Goonersworld

I've been reading/listening/watching the articles in the press recently regarding certain refereeing decisions which have proved pivotal, crucial or decisive to several matches in the competition thus far, and I'm quite disappointed that Howard Webb was singled out by the Polish PM who said:
"As the prime minister I have to be balanced and collected. But last night I was speaking very differently about the whole thing, I wanted to kill..."

Surely that is not acceptable for a person in such an important position to come out and say such a thing.
(Gordon Brown probably wants to kill Tony Blair for leaving him with a collapsing economy on his hands but, you'd never expect him to say it in public.)

Now, although it cost Poland the victory it did not come at the expense of their participation in the tournament. So why is there a witch-hunt? It was reported on SkySports News today that he has to have security due to death threats!!!

I wonder if the Greek PM is putting a price on the ref's head for allowing Russia's goal to stand, and the public burning his effigy? Especially when you consider that decision effectively put them out of the tournament?

Or, will the Italian Mafia order a hit on the ref who allowed Holland's first goal in their 3-0 defeat?

What are you guys' opinions on Webb's decision and the reaction to his decision?
And also the level of refereeing in the competition as a whole?

Did the Polish PM say it in English or Polish? I fear it may have been lost in translation.

For personal reasons I thought Webb was wrong, he cost me a lot of money. Yeah it was a penalty but how many other times did it happen during the game and no pen was given? Rather a few times. I think Webb was trying to give UEFA a little rub and a nudge like 'oi, final?'. I feel he was trying to make an example of the situation and he failed gloriously.

Some of the reffing has been weird, the Holland goal for example. The ref in the Sweden/Spain game yesterday was horrific, he was giving cheap fouls for Spain and none for Sweden. I can't think though that it's been bad though for me it's been pretty good.

Clear penalty, correct decision from Webb, especially when he had warned the players moments before.

The comments by Polish PM, if reported correctly, are not accetable. If our PM, who ever it was, said anything simular, there would be calls for him/her to resign.

I dont understand why the refs are not giving yellow cards for diving. They clearly see the dive and then just wave play on.

decision right or wrong, and regardless of the consequences, If the comments were found to be true, and not just paper talk ect, or indeed a miss translation, then i think uefa should do something about it, and i would calls for them to miss future tournaments ect. especially if like sky reported that webbs needed 24hour guards and things.

Politicians have ruined enough without getting involved in football!!

gzagee wrote:Surely that is not acceptable for a person in such an important position to come out and say such a thing.
(Gordon Brown probably wants to kill Tony Blair for leaving him with a collapsing economy on his hands but, you'd never expect him to say it in public.)

Off topic I'm not sure that GB can complain about the economy seeing as he was in charge of it when Blair was PM.

As far as the refs go they have been somewhat erratic, particularly the linesman.
That geezer with the white hair was pretty good today. The one who reffed the Czech Republic game.
He looks like an arrogant t**t but he got most of his decisions right.

There have been like 4 or 5 disallowed or allowed offsides that have wrongly resulted in goals being scored or not scored already...

At this level that sort of officiating is unacceptable. The first goal from Holland against Italy and the disallowed goal for Italy have really hurt them.

Fabregas was clearly off on his goal...

I can't remember off hand exactly what the others were, but the standard has been poor in my opinion on off-sides calls.

Howard Webb was right. It's about time a referee stood up to the constant shirt pulling that defenders do on attackers in the penalty area. As for the Holland goal against Italy, the officials were correct. Panucci left the pitch without the ref's permission so he was playing Van Nistelrooy onside. Otherwise players would just leave the pitch and stand behind the goal to play offside and you can't have that.

i'm playing football for 16 years, and when there is corner kick you can stand still in the box, you must make the space and so defender must stop you to create this space and there is a lot of pushing, hitting, grabing shirts and that's normal!!!
that can be penalty because that's not football anymore, it's ballet than!! imagine that players are standing still in the box!?! that's impossible!!!
that wasn't penalty!!!

agree with niko, it was never a penalty

last i heard it was a contact sport