We have reached the World Cup Semi-Finals, but instead of the football on the pitch, the officiating of the knockout matches has once again come into the spotlight after some contentious displays from FIFA’s group of elite referees.
The Quarter-Final stage saw all four matches decided by either a penalty shoot-out, or by a single goal, as Morocco, Argentina, Croatia, and France progressed to the Semi-Finals
Friday night saw Argentina come up against The Netherlands in a hotly contested affair which saw Spanish official Antonio Mateu Lahoz brandish 16 yellow cards during the entirety of the match, with the referee showing Dutch defender Denzel Dumfries two yellow cards after the 120 minutes- one during the penalty shoot-out and the other at full time.
The lack of control came to the annoyance of both sides, with Lionel Messi saying “I don’ want to speak about the referees because after they will sanction you. But people saw what happened. I think Fifa must take care of this, it cannot put a referee like that for a match of such magnitude, of such importance.”
Many described Luhoz’ performance as the worst they have ever seen, but 24 hours later, Brazilian Wilton Sampaio contested for the worst performance of the tournament whilst in charge of the England vs France match.
Having failed to notice a foul on Bukayo Saka in the lead up to France’s opener, of which VAR did not overturn, he and his linesman failed to spot a foul on Harry Kane, that again was not overturned by VAR.
The second half saw the third, and most obvious infringement on the game as Theo Hernandez shoulder-barged Mason Mount to the floor inside the penalty area, with Sampaio and his officiating having their blushes spared with VAR overturning the decision and the penalty was awarded.
Garry Neville was very critical of the Brazilian saying “He had an absolute nightmare. A joke of a referee. I’m not saying it was all down to England’s defeat – people will say it is excuses – but he’s just a bad referee, rank bad.”
However, he was criticized on Twitter by RFU referee Christophe Ridley who responded to his tweet by saying that he was damaging the game, and that the referees are not the best, they are the ones that survive.
This is a issue closer to home that is a plague to the sport: in England referee numbers are dropping- with Kent FA losing 25% of their officials last season; and Cheshire FA releasing that 30% of improper conduct charges were for behaviour targeting a referee under 18 years old.
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Add to this 90% of referees in England say that they suffer a form of verbal abuse every other game, with stories of an 18-year-old being headbutted and spat at. If the nation continues to complain about poor refereeing in both international matches and in this country specifically: the sport needs to be self-evaluating how the toxicity has led to many great referees giving up the sport for their own safety and mental health.
