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2010 FIFA World Cup - South Africa (1 Viewer)

Carlo_M

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After watching Brazil, Ivory Coast and Italy play, I'd be all for instant replay review for diving!


The best is when they are hit somewhere, like their chest, and they fall clutching their face - where no contact was made. It's like these players don't realize it's not 1980 anymore, with everyone watching on 19" TV sets and blurry instant replays. It's all transmitted in high-definition and their atrocious acting is viewable in 2 million pixel clarity!


The news media around the world should call those people out, plaster the pictures on the papers, that's the only way to shame these "athletes" (and yes, I put the quotes around them because anyone who shamelessly dives isn't a true athlete in my view) into correcting their behavior.
 

Yee-Ming

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Originally Posted by Carlo Medina

I admit that I am not a fan of soccer and this world cup is not doing anything to change my mind. First there's those loud and extremely irritating zuzus or whatever they're called. Than the disallowed goal taking away an American victory. I know any sport is going to get its share of bad calls. What I find astounding is the referee is not required to explain what the call was. The players left the field not knowing what the infraction was. To my knowledge, there is still no announced reason for the call. Was it offsides or a foul? No one knows.


I don't know of a major American sport in which you don't know within minutes and usually seconds what the call is, bad as it may be. This kind of thing in soccer just makes it more difficult to take the sport seriously.


Unfortunately, FIFA has this rather quaint theory that the game should be played under substantially the same rules at all levels of the game. Hence, no video replays allowed at the highest levels of the professional game, despite millions of pounds/dollars being at stake, since video replay would not be available in a Sunday league amateur game. Similarly, no requirement that the ref explain to the rest of the world why he made the call he did.


The diving has always been quite appalling, and every so often The Powers That Be make some announcement about trying to stamp it out. "Simulation", they call it. The problem is, another football (soccer) canon is that the referee's word is law and cannot/should not be changed ex post facto, even with benefit of video evidence (see comment above as well), unless the ref actually did not see the incident. So they tie their hands in ways such that they can't deal with the issue: if the ref saw the incident and mistakenly gave a foul when it was really a dive, TPTB can't go in later and punish the diver, since that is seen to impugn the on-field authority of the ref, he "saw" the incident and dealt with it, so his decision must stand.


This is all a convenient fiction at times: back in the 2006 final, when Zidane head-butted the Italian player, it was pretty obvious the ref didn't see it, since it was an off-the-ball incident and he was looking elsewhere, and neither did either assistant. The fourth official couldn't have seen it either, but he has access to a TV monitor in the tunnel, and the head-butt was of course immediately replayed on all feeds, which he presumably saw and radioed to the ref, who then sent Zidane off. The right result, of course, but made under false pretences given the official stance that video replays cannot and will never be used during a match.
 

Johnny Angell

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Originally Posted by Yee-Ming

Unfortunately, FIFA has this rather quaint theory that the game should be played under substantially the same rules at all levels of the game. Hence, no video replays allowed at the highest levels of the professional game, despite millions of pounds/dollars being at stake, since video replay would not be available in a Sunday league amateur game. Similarly, no requirement that the ref explain to the rest of the world why he made the call he did.
If I squint my eyes I can just barely see the thinnest, flimsiest, shred of logic in that thinking. However, requiring the ref to state the reason for his call does not cost money. Oh maybe they'd use an extra pencil or two to write down the foul, but that would be the extent of the expense. To not require that means the ref can make any call he wants just because he doesn't like the way the player parts his hair. There is no justification for the lack of that requirement.


NFL football often requires the ref to state the foul and the player who committed it. Why can't FIFA do the same? There are no more passionate fans than those of soccer. Don't they deserve an explanation?
 

Ockeghem

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^^^


As of this morning, I was hearing that there hasn't been a reason stated for why it was not allowed.
 

Malcolm R

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I'm another who cannot believe there's only one referee to cover the entire field and all the action. There should be at least three. How many officials are on the field for American Football? I think there's at least six, with the "Referee" being the lead official and the others--umpire, linesmen, back judge, etc.--in support roles. NBA has three officials to cover a tiny court. NHL has three or four on the ice. MLB has at least four. You cannot officiate a soccer game with a single referee with any kind of credibility or fairness.
 

Scott Merryfield

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I used to be a Unites States Soccer Federation certified referee and officiated youth soccer games throughout high school (I played high school soccer, too). Even at that level, trying to see everything on the field was incredibly difficult for a single official. For the high school aged divisions, we would often use two referees (we did not have linesmen). I cannot imagine trying to officiate a game properly with one referee at the highest level of competition.


FIFA is stuck in the last century with several of their ideas on the game.
 

Sumnernor

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If I remember there was an article/book by a british player on how to fool the ref. I know on TV I see alsorts of thing that go unnoticed by the ref.
 

Sumnernor

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I just read an article about how to qualify in the US group:


http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/soccer/world-cup-2010/writers/georgina_turner/06/18/groupc.qualification/index.html
 

Walter C

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The ref involved in the controversy has been benched.


http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/news/fifa-drops-referee-after-dropped-call--fbintl_ro-fifaref062110.html
 

Walter C

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And now, the start of 2 games playing at the same time. Undecided which one I'll watch for Group A.
 

Steve_Tk

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Anyone see the red card against Kaka for Brazil? A player ran up behind him, Kaka's arm bumped him in the chest. The player throws himself backwards, screaming while grabbing his face. It's hilarious to watch in slow motion. You would think some people would have some self respect and never would intentionally flop like that.
 

Jay H

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Soon, we'll see Flops in other sports!


The Kaka foul is funny and you don't even need to see it in slow motion. It looks like the person that ran into Kaka, did just that, ran into Kaka and then flopped!

Jay
 

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