29 BRACIV Lannoy

 

Brazil defeated Côte d'Ivoire by three goals to one in a brutal match, notorious for the sub-standard officiating of the French referee Stéphane Lannoy. Luis Fabiano clearly handled the ball on the way to his second goal, Elano who scored the third nearly had his leg broken (no foul given) and to call to the conclusion chaos - when the battle had already been lost and won - would be quite the understatement.

Lannoy simply was not the man for this cursed match. Analysis then of how it went so very, very wrong for the Frenchman in charge, starting with the two big errors he made. 

Key Match Incidents

50' - Handling before Brazil (2-0) goal?

I can actually see three reasons why this goal should not have stood. First, Luis Fabiano makes a back for Siaka Tiéné which could (should?) result in a defensive freekick. Then, the Brazil attacker handled the ball twice, first one impossible to see in real time, but the second was extremely blatant, but yet the goal was given.

How did Lannoy allow the goal then?

First thing to say is that if Lannoy had penalised Fabiano for the offence that allowed him to gain control of the ball, then he could have avoided the whole situation.

French referee seems to stand pondering the merits of that call for a split-second, which is what 'kills' him. He realises too late that Fabiano is going to make a dynamic run to goal, and he cannot really keep up with him. Caught behind, he is no position to assess the potential handling offence. 

You can see that here. If Lannoy had realised just a trifle sooner what Fabiano was very likely to do, and was standing say in the penalty area arc, then he would surely have seen the handball.

And doesn't Lannoy laugh with Fabiano, pointing to his chest?

Yes he does, which understandably caused outrage around the world. There is actually an interesting story as to why the referee does that, it is not an accident.

As a French person, not appointed to a match that evening, he watched the infamous France - Republic of Ireland playoff match live. Lannoy said he was disappointed that it was the referee Martin Hansson who received who bore the brunt of the world's fury for that handball (funnily enough, were it not for that mistake, he could well have been the UEFA support official not the Swede).

It was Thierry Henry who knowingly cheated the match officials. Lannoy then had an epiphany - Hansson was the idiot in that scenario, but if he publicly called Henry over and asked him "did you handle the ball?" and the cameras saw the player visibly lie to the referee, then the narrative would change in favour of the officials and against the player in question.

However, the way that the French referee put that into practice here - having a private not public conversation with Fabiano, and then laughing with him when he lies and says he used his chest not hand, was awful. It had the polar opposite of the desired effect. 

If eg. Pierluigi Collina did the same thing in a more public way, perhaps it could have been a success. But Lannoy here simply made himself look like a fool in front of the watching world, in a very avoidable way. Of his career, he says this is the mistake that hurts most - you can understand why. 

CRUCIAL MISTAKE

65' - Serious Foul Play by Cheick Tioté?

A disgusting foul by Tioté (RIP), absolutely shameful. Just because you get irritated at something trivial, that is never a pretence to take your frustration on your opponent in a way that seriously injures them. Elano did not play again in the tournament.

Lannoy rather scandalously points to the ball after the tackle. One can only draw the conclusion that he hasn't seen the tackle properly, and that is indeed the case.

But how? He is in a good position, isn't he?

Yes, Lannoy is quite well-positioned. Unfortunately for him, you can see Maicon runs in his way, and the Frenchman has to crane his neck around him to see the challenge.

So it was more difficult for him, but a World Cup-level referee should be able to use his experience there to reach the correct decision, or at the very, very least discern that there was an (at least) reckless foul.  

If I may hark back to Collina a second - this incident reminded me a lot of Cafú's tackle from the World Cup 2002 final. Italian referee showed why he is considered the best referee ever because despite being partly screened, he perceived exactly what happened there (even if he didn't take the correct decision). That is the difference at the highest level - Lannoy lacked that intuition.

A red card for Tioté wouldn't have made Elano recover any quicker, but the Côte d'Ivoire player escaping scot free here is really hard to take. 

CRUCIAL MISTAKE

Approach

Stéphane Lannoy faced a very challenging game to navigate through, and unfortunately he totally failed. Unlike Olegário Benquerença or Roberto Rosetti, Lannoy's approach failed to prevent the game turning from potential nightmare to nightmare, and ultimately to total carnage. 

The biggest problem Lannoy had in this match is that he did not arouse any respect from the players. Time and time again (15', 29', 31', 50', 53'; c.83') the players treated him in a contemptuous way. Of course, both teams will do whatever they can to get an edge in the match, but I had the feeling that the players were trying to not just influence but to bully the French referee, more-or-less for the sake of it. 

Any referee can control their decisions, but one's personality just is. In that regard, the criticism can only go to FIFA's appointment. But it is not like his decisions, even excluding the two crucial mistakes aforementioned, were faultless either.

Let's split the rest of the match into (as many as) five parts:

Opening

Decisions like advantage at 17' were a bit stupid, but warning at 29' before then a card at 31' was tactically proficient refereeing. He made the players were anxious with foul calls such as 12' though, and the way he solved what looked like a clear reckless striking foul at 43' a bit disastrous. That being said, he got to halftime essentially still intact.

Mid-part

Once the Côte d'Ivoire players decided that kicking Brazil players was equally, if not more important than trying to win the match after the second (or third) goal, Lannoy had a huge task on his hands to keep control until the end.

Again, I had the impression that the French referee did have the right idea (running often close to incidents in order to keep control, eg. 52') and trying to kill the game by lowering his tolerance level for contact (eg. 64'). 

The right idea - but simply executed poorly. He had perfect opportunities to draw a line in the sand at 53' and 74' with cards, but surprisingly, given one sensed he knew what very much could happen at the end if he didn't take action, he didn't take action.

Premonition

It all started to go wrong at 75'. Kader Keïta committed a simply nasty foul on Michel Bastos - regardless of the hitting point, Keïta should really have been sent off. Lannoy booked him, but keeping him on the field sent an important message to the players (unlike SFP on Elano, which bizarrely nobody was too fussed about).

At 76', Kaká gets annoyed at Yaya Touré briefly, and slightly pushes him with the play dead. Two players both embrace each other in a friendly way when they get up.

Despite that, with seven minutes to go, it seemed that somehow Lannoy had avoided a total disaster. He hadn't...

Brewing

Everyone is actually pretty calm at the start of this sequence of play in front of the two benches (83'). Cheick Tioté carelessly pushes Kaká, who Lannoy then warns - maybe to restart play quicker? (which is absolutely nonsensical by the Frenchman). At this point, he should be trying get on Kaká's side, Brazil's star player, not creating distance between them. This comes back to bite him on the arse.

When play is restarted from that freekick, things start getting very fractious. At this point, Lannoy should have disregarded any line that he had before and blow for fouls as soon as opposition players get even close to each other (I exaggerate but you know what I mean) - by not doing so, Kaká gets annoyed at the man trying to wind him up, Kader Keïta and pushes him.

Instead of getting Kaká on his side, a man whom if he keeps calm, referee might just about be able to get out of this unscathed, he decides to caution him, having pushed a player with the ball dead for a second time. I really cannot fathom how Lannoy thought this would be a remotely good idea. 

This only served to inflame the already furious Brazil team.

Carnage

At this point, Yaya Touré was actually doing a better job of officiating than Lannoy, whose caution to Chieck Tioté (who should have been long gone by this point) was on the right lines, but by now the Frenchman was simply not in charge of proceedings anymore.

Kader Keïta then commits a ridiculous foul on Robinho, with totally disproportionate force even if he did play the ball in a manner that apparently could be construed as fair. As Brazil get yet angrier, Lannoy gives a throw-in.

When play is restarted, French referee now (finally) invents a freekick, this time in favour of Côte d'Ivoire - but by now it is too late. Kader Keïta got what he was looking for, Kaká struck him, rather mildly in the chest. Keïta is down holding his face, all hell breaks loose, and Lannoy leaves it for his assistant referee Éric Dansault to sort it all out.

By now Lannoy has no choice if he wants to stay in control, but incredibly after all the brutal and unfair play of the Côte d'Ivoire players, it is Kaká who is shown the red card, for that strike on Keïta. Presumably it was Dansault or fourth official Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh who detected what Kaká did. 

Thankfully, the rest of the match was played to a conclusion without note.

Balance

I felt a bit sorry for Stéphane Lannoy. He can control his decisions, which were extremely poor on this evening, but he cannot become another person and change his personality and manner. Both sets of players tried to destroy him in this match - his appointment was a terribly short-sighted one.

Any referee would have been in trouble with this game, but Lannoy failed badly - not only did he make two glaring crucial mistakes, for me what condemns him more is that the safety of the players was compromised. These teams needed a strong presence on the pitch, and he simply wasn't that man - his performance was ultimately unacceptable.

Sorry for Lannoy, but not near as sorry for poor Elano - who was scandalously injured out of the competition having done nothing wrong. Brazilian cheat Luis Fabiano got away with it, but the Côte d'Ivoire attitude as a team was much more deplorable. They decided that if they were going to lose, they were going to take as many Brazil players down with them as they could - Elano wanted no trouble, neither did Kaká really. 

At the end of all that, this match left a very sour taste in the mouth indeed. 

As for the men helping supervise a ship that was rather sinking - I wouldn't blame Laurent Ugo too much for missing Fabiano's handling; Éric Dansault played a nice onside for the Ivory Coast goal, and he did very well to ensure the huge confrontation wasn't any worse than it was.

Stéphane Lannoy - 6,9 Éric Dansault - 8,5 Laurent Ugo - 8,4 Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh Mù Yùxīn FRA – MAS, CHN	Brazil 3-1 Côte d'Ivoire Group Stage 20 June
Kaká (85') - Persistent Infringement	Tiéné (31') - Tackle Keïta (75') - Tackle Tioté (86') - Tackle
Kaká (88') - Aggressive Behaviour