FIFA Steps Up by Making Refs Step Out

PRETORIA, South Africa -- In the wake of what the Western world judged in the World Cup to be the most egregious job of sports officiating it witnessed in the history of the 19 days since baseball umpire Jim Joyce blew Armando Gallaraga's perfect game, an amazing thing happened Monday morning at a high-school soccer pitch on the northern edge of the Johannesburg-Pretoria megalopolis: the World Cup referees were exposed to the World Cup media. Again.

We got to watch them hone their skills in workouts they go through, according to a FIFA (the international soccer governing body) official, several times a week. It was nothing to write home about, though I have.

We got to watch their bosses grade their practice calls on video. It was more show than substance.

We got to spend half an hour chatting with any of them we wished about everything except, on orders of FIFA, the controversial calls they or their brethren made since this tournament commenced 10 days ago. That was worthwhile, nonetheless.

"We don't talk about [Koman] Coulibaly," Inacio Candido, who introduced himself to me as Manuel, said quietly and with a gentle smile when I asked him about the Malian referee who nullified the U.S.'s potential game-winning goal against Slovenia.

Candido, an Angolan, was one of Coulibaly's two assistants for the U.S. game. Coulibaly wasn't in attendance after serving as an alternate for a match the day before. Only the referees and assistants who already had a day off were required to be at Monday's workout and exposed to cross-examination, tailored though it was. Stephane Lannoy from France, who on Sunday missed Luis Fabiano's hand ball in Brazil's 3-1 win over Ivory Coast, and disqualified Fabiano's teammate Kaka, was not in attendance, either. Convenient? Of course.

Coulibaly also won't be part of the referees that handle matches on Tuesday and Wednesday. His name was left off the list released Monday.
FanHouse on the Call

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• Koman Coulibaly Will Not Ref
• Bob Bradley: 'It's a Good Goal'
• Worse? Coulibaly vs. Joyce
• US Should Look Within
• Player Reactions to the Call
• Video: The Blown Call
A lot of hay will be made about Coulibaly's conspicuous absence as this oh-so important tournament continues, particularly by soccer know-it-alls in the 50 states who tune in for a few games every four years. But what FIFA did in announcing its Round of 16 referees was no different than what it does every World Cup. It did what the NFL does before the playoffs start -- grade its officials and discard those that performed the worse.

Coulibaly earned his red card. FIFA should have earned some respect.

By availing his game referees to the media for a second time this World Cup, FIFA boss Sepp Blatter demonstrated at least a modicum of transparency that his counterparts in the U.S., who run our most-popular sports, all but refuse to demonstrate.

I don't recall David Stern, Roger Goodell or Bud Selig inviting us to an afternoon with its game officials, referees and umpires. I don't remember getting a chance to see NFL referees, NBA officials, or MLB umpires put through their paces.

I don't recall any of our leagues sending out a release stating, as FIFA did before the World Cup kicked off, that any of their officials were being defrocked because they didn't pass fitness muster. If that was the case, we wouldn't witness some of the bellies we do on college basketball and football referees and a few of Selig's men on base.

I don't recall any World Cup coaches or players being fined or suspended by FIFA because of criticism they dared drop on FIFA's referees in these highly emotional contests.

FIFA appears to operate more like a democracy than a dictatorship.

Blackistone in S.A.

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National Columnist Kevin Blackistone is on the scene in the home of World Cup 2010.
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FIFA intended on having 30 referees and their two assistants (the guys on the sidelines with the flags) from 28 countries handle this World Cup at a pay of $50,000 each. It wound up with just 29 after telling the Algerian trio it was too out of shape. When is someone going to tell that to college basketball official ... oh, never mind.

Henrik Andren, a referee assistant from Sweden, said he worked since his first FIFA game in 2003 to get this far. Now at 42, this will be his first and last World Cup. FIFA has an age limit for its international games of 45.

It is a good thing for the NBA's senior ref Dick Bavetta that FIFA doesn't write his paycheck. He's 71 running up and down the court with young men who could be his great-great grandchildren.

The FIFA boss of referees Jose-Marcia Garcia-Aranda said he expected his troops "to try to implement the laws of the game but not to explain every single situation" because he didn't want them to lose focus of the game. He refused to talk about individual calls by FIFA's referees, echoing something we hear in the U.S. all the time.

We did get to hear from an emotionally contrite Joyce after his error in judgment. We probably won't hear from Coulibably, but there hasn't been any admission of error from him or anyone connected with FIFA, either. He made his call, or missed it.

"Some of them are not good decisions on the field of play, and this for human beings is natural," said Garcia-Aranda. He said he was satisfied with the performance of his referees even though some of the referees made calls that may have been incorrect. That happens in sports.

"We are all friends," Andren admitted to me looking around the field at his comrades from elsewhere in Europe, Africa and the Americas. "I feel if someone has a bad game. I'm like, 'Oh, come on,' (putting his arm around me to demonstrate how he tries to pick up his colleague's spirit.)"

Soccer moved on even if legions of Easter Sunday soccer fans in the U.S. haven't.

The hegemonic arrogance that we impose on everyone else never ceases to amaze. Major oil-producing countries like Norway and Brazil require acoustic triggers on offshore rigs, but we don't. Result? Catastrophe in the Gulf.

Now we demand that the rest of the world run its favorite sport, watched by 715 million people on its final day, like we do our Super Bowl, watched by just one-sixth as many people. It's our leagues that could stand to steal this page.