The average salary for referees in Europe is $124,000 US and this tournament is "supposed" to be the best of the best, not the average. I believe the referees are being paid a flat rate of $85,000 US for the tournament. The issue is the inclusion of referees from several countries outside Europe who simply aren't equipped for this stage. The Japanese crew for the opener and Colombian crew for Mexico-Cameroon were simply terrible.
I think we're on the same page, unless you think I believe Europe is a 3rd world country
and I believe the ref that was sent packing in a recent tournament was from South America
It's just "the best of the best" from every confederation, so instead of likely better qualified referees who officiate f.e. Premier League & campions league games regularly, there are some African referees (amongst others) with little to no experience at that level of play. Not only is there a difference attendance-wise between a world cup game & f.e. a game in the African qualifiers, but more importantly the pace of play is way quicker and therefore harder to officiate.
But as long as the FIFA insists on the same selection principle like they have for the teams (divided in confederations), they pretty much accept/ask for bad officiating. There would still be lots of questionable calls, but probably less.
Imo you refer to Coulibaly, the ref that disallowed the goal in the 2010 world cup, that would have been the game-winner for the US team. Guy was from Mali and horrible, didn't get another game afterwards (only acted as the 4th official) and was send packing after group stage.
hno:
yup a good call by the ref. credit when its due
