REFS SEE VIDEO REVIEW AS CAREER-SAVING TOOL
Possibility of bad call that could alter outcome of World Cup drastically reduced
Whereas Diego Maradona labelled his iconic opening goal against England in a 1986 World Cup quarter-final as the “Hand of God,” English fans remember it as “the hand of a cheat.”
Three decades later, former World Cup referee Howard Webb looks back on that famous World Cup moment through the lens of a video assistant referee ( VAR).
Video review will be used at this summer’s FIFA World Cup for the first time, ensuring “clear and obvious” errors won’t stand, regardless of whether, as Maradona once facetiously claimed, a deity is involved in the proceedings.
“The outcomes now are less down to chance,” Webb told Postmedia before the tournament kicks off in Moscow this week. “They will be much more in line with what the outcome should be. We can rectify mistakes in real time and come to better outcomes and fairer results.”
For example, Webb added, what might England’s fate have been in 2010 if video review would have been in effect when Frank Lampard was denied an equalizer in a Round of 16 meeting with Germany? Perhaps Ireland would have been in South Africa that summer if Thierry Henry’s handball would have been spotted by a VAR.
“Those were all clear errors that would have been able to be rectified,” Webb said.
The longtime Premier League referee references his own gaffe while in charge of the 2010 World Cup final, saying he was “lucky” his obvious error didn’t impact the outcome in Johannesburg.
Webb acknowledges he should have sent off Dutch midfielder Nigel de Jong for serious foul play when he essentially karate kicked Spain’s Xabi Alonso in the first half of that game.
“If the Netherlands had won that game, my career would have taken a different direction,” Webb said, adding the insertion of video review helps referees sleep better at night.
“I can’t emphasize that enough,” Webb said. “I’m pretty sure that whomever gets assigned to the final in Moscow, if you had a conversation with them the night before the World Cup final — the biggest game in the world, with a worldwide audience of maybe a billion people — and asked them what they prefer, I’m confident whomever that official is would say they like the idea of having a colleague sitting there watching every situation that’s not only going to impact the outcome of that game and that tournament, and also their career.”
Referees at this summer’s tournament will sleep easier knowing a VAR will review four key cases: goals, penalties, direct red cards and mistaken identity.
“I know referees who are remembered for one situation even though they’ve refereed 1,000 games in their careers,” Webb told Postmedia.
“If you speak to Graham Poll, an English referee who refereed the 2006 World Cup and did Croatia-Australia, and failed to recognize he’d shown Josip Simunic a yellow and allowed him to stay on the field, he tells me not one game goes by that somebody doesn’t make reference to that one mistake.”
While the implementation of video review doesn’t eliminate subjectivity, it produces something closer to consensus when it comes to referees making gamealtering decisions.
“This is a great piece of insurance,” Webb said. “It gives peace of mind and comfort knowing (a VAR) is there in the background and gives peace of mind in the game.”
Webb offers the example of an assistant referee previously keeping his flag down on a close offside decision prior to a goal being scored in a World Cup final.
“Sometimes there will be a mistake,” he says. “Imagine that’s the only goal of the World Cup final. You’re thinking back for 85 minutes, ‘I hope that’s OK, that decision. I hope it’s not a mistake. I hope it doesn’t impact the outcome of the game.’”
Now referees hear “check
complete” in their headsets if no “clear and obvious” error was identified.
“The chance of one of those really, highly controversial situations (happening) has been minimized really significantly,” Webb offered.
But not entirely.
As Webb reminds us, the onfield referee’s decision is the correct one in the absence of evidence to the contrary, meaning there undoubtedly will be plenty of debate at this summer’s tournament.
But the chances of another Hand of God moment have all but been snuffed out.