The red blitzkrieg

By Eman Abdel-Moeti

"They are not applying the ban on tackles from behind," Blatter lashed out at the referees. "It's not up to them to decide how fouls should be interpreted. There have been tackles from behind so far that deserved red cards."

High on the list of ignored offences was an incident when Morocco's Said Chiba slid in with cleats high, ripping Brazilian star Ronaldo's shorts and leaving a gash on his left thigh. Russian referee Nikolai Levinkov did not even show the Moroccan a yellow card.

FIFA studies have shown that 66 per cent of severe injuries on the football pitch result from tackles from behind. Blatter championed a new ruling just before the start of this year's World Cup to ensure that tackles which "endanger the safety of an opponent" would automatically receive a red card. Videos of such tackles, especially those from behind, were shown to teams and referees before the start of the finals.

But in the first matches in France, the expected deluge of sendings-off did not come, until Blatter and Platini stepped in.

Last Thursday, two days after the criticism, referees dished out five red cards and 11 yellows in only two matches. In the game between South Africa and Denmark, South African midfielder Alfred Phiri was sent off for thrusting an elbow into the face of Danish defender Thomas Helveg. He was later banned for three matches. Danish striker Miklos Molnar received a two-match suspension, while defender Morten Wieghorst was also given a red card, despite South African striker Benny McCarthy's pleas to the Colombian referee not to send him off.

"He didn't even touch me but the referee still gave him a stupid red card," McCarthy said.

The other two sendings-off on Thursday were in the match between France and Saudi Arabia. France's playmaker Zinedine Zidane was sent off for treading on a Saudi opponent, while a Saudi defender was banned for one game for bringing down goal-bound Frenchman Bixente Lizarazu.

Although Blatter said he was happy that his message had got through, he thought some decisions, such as the sending-off of Danish defender Wieghorst, were "a little severe".

Platini, for his part, criticised the referees for sending off too many players, saying they had overdone it.

"There have been very dangerous tackles from behind that haven't been sanctioned," Platini, a former French football star, told the French Sports daily L'Equipe.

"And then there were red cards that sometimes were not justified. We went from one extreme to the other."

US team coach Steve Sampson also said, "[The referees] are going from one extreme to the other, and this puts players in a very difficult situation where they must now guess what the interpretation of the referee is going to be." He added: "We are perplexed, absolutely perplexed. There seems to be little consistency and this is why I have never been a proponent of making these kind of drastic changes in a world championship."

But David Elleray, one of the English premiership's top referees, blamed weak refereeing at the start of the tournament for the red card fiasco. "If the referees, from the start, had officiated as the Mexican referee did on Thursday night, a little tough but fair, much of the brutal play that we have seen would have been dealt with, and the recent sendings-off would not have happened," he said.

Players and coaches have urged FIFA to put an end to the refereeing confusion at the World Cup and stop unpredictable decisions ruining the tournament.

"In the first few games the referees let the games flow," said German coach Berti Vogts. "What has happened...? Perhaps Sepp Blatter has made a new ruling."

"If it continues like this, football could be ruined," said Danish defender Marc Rieper.

FIFA's outgoing President Joao Havelange and acting Secretary-General Michael Zen-Ruffinen, himself a former international referee, called an emergency meeting of the 34 referees at the finals to sort out the problem. "After some remarks they read in the press, the referees were a little bit unsure," said Zen-Ruffinen. "Dr Havelange said that they should distinguish between the technical aspect of the matches and the disciplinary side."

As a result of the meeting, he added, the refereeing at last Friday's matches had been "extremely good", particularly the Nigeria-Bulgaria encounter. Six yellow cards were dished out in the match but no player was sent off.

Before "Red Thursday", four players had been sent off in 20 matches, but that number suddenly rose to nine players in 22 matches. At the current rate, the record of 16 dismissals at the 1990 World Cup in Italy could be broken with less than half the competition completed.

FIFA insisted the dismissals were not a panic response to calls from Blatter and Platini to clamp down on violent play and especially tackles from behind.

"It means referees are becoming more serious and consistent in their application [of the rules] and care more about the protection of players at these World Cup finals," said Frank Bouzo, a senior member of FIFA's refereeing commission.

Bouzo added that although official match assessors had given one unnamed referee a mark as low as 6.4 out of 10, the average had been a good 8.1 and one referee had even received a 9.0.

Zen-Ruffinen said FIFA was very happy with the overall standard of refereeing so far and was sure that, on red and yellow cards, "the correct line is now the one that will be followed by the referees."

Football fans can only hope that over-officious officiation does not spoil what has so far been an exciting finals.