Well, World Cup referee Koman Coulibaly has already been destroyed on his Wikipedia page; and once you’ve been trashed there, it’s only a matter of time before your career is over. Coulibaly of course called the phantom foul that disallowed a go-ahead goal for the U.S., which ended up tying Slovenia, 2-2, last week. Now, it seems, FIFA has issued a red card on the Mali ref, excluding him from the next round of important knock-out games.
But as always in the World Cup, questions linger.
Such as, why does the world’s biggest sporting event, where a single call can send a team home, have no procedure for instant replay? Why are relatively-inexperienced, little-known referees assigned to World Cup games? And why are referees not required to explain their calls?
This last one is most baffling to Americans, who are used to a sport’s governing body releasing a statement the day after a controversial call in a big NFL or MLB game. Statements from umpires (recent example, Jim Joyce) or football officials (Ed Hochuli) add an element of accountability, and salve wounds. In contrast, here’s Yahoo’s Martin Rogers, describing how Coulibaly — or any World Cup ref — ends a typical day.
First of all, he gets a chaffeur-driven ride back to the luxury base where all the World Cup officials are cloistered, away from the prying eyes of the media, or God forbid, the public.
Then, if he fancies it on Monday, he can get a nice massage from an on-site physiotherapist and some restaurant-quality room service before — and this is the best bit — consulting a ready-and-waiting sports psychologist to help him handle the stress of his exertions on Sunday night.
So we’ll never know why Coulibaly did what he did, but it appears that he won’t have the chance to do it again. FIFA has scrubbed him from the next round of matches, a tacit acknowledgment of the giant fiasco.
Also out for the next round is Stephane Lannoy, the French referee who ejected Brazil’s Kaka for a non-existent hand to the face of an Ivory Coast player on Sunday. This has been a great World Cup for the French, hasn’t it folks?
But for those of you wondering when FIFA will start requiring its referees to face the music, remember that they couldn’t even muster the fortitude to ban the vuvuzela. So don’t hold your breath.
***
Morning Tweet: World Cup officiating so far has been, in a word, Kaka[Out of Bounds]
World Cup: FIFA Drops Referee Koman Coulibaly [SportsbyBrooks]
Refs must face the music for bad calls [Yahoo Sports]
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- AwL - Jun 22, 2010 at 2:24 PM
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Heheheh….. for every 5 minutes of play you probably need a 4 minute commercial break.
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- anon - Jun 22, 2010 at 2:34 PM
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I really wish the calls for instant replay would go away. While it would provide clarity on unclear situations, it would also ruin the game. Think of how many unclear situations happen in the course of a game. One of the main differences between soccer and American sports is its flow. The game keeps moving rather than 30 seconds of action followed by 30 seconds of stoppage. If replay were instituted, we might as well just turn the game into a bunch of alternating set plays as the replays would disrupt the flow of play.
In general, I find the article (and I use that term loosely) a disappointing diatribe against events in a sport the writer doesn’t fully understand.
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- sching - Jun 22, 2010 at 2:38 PM
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Respect the game of soccer???? It is a childs game.
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- Frank Williams - Jun 22, 2010 at 4:01 PM
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I can see putting him up to explain himself. In the absence of the use of available technology that would allow revisitation of the occurrence that allegedly attracted the referee’s attention, it is very important that the public know what he saw and called, because we have the benefit of replay and can see how close the call was, if it were close at all and not a cheating incident directed against the United States.
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- Brian - Jun 22, 2010 at 4:35 PM
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Evan You remember the Ump who blew the Perfect game call? He felt bad admitted his mistake apologized and we had an outpouring of what you call SPORTSMANSHIP! The next day Leyland said he wasnt for instant replay he sent the kid back up to turn in the lineup card to the ump now working behind the plate and they exchanged handshakes and a pat on the back and the TIGER fans all cheered. It was a great human moment. It became more than a game it illustrated why the human element cant be removed from the game of baseball and maybe although we all know the kid was robbed it became a better moment for the sport to have him come clean. That guy also was a super ump and was ranked in the top 2 in the league.
This NEWBIE ref dropped the ball in his grand moment and start of his supposed World Cup career. He didnt reply to the players at the time the media after and he went into his protective FIFA shell. NOW he not only wont have to come clean he may never work in there again. SO which way is better?
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- Brian - Jun 22, 2010 at 4:40 PM
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Evan You remember the Ump who blew the Perfect game call? He felt bad admitted his mistake apologized and we had an outpouring of what you call SPORTSMANSHIP! The next day Leyland said he wasnt for instant replay he sent the kid back up to turn in the lineup card to the ump now working behind the plate and they exchanged handshakes and a pat on the back and the TIGER fans all cheered. It was a great human moment. It became more than a game it illustrated why the human element cant be removed from the game of baseball and maybe although we all know the kid was robbed it became a better moment for the sport to have him come clean. That guy also was a super ump and was ranked in the top 2 in the league.
This NEWBIE ref dropped the ball in his grand moment and start of his supposed World Cup career. He didnt reply to the players at the time the media after and he went into his protective FIFA shell. NOW he not only wont have to come clean he may never work in there again. SO which way is better?
Its fine to accept the human element but when the world sees it as a bad call stand up be a man. Our mothers always told us when we made mistakes to take responsibility its part of growing up.
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- Tony Houston - Jun 22, 2010 at 9:31 PM
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There’s mistakes and there’s gross incompetence. When it’s 50/50 or
even 60/40 and you can almost see why a ref blew his whistle vs. looking at a replay 10 times and not having a clue what he was thinking is the difference between him continuing and going home.
FIFA is making the right decision but it could still cost the US unjustly in the end.
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- Howard Huggins - Jun 23, 2010 at 9:21 PM
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Whatever his other motivations and circumstances the referee tells a lot in the photos of him mugging for the camera and enjoying his power to do whatever pleases him without explanation or review.
He reminds me of the abusive “Vancome Lady” in the Mad TV comedy sketches celebrating her authority and cleverness in blowing off reasonable requests and complaints. In the next sketch she has a new job somewhere else having been run out of the previous one. One can but hope.
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- steve - Jun 23, 2010 at 11:52 PM
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hahaha… you’re funny and to the point. i feel the same way. but there is something about watching the world cup… seeing different races from different countries battle each other without there being a war. a time to be proud of your countrymen. i don’t know but i despise watching soccer but i love the world cup. call me stupid.
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- Steve - Jun 24, 2010 at 12:05 AM
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What i can’t stand is all the play acting… a player get touched by a thread of clothing and they’re down withering on the floor in agony like a 6 year old girl. It’s now a strategy! The Italians and Argentinians are good at it which why they win more often.
Another thing is that they leave the injured on the field and they still play for a while. It’s a game not a war.
And why don’t they have time out. Has FIFA not heard of a stop watch. Oh, cuz they don’t want technology. What are they using sundials or what?
And I still can’t figure out how referees determine how much extra time. I saw a game where injuries in one half totalled like ten minutes and there was three minutes extra time… what was that all about?
And why not get more referees to get more viewing angles? Let them discuss it to get another opinion without replay? Hello!
A penalty kick is too damn easy.
The only thing i like about soccer is when you do a free kick, you can kick the ball and hit them in the balls and they have to take it. Love it in slow motion! haha
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- Tony - Jun 24, 2010 at 12:27 AM
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We all know that Muslims hate us Americans. This guy is from Mali, a country where 95% of the population is Muslim. It’s my belief that this guy was determined to do as much as possible to keep the United States out of the World Cup, and he almost gets it.
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- Tony - Jun 24, 2010 at 12:35 AM
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Not a smart comment Steve. This sport dominates the world. Either you are wrong or the rest of the world is.
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- sid - Jun 24, 2010 at 3:56 AM
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Even Galdalf fears the vuvuzela
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B2LPxggvqY&feature=player_embedded
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- Sid - Jun 24, 2010 at 4:17 AM
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Agreed – my heart goes out for US soccer team that they have to deal with half asleep referee and the deafening vuvuzela.
To me, the latter one caused much more devastation to one’s sanity than bad call.
Even great wizard couldn’t deal with it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B2LPxggvqY&feature=player_embedded
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- Rick Chandler - Jun 24, 2010 at 4:32 AM
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You’re a little late to the party, my friend.
http://outofbounds.nbcsports.com/2010/06/gandalf-goes-to-the-world-cup.html.php
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- JTW - Jun 24, 2010 at 9:30 PM
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Your comment is a perfect example of what is wrong with America today. Why don’t we just not keep score and call everyone a winner. Give them all a little trophy, maybe take them out for pizza afterwards. Strap on a pair.
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- Soccer - Jun 24, 2010 at 11:50 PM
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The whole point of soccer is that it is a continuous non-stop game. This isn’t football or baseball where people get to take a break after every play. The atheletes have to be able to constantly run and then burst into a 50 yard dash on cue if need be. Adding an instant replay would slow down the action of the game and dull down the intensity. All-in-all….fuck that.
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- sarge - Jun 25, 2010 at 1:06 PM
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the point isn’t for him to say he made a mistake, it’s to tell people what he saw and why he called the foul. If he has no reason and just called it to avoid a score for the us, then it shows bias on his part and would bar him from any future matches. If he did see a foul, what is keeping him from just clearing the air and shutting up all the critics. It’s really simple. Either he saw a foul or didn’t, and if doesn’t talk, it’s pretty evident that he didn’t
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- Bob - Jun 25, 2010 at 10:05 PM
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Jim “Bob”, this is about the game. Shove your lying, filthy, treasonous, right wing, anti-American garbage up your vuvuzela, and give it a good quarter-turn twist while it’s there.
For the rest:
The problem with “the call” really isn’t that it hurt the U.S. The problem is that that complaints that
1) soccer is boring – are true, from an American perspective,
2) FIFA is poorly managed – are true from all perspectives,
3) FIFA lacks accountability – are true and proven.
The issue is that for the first time the game is being widely shown in the U.S., like it or not, the world’s largest market. That gaff happened in front of a very large audience, and audience which soccer is trying to win over. I wish soccer well, I like it, but it won’t happen this way. Of course there have been bad calls against other teams, but that’s no reason why the teams or sports fans anywhere have to live with it. Right now it doesn’t look like FIFA cares about honesty in the sport it so adroitly mis-manages.
It isn’t a beautiful game as it stands and it wouldn’t be spoiled by the addition of more referees, better refereeing whether accomplished through better training or replay or some combination of the two. It would be helped immesurably by an organization that actually cares more about the game rather than about some “tradition”. The fact is that another internationally known sport that I also love, tennis, allows replay as well. Replay could be instigated without a large impact on the game if any at all.
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