RefBlog

Search function fixed

Just an administrative note: the search function on the site has been fixed. I didn't even know it was broken for quite a while until I tried to look up something myself on it. :)

15 July '10 - 23:09 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Why can't we just enjoy the game as a game?

This is kind of an additional riff on an entry I made last month, Entertainment and Fairness. With all the World Cup stuff going on, there's been plenty to talk about; most of which I don't talk about here, because most of it isn't relevant to the 99.9% of us who don't play at that level.

But over my years reffing, I've noticed that when World Cups happen, certain things float down to the level of even the recreational player; and I hope to god that the crap we saw in the final isn't one of them. From a referee perspective, I think Howard Webb did a great job in the middle, with the exception of that incredibly brutal attack by Nigel de Jong on Xabi Alonso. And I'm sorry, it's not a tackle, when a player is upright, and your spikes are less than a foot away from that player's face, it's an attack.

It's always interesting to hear other referees perspectives on the games, and SocRef is still the best place to get reasoned discussion on it; there have been some National and former FIFA referees on there that have speculated that Webb handed the yellow, because that is what's expected on a game at that level - that yes, referees at that level are expected to take the entertainment value that would increase or decrease because of a call or booking. And that may be true; and in which case Webb made the correct call by FIFA; but my god what an awful way to do things.

Why can't the game just be entertaining on its own, without having to make allowances for TV ratings. Heck, maybe the game would have been more exciting if de Jong was sent off? Maybe the Dutch would have cleaned up play and we'd have seen a more free-flowing, and dare I say it, entertaining, game because of it. Most of the media critics have said this wasn't an entertaining game; would a straight red when deserved made it any worse?

And again, god help us if that style of play filters down into the trenches the rest of us play and ref in. If what those FIFA and National refs are saying is true, and that style of play does filter down, then FIFA's decision to have refs ignore the Laws in order to make the World Cup more entertaining, may just take the entertainment out of the rest of the game for us.

15 July '10 - 00:21 - - default| Only one comment - § ¶