Referees' tolerant approach applauded by Fifa

The light-touch approach of referees so far in the World Cup in South Africa, at least in comparison with previous tournaments, has been hailed by Fifa as a success.
The last World Cup, in Germany, featured a record number of yellow and red cards, 345 and 28 respectively, and Spanish soccer federation president Angel Maria Villa, who heads Fifa’s referees’ committee, has applauded the light touch on display this year.
He said: “I’ve congratulated the referees on their good performances. The three officials have been marvellous in all the matches. We are happy with the way the World Cup is going as far as my responsibilities go.”




The tone was set on the opening day when Ravshan Irmatov, of Uzbekistan, kept a cool head in a match boiling with emotion and allowed the players of South Africa and Mexico to blow off early steam without rushing to his cards.
In the France v Uruguay match, Japanese ref Yuichi Nishimura refused to be fooled by some early theatrics, letting robust but fair tackles go and using the advantage rule at every opportunity.
Of the four red cards shown so far, only that for Australia’s Tim Cahill was widely considered unfair, while Argentine ref Hector Baldassi did well to spot the blink-of-an-eye handball by Serbia’s Zdravko Kuzmanovic that gave Ghana their match-winning penalty.
Spokesman Nicolas Maingot said the officials’ performances were a return on long Fifa’s preparation.
“In general Fifa has invested a lot of effort into refereeing,” he said. “The referees here have prepared for many years, officiating together at various other Fifa competitions.
"They work in trios coming from the same country and Fifa has been very active in trying to improve the refereeing situation.”