In our world, introspection is king

'It's not a red card, it's an arrestable offence!'

Webb on De Jong horror tackleThe Netherlands international kicked Xabi Alonso in the chest during the 2010 World Cup final but was not sent off, and the referee has admitted that he made a mistake

Howard Webb admits that he should have sent off Netherlands midfielder Nigel De Jong after his kung-fu kick on Spain counterpart Xabi Alonso in the 2010 World Cup final.

Having been chosen to officiate the showpiece fixture, Webb showed the former Manchester City midfielder a yellow card after a recklessly high tackle on Alonso in the 28th minute of the fixture, which ended 1-0 after Andres Iniesta's extra-time strike.

Webb was subsequently booed when he collected his medal after the final whistle, and he has now conceded that he made a mistake in refusing to dismiss the Dutchman, but has suggested that he did not see the incident clearly enough to take such a decision.

Speaking to BT Sport, Webb said: “I still thought I got it right on the pitch. So I get back into the dressing room and my assistant referee has gone to his pocket and got his phone out, and his face dropped. ...

See the whole story here, courtesy of Goal.com.

Kicking Back Comments: Much has been made about the World Cup Final that Webb oversaw. Some great, some horrible. Here at Kicking Back we did an in depth analysis and contrasted it to an "A" licensed coaches analysis which proved very interesting, and not surprisingly the two entities see the game in the same was in many aspects, but have separate views on others.

This article reaffirmed an old axiom that is true among referees as well as in general for successful people in life in my opinion. Reflect and learn from your mistakes. Take what you can and implement it for next time. Webb obviously has done this.

The real trick is twofold in such cases however.

First, you have to keep going even in the face of a massive screw up. As we and many others have written, missing that send off started to unravel that match. Getting back on track to what got you there is critical in such a case.

Second, when you learn the lesson, you have to let the rest go. Hanging on to all the negative stuff that goes with such an incident is not a good thing and has the potential of dragging you back into that mindset.

Experience, reflect, learn, evolve.

Finally a good case for instant replay ...

Of course it is in Snooker =)



This does highlight however a great interaction between a player and a referee, and while a mistake was made, shows that everyone can have a sense of humor about it.

Somehow this has to be the referees fault. No?

Kicking Back Comments: Ouch. Take a look at the number of related videos too.

Here's one for you all however on a serious note. Does a referee use this later in the match if that player, or others, give a referee grief about a decision?

Fair game?

Schopenhauer’s Law of Entropy

This "law" states in relevant part:

“If you put a spoonful of sewage in a barrel full of wine, you get sewage.”

Sounds like what can happen to a match if the referee is not careful.

Take a look at Reviewing MLS Officiating in 2012 by Randy Vogt which goes through some of the decisions made by MLS referees over this 2012 season. While I don't always agree with his analysis, the overall point he makes gets closer to accurate, which reads:

"I understand that one game does not make a season but we’ll find out in the next couple of weeks if the high quality of that performance led to Geiger being assigned the MLS Cup Final."

If you look carefully, this statement is actually a contradiction, as a referees last match, especially at that level, certainly impacts their next. Said another way, one match can end a season. Just like one spoonful of sewage spoils a barrel of wine.

This is one of the sad truths of refereeing at the very highest levels, where one mistake, a single mistake, can close out an opportunity to do "the next game." Think about tournament play. Something happens to a referee in the "qualifying rounds" and they may get lucky to move forward. Anytime after that however, not likely. 

Don't believe me? Ask Koman Coulibaly.

Who? Yes. Exactly. FIFA still has him in their "witness protection program" more than (2) years later.

Trust me on this one too, as I have lived it.

Now, the further away one drifts from the highest level of The Game, the less likely mistakes of any type will adversely impact a career, as less experienced referees are expected to make mistakes as they learn. In fact I would opine they need to.

One sad fact is that the mistakes are generally all that is remembered. It was not the spectacular advantage a referee gave to allow the game winning goal. It was not the hair splitting offside decision to allow play to continue to force overtime. It is the "bad" call that cost the home team the game ... even if they were already down (3) goals in aggregate play. 

Randy's article does well to point out this fact as well as the (however anecdotal) statistic of 9::1 good to bad decisions. I actually believe it is much, much higher than that. Remember the decision to NOT call a foul is at time more critical than TO call a foul.

Long story short is that there is opportunity abound for someone to pour that spoonful of sewage into your match. Guard each jealously as to do otherwise invites more trouble than you need.

Don't Dig In

So here is an excellent lesson that I have learned in the past and was reminded of last night.

If you make a mistake, correct it, and move on.

From my post yesterday "Nice to see it happens everywhere, not just in MLS as some opine", while my underlying point was sound (it was an opinion), I made a second point based on fact that I screwed up on. (Special thanks to Ian for pointing out that MU WON their match 3 - 0, not lost as I had indicated, and again my apologies to Sir Alex.)

I screwed up, and instead of hiding it (real easy in the blogging world) I wanted to openly correct it. Same is true inside the field.

It is fairly easy to not correct a decision (like a throw in) and take it and go on from there. There are (2) reasons why IMHO this correction is critical:

1. It gets the underlying issue correct. For fundamental fairness this is critical. Clearly we are there to administer decisions inside the field the way they are supposed to go. Now I am not talking about making a judgement call, I am talking about the black and white decisions that we all have blown now and again. We need to get these right if at all possible.
2. It demonstrates to the players that we are human. As humans we make mistakes and it's okay to remind players and coaches of that too. Now that said, it is a fine line and one can not certainly go through a match apologizing, but if there is a genuine issue we should.

A note on mechanics here ... if we do reverse a decision (lets saw a throw in) we need to give the teams time to react to the change. As a referee, do not be a "12th man" by allowing a quick throw or kick to give an advantage to the initially wronged team. This restart needs to be ceremonial in nature and may incur additional wrath. It will however be no where near the wrath faced if we sit idly by and allow the mistake to stand in the first place.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke)