World Cup Referees

FIFA has named the 23 referees for the World Cup, to be held in Germany in June. In a sensible move, the assistant referees for each match will be selected from the same country or confederation as the referee. This will improve the understanding between officials and should lead to better decisions.

FIFA also announced that referees have been told to crack down on time-wasting, reckless play, shirt-pulling and diving. This sort of public pressure is bound to lead to poor decisions on the field; some referees will doubtless feel obliged to demonstrate how tough they are instead of using their own good judgement and common sense.

It's a sad indictment of FIFA if it cannot trust 23 hand-picked referees to do their job properly.