Fifa owe NZ apology over playoff ref
Fifa owes New Zealand Football an explanation, in the wake of the contentious Intercontinental playoff with Costa Rica on Wednesday.
Their decision to appoint match officials who were relatively inexperienced and not fit for purpose was a huge mistake that had the worst possible consequences: a match laden with question marks, a bus load of disaffected players and plenty of controversy.
This is not about sporting injustice; that happens and is part of the unpredictability of football. This is about preventable blunders.
The referee, assistant referees and VAR officials were way out of their depth, and it showed, with an inconsistent and at times baffling performance that particularly infuriated New Zealand.
Aside from the decision to chalk off Chris Wood’s first-half goal, there were numerous other questionable moments, and referee Abdulla Hassan Mohamed gradually lost control of the match.
It’s possible to feel some sympathy, as this was easily the biggest game of his life. Most of Mohamed’s career has been in the United Arab Emirates, with some Asian Cup, Asian Champions League and Asian World Cup qualifying games.
But nothing like this. Aside from the Fifa World Cup itself, there are no bigger international matches this year than the two intercontinental playoffs, given what is at stake (especially as single-leg contests).
They’ve always been massive, which has been reflected in the referees involved always coming from Fifa’s top tier.
The 2013 series between Mexico and New Zealand had Hungarian Victor Kassai and German Felix Brych. Kassai had officiated the 2010 World Cup semifinal between Spain and Germany, then the 2011 Uefa Champions League final. Brych has refereed Champions League finals and the Europa League decider.
Four years later, Fifa appointed top United States whistler Mark Geiger to oversee the All Whites clash with Peru in Wellington, while Clement Turpin had the second leg in Lima. Turpin has refereed both the Champions League and Europa League finals and Geiger had plenty of big match experience.
But somehow for the Costa Rica showdown, Fifa abandoned the precedent of using elite whistlers and instead took a punt on Mohamed, which was always likely to end badly.
This is not loser’s lament. Three days before the match, the Herald wrote a story revealing the identity of the referee and pointing out the likelihood of negative flashpoints, given his limited background.
If a journalist can see that after a bit of research and historical nous, what was Fifa’s competitions department doing?
It seems wrong that such a game should be used as a tool for referee development, which is disrespectful to the players, staff and fans.
And then there is the head VAR official, Qatar’s Abdulla Al-Marri. His decision to intervene for Wood’s goal while ignoring several other serious incidents over the 90 minutes was perplexing and indicative of his experience (only three full international matches).
Al-Marri made the decision to refer Wood’s goal, twisting the usual definition of clear and obvious error, but ignored many other potential incidents.
It was all so unnecessary, if Fifa had stuck to their usual policy, and is particularly bitter for players such as Winston Reid and Wood.
There were no such issues for Australia or Peru on Tuesday, as they played under top European whistler Slavko Vincic, who took charge of the recent Europa League final.
There was no logical reason for Fifa’s about-turn; maybe a perceived need to involve officials from the Gulf states or Asian confederation, along with the host nation.
But there has never been more inexperienced officials involved in the intercontinental playoffs since 2006 and that rash move brought unfortunate outcomes.