FIFA won't relax beleaguered officiating
(AP)
Updated: 2006-06-29 08:20 "Everything you look at in terms of fouls, yellow cards and red cards is
distorted," said Arena, whose team held the Italians to a 1-1 tie but then went
out in the first round after losing 2-1 to Ghana. "I have this belief that, if
you have good players, you don't tell them how to play. You obviously instruct
them and help them. If you have good refs, you don't tell them how to referee.
"These are supposed to be the best referees in the world. You bring them to
the World Cup and then you tell them how to call the game? It's ridiculous. And
it's been tremendously unfair. They've made a lot of bad decisions. They've cost
a lot of teams real opportunities.
"I'm afraid one of the legacies of this World Cup will be officiating," Arena
said. "And it's a shameful legacy; it shouldn't have come to this."
FIFA officials visited training sites of quarterfinal teams Wednesday to
explain the rules and regulations being followed by the referees, but some teams
weren't satisfied.
"I don't understand some situations when a player receives a yellow card,"
Ukraine coach Oleh Blokhin said. "I understand a card if a player cuts another
from behind, but I don't understand yellow cards for two players who bump into
each other. There is no logical reason for this.
"This is the reason this World cup has a record number of yellow cards,
because we don't have correct decisions."
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