As Merlinzeta says, the panel never referred to the refereeing as 'a
disgrace'. What they said was that the Totti decision should have been a
no-call based on all the video evidence. The only legitimate criticism that
can be directed at this ref was that he wasn't in a very good position to
make such an important call. But Totti definately went looking for contact,
which is a dangerous tactic to use (similar to Owens) - both incidents could
have been called a penalty, a no-call, or a dive.
Also, the offside call was not the fault of the ref!!! And looking at the
stills, Tommasi was level - are you saying that a level player has never
been wrongly called off-side before? It was an incorrect decision, which
cost Italy a shot at goal, no more or less. While I feel sorry for the
number of off-side decisions that have went against Italy over the
tournament (Croatia game, in particular), this was the linesman's only
mistake in the game, and it is only with the benefit of slow-motion video
that we can tell he got it (just) wrong.
Agree with your point about using video. But I think it should also be used
for punishing diving, repeated shirt-pulling, faking injury, etc. - not sure
the Italian team would fare any better!
Hans.
Quote:
> On tonights show Les Murray, & John Warren had a guest who is the
> head of the Profession Referree Association of Australian.. who stated
> the ref from that Korea-Italy game was a disgrace.
> Video evidence clearly shows the calls for Totti and Offside on
> Tommasi were bad. How anyone can deny video evidence is beyond me.
> Fact is these people are not even Italian and they were honest enough to
admit
> how aweful the Ref was in that game and many before it.
> FIFA are a joke. The technology existence to validate a goal when
required.
> It takes 60 seconds to validate a goal by video. In most games you will
> only have 2-3 goals scored, which means 3 minutes of validation by a 4th
> official. Whats 3 minutes?
> Congratulations to FIFA for making this cup a disgrace.
by