Review
Spain won the nineteenth FIFA World Cup, defeating the Netherlands in an infamously tempestuous final to win football's biggest prize for the first time. La Roja were the deserved winners of a competition which broke new ground - never before had the global showpiece taken place in Africa, and the world generally agreed that hosting South Africa had done a good job, giving the tournament a unique and vibrant taste (besides those bloody vuvuzelas :)).
If such a thing as refereeing historiography exists, then this tournament will be viewed as much more significant for what happened after rather than in it, but for me that is the charm of the officiating at World Cup 2010 and why it will always be one of my favourite competitions. Perhaps never again will such a diverse range of styles and approaches - all with their merits and drawbacks - officiating a World Cup's matches, and on reflection it is quite remarkable that it ever happened (as late as 2010).
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| Policeman: Khalil Al-Ghamdi from Saudi Arabia |
On a refereeing level, the way twenty-first century World Cups ought to be viewed is always best explained by what happened in the tournament previous. For 2010, this meant FIFA accepting that the unobtrusive rigour of Germany 2006 had not gone badly, but not as well as they had hoped. One game in particular really scarred them, the Portugal - Netherlands match, or the Battle of Nuremberg, handled by Valentin Ivanov.
Blatter instinctively criticised Ivanov, but on further analysis, decided that perhaps the Russian referee was not really to blame. FIFA reflected, and I totally agree with them by the way, that the best refereeing is not ideological but practical, a philosophy they and incumbent head of department José María García-Aranda implemented on the road to, and for, World Cup 2010.
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| Law-enforcer: Jorge Larrionda from Uruguay |
Referees had remarkable freedom in the ways they handled their matches, and were actively encouraged to handle games in their own way; that was seen as the best way to correct what happened in 2006 and particularly in Nuremberg.
If I have any authority to say so - my conviction is that 2010 is the best refereed World Cup ever. Even besides empirical observations, that should stand to reason. Quality of refereeing should increase with every tournament as time passes, and referees will handle games better in the way that they are most used to and comfortable with. That is not to say that there weren't big mistakes, probably there will be three to spring to mind immediately; without wishing to decend into apologism: sh*t happens.
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| Football-facilitator: Benito Archundia from Mexico |
Another result of 2006 was the nuance of the confederational neutrality rule for this tournament. In Germany, FIFA were very anxious not be to seen to repeat the mistakes of 2002 with apparently political designations, and as a result Asian and African nations protested they were under-appointed. The political benefits of confederational neutrality are obvious - rewarding the confederations with referee appointments in the games they don't officiate in - as are the practical problems with such dogmaticism.
This was the second tournament of the trios principle (2006 was a huge success in that regard) and the last, as it noted for what happened in one game, without Goal-Line Technology. For the first World Cup in a long time, referees were encouraged to show less - not more - red cards, and it would not be wrong to say this was a nod to later SFP relativism at a FIFA level.
The last sentence shouldn't paint too negative a picture though. 2010, for being the last tournament before the revolution in (FIFA) Refereeing still prevalent, it will always arouse great memories for me personally. Almost definitely, we will never see another one like it.
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| Game-manager: Howard Webb from England |
I hope you enjoyed these analyses to accompany the extended highlights of the games in 2010 :)
Officials
(reserve trios noted in italics)
Asia:
Yūichi Nishimura - Tōru Sagara, Jeong Hae-sang (JPN, JPN, KOR)
Khalil Al-Ghamdi - Hassan Kamranifar, Saleh Al-Marzouqi (KSA, IRN, UAE)
Ravšan Ėrmatov - Rafael Iljasov, Bachadyr Kočkarov (UZB, UZB, KGY)
Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh - Mù Yùxīn, Jeffrey Goh (MAS, CHI, SIN)
Africa:
Koman Coulibaly - Rédouane Achik, Inácio Cândido (MLI, MAR, ANG)
Eddy Maillet - Evarist Menkouandé, Bechir Hassani (SEY, CMR, TUN)
Jerome Damon - Célestin Ntagungira, Enock Molefe (RSA, RWA, RSA)
North America:
Carlos Batres - Leonel Leal, Carlos Pastrana (GUA, CRC, HON)
Benito Archundia - Héctor Vergara, Marvin Torrentera (MEX, CAN, MEX)
Marco Rodríguez - José Luis Camargo, Alberto Morín (MEX)
Joel Aguilar - William Torres, Juan Zumba (SLV)
South America:
Héctor Baldassi - Ricardo Casas, Hernán Maidana (ARG)
Carlos Eugênio Simon - Altemir Hausmann, Roberto Braatz (BRA)
Pablo Pozo - Patricio Basualto, Francisco Mondría (CHI)
Óscar Ruiz - Abraham González, Humberto Clavijo (COL)
Jorge Larrionda - Pablo Fandiño, Mauricio Espinosa (URU)
Martín Vázquez - Carlos Pastorino, Miguel Nievas (URU)
Oceania:
Michael Hester - Jan-Hendrik Hintz, Tevita Makasini (NZL, NZL, TGA)
Peter O'Leary - Brent Best, Matthew Taro (NZL, NZL, SOL)
Europe:
Frank De Bleeckere - Peter Hermans, Walter Vromans (BEL)
Howard Webb - Darren Cann, Mike Mullarkey (ENG)
Stéphane Lannoy - Éric Dansault, Laurent Ugo (FRA)
Wolfgang Stark - Jan-Hendrik Salver, Mike Pickel (GER)
Viktor Kassai - Gábor Erős, Tibor Vámos (HUN)
Roberto Rosetti - Paolo Calcagno, Stefano Ayroldi (ITA)
Olegário Benquerença - José Cardinal, Bertino Miranda (POR)
Alberto Undiano Mallenco - Fermin Martínez Ibáñez, Juan Carlos Yuste Jiménez (ESP)
Massimo Busacca - Matthias Arnet, Francesco Buragina (SUI)
Martin Hansson - Henrik Andrén, Stefan Wittberg (SWE)
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