The official World Cup 2010 refereeing thread

[Barry the bird boggler]

2 games in and have to say that so far I've been impressed by the two sets of "asian" officials.

Wonder if those high standards can be maintained.....

[Royalee]

Same I must admit - I doubt it though...when does Howard Webb first take charge?

[1960]

Agreed. I was confidently predicting that the refereeing would be rubbish, but the first two lots have been excellent. The lino's spot for offside for the first Mexican goal was stunningly good - the goalkeeper being in advance of the last man was so unusual that it could easily have fazed him, but he saw it clear as a bell. Now the question is whether they can keep it up.

[Ian Royal]

I thought the ref in the France game was a bit fussy, and got his cards out a bit quickly. But it's a minor complaint.

[Royalee]

Looks like the standard has dropped now - this bald New Zealand ref is useless.

[paultheroyal]

Hope Webb has a great world cup, he is certainly regarded as one of the worlds best.

His first game is Spain vs Switzerland which will certainly suit him as he would know a number of the players.

[Terminal Boardom]

I think the refereeing has been spot on. Cahill's red card was fully justified last night and also good to see consistency being shown wrt diving. If only someone had spotted the blatant checking by Argentina in their opening game. Twice they got away with it.

[Maguire]

If a Reading player got sent off for Cahill's tackle then i doubt we'd find anyone on HobNob saying it was fully deserved.

[handbags_harris]

From what I've seen so far it's been excellent. A couple of glaring errors though:

The throw-in that should have been a goal kick early in the Ghana v Serbia match - a) it wasn't even close and b) it was a yard in front of the linesman. And the ever-so-poor ITV commentary failed to pick it up despite two replays

The Cahill red-card. It's clumsy but he so clearly pulls out whilst on the floor. Yes it's a free kick, borderline yellow card, but red? That's a huge mistake on the part of the Mexican referee for me.

[Archie's penalty]

Cahill's the only question mark for me. His feet were both off the floor though so ref was within his rights to send him off. Impressed with the standard though.

[Dirk Gently]

The off-side decisions have been top class.

[Sarah Star]

Not sure about the slicked-back oily hair look on some of them though.

[paultheroyal]

Not sure about the slicked-back oily hair look on some of them though.

it's called rain.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Not sure about the slicked-back oily hair look on some of them though.

it's called rain.

Not seen it in Boots yet - is it Calvin Klein or some other designer name or just their own brand?

[Barry the bird boggler]

So, anyone who saw the SWIvSPA game, can they comment on Howard Webb's performance - was it nearer a Collina or a Poll?

[sam1]

Pleasantly surprised by him tbh but I'd draw the line at comparing him to Collina.

[paultheroyal]

Webb had an excellent game.

[Wimb]

Webb had an excellent game.

+1

[Dirk Gently]

Pleasantly surprised by him tbh but I'd draw the line at comparing him to Collina.

Surely it was inevitable given his hair (or lack of it).

[Hoop Blah]

Cahill's the only question mark for me. His feet were both off the floor though so ref was within his rights to send him off. Impressed with the standard though.

This is one of the things that annoy me with the way the rules are being applied in the last season or two. They say, something along the lines of, that once you leave the ground with both feet then you've lost control of the tackle and so it's reckless and so a card is justified.

I used to like a good lunging tackle but 90% of the time your still in pretty good control of what you're doing, and most of the time you can pull out of it (at least to some degree).

It doesn't mean it's not reckless at times, but you are usually in pretty good control of what your feet are doing.

I also think the officials have been excellent so far.