World Cup referees have got 96.75 per cent of their decisions right in 62 matches, the Fifa Referees Committee has revealed. Fifa arrived at the figure after a video analysis of all the matches prior to the third place play-off. The high-profile mistakes detailed in the review are: three out of the 139 goals scored were wrongly awarded, two out of the 15 goals disallowed were legal and five clear penalties weren’t awarded.
Jose Maria Garcia-Aranda, the chairman of the committee, has hailed the success rate of the on-field officials. But he wouldn’t be delighted by the blunders that are highlighted in the post-mortem.
It is an open secret that Frank Lampard’s goal against Germany in the round of 16 is one of the two legal goals to be disallowed. USA were the other team to suffer as a Malian referee chalked off Maurice Edu’s winner against Slovenia. Of the 45 penalties not awarded, five decisions were incorrect.
The referees allowed three goals that should never have stood. Luis Fabiano combined handball and football for his second goal against Ivory Coast in a Group G match. An Italian assistant referee failed to spot that Carlos Tevez was off-side by a country mile when he scored Argentina’s first goal against Mexico.
Wesley Sneijder’s strike against Uruguay in the semifinal, should have been disallowed for off-side.