Collina Reveals New Orders for World Cup Refs after Penalty Protests

Aleksandar Mitrovic and Harry Kane, if early matches of Serbia and England were replayed, would benefit from penalty claims turned down in their respective games against Switzerland and Tunisia.

World Cup referees were enabled, by the introduction of video assistance, to hit a 99.3pc ‘perfection rate’ according to FIFA refereeing Chairman Pierluigi Collina. But Collina has also indicated one particular flaw in officials’ initial orders, reports AIPS News.

This was not so much an issue of VAR but about what should, and should not, be permitted in terms of physical contact.

Mitrovic and Kane were both manhandled by defenders in those games without any support from referees Felix Brych of Germany and Colombian Wilmar Roldan.

England, happily, did defeat Tunisia 2-1 eventually but Serbia were left furious: the score in their game against Switzerland was 1-1 at the time of the incident and they ultimately lost 2-1 to a last-minute goal.

England and Serbia both raised queries about the incidents and Collina told a media briefing: “At a certain point of the group phase there were some incidents which disappeared.

“We had some holdings (of players) but in the following matches they either disappeared or, if they continued, were punished by the appropriate decisions and, if in the penalty area, a penalty kick.

“We noticed, intervened and fine-tuned. You were able to appreciate that something had changed.”

The issue of penalty box manmarking was the only note of negativity conceded by Collina among his paean of praise for VAR.

Collina reported the 3.4 average of cards per game as equal to major club competitions at domestic and international level and noted with satisfaction that only three red cards had been shown, two of those for double-yellows.