(The following blog appears on www.blog.kitbag.com, written by the Sidler)
And England have done it! They’ve made the World Cup final. What? Oh! It’s just our referee. Well at least we have the best something when it comes to football. Sorry, little bit of patriotism there and no doubt I’m clutching at straws.
But hang on, lets not take away the wonderful achievement of Howard Webb getting the honour of being the referee in the World Cup final and the first Englishman since Jack Taylor in 1974. Speaking of Jack, the great man has praised Webb and went as far to suggest that “he’s the best referee this country has ever produced”. Furthermore the man who awarded a penalty in the first minute of his world cup final added “He’s ready for this: he’s fit, his man-management is excellent.” Of course you’d find it difficult to argue with Jack, mainly because of his pedigree of refereeing, a little because you have to wonder why you’re arguing with an 80 year old man and lastly because Webb is clearly an excellent ref.
Ironically Webb had one of his worst seasons in the Premier League last year but so is life, he’s still taken charge of both the Champions League final and World Cup final, the first man ever to do so. Of the men he beat to officiate in the biggest game in world football the standard of officiating in the World Cup has generally been quite high. There has of course been the odd controversial moment, IT WAS OVER THE LINE (sorry), and the odd card happy ref, as in the Chile vs Switzerland match many moons ago, but we don’t expect our referees and linesmen to be perfect- well we do, but we know they’re not.
For me, two major issues come out of the tournament as far as refereeing is concerned. The first is obvious- video refereeing. I believe it is a must in some form, even if just for the goal-line, it would not undermine the referee – just help him make the right decision. If sports steeped in ridiculous amounts of old fashioned tradition like cricket and tennis can embrace video technology then so should football. The second issue is not so obvious but is just as important. The free movement of referees between leagues is very important to ensure that officiating is more consistent by allowing more referees to become professional, thus gaining more big match experience.
But here’s to Mr Webb and his team, make England proud by hardly being noticed in the World Cup final- after all, that’s what English football is all about.