Using fair play as a tiebreaker ‘not fair’
Former World Cup final referee Arnaldo Cezar Coelho disapproves of fair play as a tiebreaker at the tournament and thinks a corner count would be a better way of separating teams who finish level on points and goals.
Senegal became the first team in World Cup history to be eliminated on yellow cards after finishing level with Japan on points, goal difference and goals scored in Group H. The Africans picked up six yellow cards in their three games to Japan’s four. Fifa said it had no plans to change the rules.
Brazilian Coelho, who also criticised the use of video assistant referees (VAR) in incidents such as handball, said tiebreakers should be decided by objective criteria.
“The problem is that a yellow card is subjective and some referees tend to be stricter and give more yellow cards than others,” he said.
“Counting corners is a technical criteria. To win corners you have to attack, you have to play football.”
Japan’s final match, a 1-0 defeat by Poland, ended in a farce as they effectively stopped playing, thereby avoiding picking up bookings or red cards that would have jeopardised their second-place finish.
“They wouldn’t have done that if corners had been used,” Coelho said.
He said there was nothing match officials could do in such circumstances, speaking from experience as a linesman during the so-called “non-aggression” match between West Germany and Austria in 1982.
Germany’s 1-0 win sent the both teams through at the expense of Algeria after a soulless kick-about.
Coelho, the first non-European to referee a World Cup final when he officiated at the Italy-West Germany match in 1982, said VAR was a good idea in principle but its use should be restricted to objective decisions such as offside. –