Dear John Shocker 638

As I have stated, I do not see much of world soccer, being in the US. Did you see this referee look over at the linesman before sprinting to the penalty area to give a Yellow Card and the penalty against Ukraine ?

Also, there appears to be a division of labor between the two linesmen, as presented by the blown Offside call in the Newcastle-Everton match, in that news coverage clearly identifies only one of the 2 linesmen as responsible for the offside call in that situation. That indicates that somehow FIFA has limited the input the referee can receive in certain situations to 1 linesman, instead of the 2 who are paid to buttist the referee for 90 minutes.

I did not see this Referee making any significant 'mistakes' which favored Ukraine.

As soon as I think it was Oddo squared his shoulders to cross that ball into the penalty area to give Toni a chance to head the ball, no one was close to Oddo, so the Referee should have had only one focus: who is in the penalty area to receive this ball and is either one committing a foul against the other. At that moment, that was 100% of his job. Even offside issues are left to the linesmen (or one linesman).

Not at all. The Instant Replay capability in the US National Football League is working very well, since it is known that the referee is seeing the same replays we are seeing, when an appeal is made for him to do so. The excuse for errors or game-Fixing is as you have presented here: he just could not see the specifics because he was distracted. We do not want that situation to continue. Thats destroys the sport. The Sport must be decided by the 22 players on the field and nothing else. Otherwise the Sport and its entertainment value (at least to people possessing any morality) is devalued. Instant Replay video availability is the only way to make sure every player knows that it is worthwhile for him to play hard, and whatever fruits he deserves from his hard work will not be taken away by a crook Referee and his bribes from Organized Crime Gambling division.

I have never seen any referee change his mind after taking such an affirmative action of awarding a Yellow Card for what he claimed was a foul.

Now I would contrast this with the Referee in the Euro Final 2006 Arsenal-Barcelona, which was shaping up to be a great match of two soccer titans. That referee showed by his actions that he was clearly conflicted about having to Sent Off the Arsenal goalkeeper, and he did listen to allcomers who argued against it. During that time if the linesman had dissuaded him, another course might have been taken. But once he heard all failed arguments, he had to do what the current rules required -- Red Card the goalkeeper Lehmann for a foul on a breakaway to goal. And that ruined the Sport of the match.

As I have recommended, there ought to a new FIFA rule, Red Card With Substitution, which would have allowed Arsenal to substitute for the Sent Off player on a non-Intent-To-Injure foul Sent Off. If that had happened, the players committing the foul would have been punished, the Team would have only their 2nd rate goalkeeper, and the Barcelona would still have had the penalty or goal.

John