistency, but I'm doubtful there will be.

 

Moving this conversation to Part II for general conversations about the World Cup.

In future, can we have Match Threads please..? Otherwise, those who wish to look back at specific discussions are going to have to trawl through an awful load of general stuff. I will start 3 new threads for today.