Ref hammered over penalty ‘scandal’

FURIOUS Croatia defender Dejan Lovren branded the penalty awarded against him during Brazil’s 3-1 win in the World Cup opener on Thursday a “scandal”, questioning the referee’s right to be officiating at the showpiece event. Unfancied Croatia took a shock lead when Marcelo put the ball into his own net early in the Group A match before Neymar levelled in front of a jubilant crowd in the Corinthians Arena.

But the European side were holding their own in the second half until Japanese ref Yuichi Nishimura pointed to the spot after Fred backed into Lovren and fell.

“I think this referee didn’t deserve to be here,” the Southampton player said.

“Two billion people, I think, saw that it was not a penalty. I didn’t touch him.

“I’m sad, that’s it, because we played a good match and the referee – it wasn’t a mistake, it was a scandal.”

Frustrated Croatia Niko Kovac said the

coach referee was “out of his depth” but his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Felipe Scolari was adamant that Nishimura was correct to award the spot kick, which was converted by Neymar to make the score 2-1.

Kovac branded the spot kick award “ridiculous”, adding that he blamed himself for not saying during Wednesday’s press conference that he would be “keeping a beady eye on the referee”.

He said world-class players needed a top-notch ref.

Kovac added that he felt his team had deserved at least a point, praising his players for their performance in front of passionate support for the home side.

He said he did not blame Fred for his tumble, even though he questioned the ease with which he fell to the turf.

“I cannot blame Fred because everybody tries to do that. This is part of the sport whether you like it or not.

“What I want is for the referees to stick to the laws of the game, applying them equally to both teams. The referee was well placed, he was not unsighted, he saw everything and he took that decision.”

Fifa chief Sepp Blatter on Wednesday called for managers to be given two challenges per match when they could check key refereeing decisions against video replays.

The suggestion, which came out of left field at the close of the Fifa congress, would mimic systems used in tennis and cricket and comes with goalline technology making its World Cup debut in Brazil. – AFP