Anti-African officiation?

By Eman Abdel-Moeti

CAF Secretary-General Mustafa Fahmi said in a statement issued in France that refereeing errors had resulted in the elimination of Cameroon in the first round and also prevented Morocco from advancing to the second round.

Hungarian referee Laszlo Vagner cancelled a goal that would have put Cameroon 2-1 ahead of Chile, calling striker Patrick Mboma for pushing away a Chilean defender. While replays showed contact between Mboma and the Chilean defender, no clear foul was apparent. The 1-1 tie, coupled with Italy's 2-1 victory over Austria, saw Chile advancing behind Italy in Group B.

Also, American Essie Bharmast gave Norway a last minute penalty which allowed them to beat Brazil 2-1 in their final group match. The result sent Morocco, who needed Brazil to get at least a draw, packing their bags. Photos taken from the Norwegian television network NRK, however, showed Brazilian defender Junior Baiano clearly grabbing the jersey of Norway's Tore Andre Flo in the penalty area.

But Fahmi insisted that both decisions were highly questionable. "Faced with this situation, all of African soccer suffers from a profound unease: a feeling that her representatives are undesirables on the grandest stage of soccer on the planet," he said.

Two other African teams, South Africa and Tunisia, did not make it beyond the first round, leaving only Nigeria to carry Africa's torch. The "Super Eagles" were routed 4-1 by Denmark in their second round game last Sunday.

The sense of anti-African refereeing sparked off attacks by black fans on white-owned businesses in the Cameroonian capital Yaounde, and harsh words from the government.

David Will, a Scottish lawyer and chief of the FIFA referee office, however, defended World Cup referees on all fronts. Answering CAF's allegations, he said, "The referees are not in the slightest bit interested in the political situation. They are simply refereeing the game. They don't even know who the two teams are. They go from match to match and round to round."

Referees have been the target of criticism since the kick-off of the 1998 World Cup. They were first attacked by FIFA President Sepp Blatter and World Cup organiser Michel Platini for being too soft on players who tackled from behind. The criticism led to a blitz of five red cards in only two matches, although FIFA officials insisted that the referees were doing their job, and not acting in response to Blatter's criticism.

Will said the referees' performance had been better than at previous tournaments. He said that while the first round in the 1994 World Cup had fewer matches, four of them were unsatisfactorily refereed. France '98, which had more teams in the first round, had only witnessed three unsatisfactorily refereed matches, he added.

Will, who has been in FIFA's referee office for nine years, said overall officiating in the first 40 games had averaged 8.3 points out of 10, and that marks were getting better as the tournament progressed. Most games were graded between 8 and 9 by the officiating supervisors, he added.

"We remain satisfied with the performance of the referees," Will said. "The overall standard remains high, higher than in the United States, to be sure."

Meanwhile, Blatter, speaking on French television, firmly rejected calls to allow video replays to be used to resolve controversial decisions. "Football must keep its human face," he said. "You have to live with errors; that is part of the game."

Will agreed. "I cannot imagine that this would be an improvement for football," he said. "I do not want to create a situation where the referee is no more than a secretary on the field."

Commenting on the controversial decision that saw Norway beat Brazil 2-1 to earn a second-round berth, both Blatter and Will said that while a replay of the penalty called by the American referee did not show the Brazilian player grabbing his opponent's shirt, photos from the Norwegian network proved the referee's point as seen from his angle.

Although the FIFA president urged critics to stop picking on referees, saying they are not a "general problem," he acknowledged that the standard of refereeing must be improved. "We must have professional referees," Blatter said. "We must help the referees improve so they reach the level of the players."

Blatter's plea for professional and full-time referees was immediately welcomed by a top former FIFA referee, Keith Burge, who said officials would benefit from not having to juggle the demands of their jobs with refereeing. "I was on the international panel for nine years, and there is no doubt it would have helped if I had been professional," he said, "Travelling abroad is obviously very time consuming, and really you need the right kind of employer who will be understanding. Being professional would enable referees to train with their local league two or three times a week, and they would be able to build up a rapport with players."

But Will insisted that many of the top referees at France '98 were already virtually professionals. "The top international referees are more or less full-time" he said. "The day of full-time referees is almost here."