Question Number: 23563

Law 5 - The Referee 6/27/2010

RE: Competitive College

Sal of Murfreesburo, TN USA asks...

Hello. I am a state referee. I was disappointed in the performance of the Hungarian referee in the USA/GHANA match. I felt he missed several critical elbows in the face that would have resulted in red cards for Ghana. In particular, in the overtime period the Ghana player held the American player outside of the PA. The referee called nothing and then the American player dribbled the ball in the PA (top left corner) and he was then fouled to the ground by the same Ghana player. The referee called it..but did not give a penalty kick. Instead claimed the foul occurred just outside the area. Now, FIFA/USSF just put out info no less than 12 weeks ago stating that the foul occurs at the spot where the contact ended in cases like this. That Hungarian referee chickened out. I know that the panel is going to back this referee up here...but he screwed up in my opinion.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Referee Sal
In the foul you mentioned the USA player had his shorts pulled outside the penalty area which was a foul. That was clearly shown on TV. The USA player continued and then IMO fell into the defenders inside the penalty area. There was no foul in that sitaution and certainly no deliberate elbows that went unpunished. Correct decision was made to award the FK outside the PA.
Also please do not judge a referee's decisions through the camera view. The referee does not have the benefit of multiple angles or slow motion to make decision. I did not see any blatant deliberate elbowing that could have been penalised. I believe that the excessive slow motion replays we keep seeing at this world cup are not helpful. Everything looks exaggerated while minimal contact looks sustained, forceful and intended and that is not always the case in fast open play.

Answer provided by Referee MrRef

A state referee ought to know better than to criticize another referee, especially one several levels above his own, on a public forum. Ask questions about how something occurred or what might have helped a referee make a better decision, or whether or not it is even possible for a referee to determine what is real and what isn't with reasonable accuracy given all of the acting going on amongst the players and at the incredible speed at which they play - those are acceptable.

It was not an easy game - at this stage and in this competition, none of them are. Being an armchair referee is great sport, and when we have a national stake in the game, it is really difficult to be impartial. As much as we would have wished a different outcome, the referee was not the deciding factor in this game. The players duked it out and one team won. That's the nature of sports. In all fairness, the keeper for Ghana was awesome. He kept the US from scoring several times, and that was probably the game changing performance that counted.

The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

See Question: 23594