2010 World Cup: Howard Webb satisfied with ‘tough job’
It might not be essential, but it certainly helps for a referee to possess a masochistic personality.
This summer, English ref Howard Webb became the first match official to take charge of the Champions League Final and the World Cup Final in the same season, and the first referee from England to take charge of the biggest game in world football since Jack Taylor in 1974.
In a game of such high intensity, it’s inevitable that there will be some bad feeling towards the man in the middle from the losing side. Yet, the backlash that Webb has had to deal with from those in the Netherlands has been somewhat extreme.
The 39-year-old Rotherham-born referee issued a record 14 cards in last Sunday’s final between Spain and the Netherlands. Each of them deserved - none of them harsh. If anything, Webb could have been accused of being a bit too lenient.
The Dutch set their stall out to kick Spain, in a cynical bid to stop their opponents playing their customary brand of “tika-taka” football. Although Jonny Heitinger was sent-off for the Oranje in the second half of extra-time, Bert van Marwijk’s side could count themselves lucky not to be down to nine or even eight players at the final whistle.
Most teams or supporters looking for a scapegoat at the end of a football match will, more often than not, pinpoint the referee. This was the case on Sunday night in Johannesburg.
The Netherlands’ supporters booed and jeered the match officials as they collected their medals, Van Marwijk had a showdown with Webb after full-time and Wesley Sneijder had the audacity to brand the English referee “a disgrace”. It was hardly a good indictment on Fifa’s Fair Play campaign.
As the dust settles on the 2010 World Cup finals, Webb and his assistants, Darren Cann and Mike Mullarkey, are now back on home soil and have finally had a chance to reflect on their performance at the Soccer City Stadium last Sunday.
Despite coming under fierce criticism, Webb felt him and his team had done the best possible job in tricky circumstances.
“It was an extremely challenging match to handle,” Webb said. “But it would have been so for any referee. It is one of the toughest games we will ever be involved in and we feel that we worked hard to keep the focus on the football as much as possible.
“Whatever the match, you always hope that the officials won’t need to be heavily involved. However, we had to raise our profile in order to keep control.
“We don’t feel that we had much choice except to manage the game in the way we did and we came away feeling satisfied that we’d done a tough job in difficult circumstances to the best of our abilities.”
The statement was sanctioned by the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL), the elite referees’ governing body along with the Premier League, in a bid to cool the fallout from last weekend’s World Cup Final, which Spain eventually won 1-0.
Some of the comments hurled towards Webb would have been difficult to take for the man who dedicates so much time and effort to his profession, and has arguably been the best referee in England for several years now.
The PGMOL’s general manager and former referee, Mike Riley, was also quick to defend the Select Group match official, and made it clear that he believed the players were to solely to blame for the most ill-disciplined World Cup Final ever.
“The final was, without doubt, one of the most difficult games Howard will have ever refereed,” Riley said. “On far too many occasions the players showed little respect for the laws of the game and showed scant regard for the spirit of the game.
“In spite of these challenges, Howard and his team performed superbly, showing great resolve and courage in dealing with the many incidents in the game.”
Before the World Cup Final, Webb had spoken in various interviews of how he hoped the match would pass smoothly and that the post-match talk would focus on the two teams involved – not the match officials.
Unfortunately, this hasn’t been the case. As a result of the players’ petulance – particularly those of the Netherlands – they didn’t just spoil the 2010 World Cup Final for themselves, but also for three hard-working match officials who’d dreamt of taking charge of the biggest game in world football.
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