Who thinks that the ref's were unfair?
80438
Unfair isn't the right word. They were horrible and a disgrace to officiating everywhere. Anyone who had half a mind would know that.
1088832
i think ref lost his cool, some of the decisions were really childish it was not fair for both teams
1038615
Frankly, during the whole tournament, all referees have seemed biased. They favore the 'bigger' sides. I don't even know if that's wrong since they seem to be doing that so often. These people suck.
1062249
I certianly agree there have been some embarrasing performances or calls by the ref.  USA-ITA, USA-GHA, TUN-UKR, AUS-CRO, NED-POR, ITA-AUS are just some of them.  However, on the whole, the refs have been ok.  The bad calls receive more attention than the good ones for obvious reasons.  I think the main problem is FIFA's attitude coming into the tournament.  Yellow Cards are meant to let players know that their action was not acceptable, and if seen again they will be gone, and should be used after the Ref has already warned the player.  Red Cards are for extremely vicous fouls.  Of course, pk's and offsides will just be called wrong sometimes, and thats bound to happen, but hopefully the cards will be better next time around, I dont think theres anyway to save face this time.
617863
I agree with cooley.  The are not overall fixed.  However, by extending the series, companies can make money on broadcasting and advertisement.  Sometimes, I feel the refs are biased in their calls..but for the most part I don't think they are fixed.  I really feel the first round should go back to a 5 game series.
1163143
I agree i think that referee was payed or something cause i thought holland did a lot of dirty shit out there.\n\ngood luck.
1140773
WHAT?? \n\nthe ref was just an idiot! not looking where he shouldve .. both teams were completly out of control and that refs carreer is over. \n\nand to answer you quesion.. how many people would kick a man on the chest inside the box and not even get a yellow? ..it was a sad game to watch..
1070878
These refs seem to 'oversee' their importance in this WC. Following todays' games, their cards galore have gone from worse to.....is there another word after worse? If there is, that is where they are now. :-)
1028817
On Saturday, 2 of the 3 games I saw were absolutely ruined by the refs.  The Italy-USA game was, of course, the worst officiating of a game that I have seen since I took my niece to her little league match last year.  However, the game that nobody seemed to be paying much attention to (including the ref) was the Iran game.  I caught 2 fouls that could have drawn red cards that were completely ignored by the ref, including a cleat to the face that was lucky not to draw blood.\n\nAnd what about Togo on Monday???  That was absolutely a PK that didn't draw any notice AT ALL by the ref in the first half, when Togo was down 1-nil!\n\nBy and large, though, I've thought the officiating to be fair in all but a handful of instances, and think that FIFA is more responsible for the state of the games than the refs, with them begging the refs to throw more cards for simple fouls.
511351
Of course it was clearly a cheat. And what do you thinkin about the sending-off???? Cheat again.\nArsenal should have won that
993267
to hell with that!\nthe games all right but the refs are idiots\nthey dont know wuts goin on in the game\ni just hope that US wins the game!!!!
1023457
it wasn't fair what the ref did...I'm wondering where's the fair-play that FIFA is talking about?\nand yeah maybe the ref was payed to do what he did..
1132921
Yes definitely. There was no foul that I saw and the goal that resulted from the penalty kick changed the game completely. Had the referee made the right call the game would have played out differently. I agree with you about too may referees using bad judgement in making calls. It was a bad call that kept Mastrioni (?) and Pope out of the game vs. Ghana because of the match against Italy.
785859
Joe ~ \n         Hey, it's been a while. in my opinion, the worst/crooked referee in the game is Micky Vans, he mostly works the England fight scene. When Kosta Tszyu and Ricky Hatton were fighting it was obvious that Ricky was trying to keep Kosta on the ropes, he was using his head blatantly also his elbows came into play and he would grab Kosta with a open glove and pull him back to the ropes. When Tsyzu's corner complained Micky said "Don't ya be telling me how to do me job!" \n  Every time Micky refs a fight were it's a English fighter against some one that's not from England there is only one fighter in there that is going to be cautioned or have points taken away and it's not going to be the fighter from England.
1168841
I think the REF'S SUCK BALLZ. \nI hate when matches are decided by them. a couple teams got eliminated due to their zhitty calls.
1174347
Yes, it was unfair and it was cheating.  But no team, be it a club team or a national team, can claim the moral high ground when it comes to 'gamesmanship' or cheating.  Not all incidents of cheating are as high profile as the Italy one, but there are plenty I could name that have cost football teams/clubs dearly.\nThe onus should be on FIFA to bring in video refereeing technology to eliminate the possibility of teams being screwed over like this.  In an ideal world you would like the players to have some sense of morals and responsibility, and some do, but the gamesmanship will continue as long as people can get away with it.  It's a real shame for the team that get's screwed though (until they screw some other poor team themselves of course!).
1061678
Ive been disappointed with every ref's performance in this years world cup.  I understand that they are trying to make a stand for stupid dangerous tackles but they call fouls much too often.  The referee in that game made many mistakes with throwing cards around like confetti.  The other thing that seems to be really popular in this world cup is the diving.  Ive seen so many players go down before they are touched and the ref's need to be more aware of this.  I also noticed that some ref's in games are biased towards one country and this in unacceptable.