Should Fifa’s Referees Have to Explain Their Decisions?

Personally, growing up playing soccer since the age of 4 I fully expected every referee who made a decision to back that decision with an explanation. At that age all the way up through playing professional soccer, every referee I have ever dealt with was straight-faced after a call but still had the where with all to explain himself.

Whether the call was correct of not, I could still count on as captain being able to get some explanation out of it.

This is not the case however with FIFA referees. Despite being widely known as the best referees in the entire world we are still dealing with one factor we can never overlook: Human Error.

We are not dealing with replay in soccer, which is another topic for another day, and I’ll explain my thoughts on that later, but we are dealing with handful of pitch judges that seemingly get a jail out of free card.

This was a well seen and widely controversial image of this past World Cup where a goal was taken back by referee Koman Coulibaly. This call was the prime example that drew worldwide attention by disallowing a goal that would have given the United States a late lead against Slovenia on a Friday, and infuriated American players by not explaining his judgment.

After watching replay after replay, you saw by not only Americans but the rest of the world up in arms as it was a glimpse of what might happen to their country during the most important tournament in 4 years.

This call single-handedly could’ve costed the United States the entire tournament and ousted them in the first round rather than moving on. Fortunately for referee Coulibaly, that did not happen as I would’ve been scared for this guy’s life to be honest. People do not take calls like that lightly.

However, on a different note, I thought for the benefit of progressing soccer in America I thought it really helped us out. You got to see phenominal athletes of all different sports like Venus Williams among a few that were up in arms and vocally raising their voices on how incredibly irritated they were.

It’s great seeing other athletes backing U.S. Soccer and showing emotion towards it as well as visible enthusiasm and support.

So should Fifa be able to keep their get out of jail free card and not be subjected to explaining their decisions which could have drastic consequences that luckily the United States avoided? Well let’s get the discussion rolling because I really would like to hear your opinions.

Show me you’re alive. Don’t be bashful. Leave your comments below.

Cheers

-Matt Smith

Tags: fifa referee suspended, Fifa refs explaining decisions, World Cup Controversy