Football Association proud of Howard Webb’s outstanding performance
Referee Howard Webb was just like a star appearing in the final match of Spain versus Netherlands. The deteriorating state of the judgment by referees in the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa had raised the issue of the capabilities and responsibilities of the judges far too often which led to Webb’s appointment.
The English referee has been praised by the Football Association a lot after he refereed at the final between the Dutch and La Furia Roja. Spain won the match, courtesy Andres Iniesta’s last minute goal in the 2nd half of the extra time. Though the FA has appreciated his performance and FIFA has defended his decisions there were moments where Webb seemed to have lost it.
A major example of that would be the winning goal itself. Some players from the Dutch were appealing a call when the referee ignored them, the Spanish took advantage of that and drove in the Oranje half of the field to score the goal.
The match also saw many fouls with too many free kicks and yellow cards. On the whole there were 14 yellow cards handed out in the match by the 39 year old referee and two of them resulted in a red card for Everton’s defender John Heitinga who received it when he tackled Iniesta just outside the box.
Media, especially from Netherlands has lambasted against the referee as apparently most of the yellow cards were handed out to the Dutch players. However, in fairness, the Dutch were as a matter of fact plying a lot rougher than the Spanish. Nevertheless the skilful Dutch forward Arjen Robben and his coach Bert Van Marwijk along with the team are leading the attack against the referee.
Jonathan Hall who is the Director of Football Association’s on Professional Game Match advocated the referee expressing that the man had put up a great effort with magnificent results.
While talking to the media Hall announced, “Firstly, we would like to congratulate Howard Webb, Mike Mullarkey and Darren Cann for a wonderful tournament and a very well-handled final in very difficult circumstances. Nothing should take away from Howard's achievement and it is hard to imagine many other officials being able to match his performance or handle such a fixture so well”.
He also collaborated that the superior English system of refereeing was the reason behind the success. He added on the subject, “I think what this does do is strengthen our resolve to support our excellent network of referees in England and it also shows the real value of the work being undertaken by the Respect program domestically”.
FIFA has already told that this would be the last time the World Cup is occurring under the present state of referring. They have told that they are probably going to introduce the goal line technology and spin around some right and powers of referees. Hall told on the issue that though FIFA was happy with Webb’s judgement they had earlier decided to introduce the new rules, “We are all thoroughly proud of the fact FIFA chose to recognize Howard at the very peak of his profession”.
Chairman of Football Association’s, Referees’ Committee, David Elleray also praised Webb informing that he was very proud of his presence in the final match, he said, “Howard and his colleagues demonstrated why FIFA selected them as the best referee team in the 2010 World Cup and the FA is very proud that Howard, like Jack Taylor in 1974, showed impartiality, strength of character and a very high level of accuracy in the most important match in the world”.
He added, “Howard, Mike and Darren should look back on this tournament with a sense of pride in their performances, they are a huge credit to our profession and we are all looking forward to welcoming them home”.
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