10 Terrible Refereeing Decisions That Changed World Cup Games
Let's hope VAR makes this World Cup a little fairer.
Yelling at the referee is as much a part of the football-watching experience as singing your team’s songs and cheering when a goal is scored. Refereeing isn't easy and it's only natural for mistakes to be made, but those errors are even more glaring when the whole world is watching.
At this summer’s World Cup, for the first time ever, VAR (video assistant referees) are set to be used in a bid to cut down the number of bad decisions. Some fans and analysts are still wary of this technology, but there are plenty of incidents from past World Cups where it would have been welcomed with open arms.
Referees are only human, after all, but the slightest mistake or lapse in concentration on their part can lead to major consequences, not just for the two teams on the pitch that day, but for the rest of the tournament at large.
The World Cup only comes along once every four years, and fans from all around the globe want to see fair games with correct calls, giving both teams a level playing field and ensuring that the best team truly does win. Sadly, it hasn’t always worked out that way.
10. USA Vs. Slovenia (2010)
The United States were one of 2010's surprise packages, managing to narrowly win Group C ahead of England. Both teams earned five points from their fixtures and had the same goal difference, but the US earned top spot due to their superior tally of goals scored.
They could, however, have won the group outright on points if this terrible decision hadn't stood. It occurred in the US' second group game against Slovenia. The match was tied 2-2 and the US had won a free kick in a promising position in the 85th minute. American legend Landon Donovan whipped in a great delivery and substitute Maurice Edu smashed it home, but the referee had blown his whistle just a fraction of a second earlier and the goal didn't stand.
On the replays, however, no fans or commentators could understand what the ref, Koman Coulibaly, had allegedly seen. If anything, replays showed lots of Slovenian players grappling their US counterparts and a penalty should probably have been awarded to the Americans. Koulibaly was not selected to referee another game at the tournament.