Select impartial referees for WC Football
Referee and assistant referee disallowed Brazil’s second goal scored by Kaka from on-side position against Holland in the quarterfinals of the 2010 World Cup Football held in South Africa and it changed the course of the match, eliminating the five times World Champions from the competition.
Brazil were the only team until 2010 to have won the cup in every continent, which hurt the FIFA and the European teams very much. The South American nation’s Confederation Cup success in the same venue just a year ago in 2009 was taken seriously by the Europeans and, as such, they were desperate to win the World Cup outside their own continent for the first time. Referee finished the remaining work, disallowing Brazil’s second goal to the surprise of all.
Sixty years ago in 1954 in Switzerland, Referee disallowed Hungary’s third goal scored by super star Puskas in the World Cup Football Final and it changed the track of the match to see West Germany to become eventual champions. After the referee’s partisan judgment, Hungary gradually faded away as a soccer nation while Puskas lost all his skills.
There are many such stories which burnt the fate of a deserving team and lifted the unworthy one to take the biscuit at length. As such, impartial judgment is very the referees and the assistant referees must be impartial and neutral. Will they be in the ensuing World Cup?
Aminul Haque Khan
Dhaka
