Howard Webb Defends Refereeing Performance in Final
English referee Howard Webb, who officiated Sunday’s final between the Netherlands and Spain, has defended his performance in the most physical FIFA World Cup final to date.
Webb, who was assisted by Darren Cann and Michael Mullarkey in the final game, has received extensive criticism, not least from the Dutch, for his performance during the final.
A total of 14 yellow cards were shown in Sunday's final, 8 of which went to the Netherlands. Two of them, were awarded to Dutch defender Johnny Heitinga, which resulted in a red card.
As Webb and his team collected their medals after their game, deafening boos were heard from the Dutch fans.
The Netherlands’ manager Bert van Marwijk joined in on the criticism in the post-game press conference, claiming that Webb had failed to control the game and had even refereed it in Spain’s favour.
At the final whistle, Dutch players Mark van Bommel, Wesley Sneijder and Joris Mathijsen gathered around Webb to voice their anger over some of his decisions.
Upon returning to England on Tuesday, Webb defended his team’s performance, arguing that the hotly contested game was always going to be difficult to officiate.
"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," he said in a statement released through the English Premier League.
"We tried to apply some common sense officiating given the magnitude of the occasion for both sides - advising players early on for some of their tackling, sending players away when they were surrounding the officials, and speaking to their senior colleagues to try to calm them down,” added Webb, who is now the 4th Englishman to have refereed a World Cup final.
The final contained several fouls that gave Webb no option but to issue cards.
His first intervention came 3 minutes into the game, when Dutch forward Robin van Persie narrowly escaped a booking for a late foul from behind on Spain’s Sergio Busquets.
Having avoided handing out a yellow card as his first action in the game, an action that could have instilled an even more malicious mood, Webb had no choide but to book Van Persie and Van Bommel after 15 minutes for their respective fouls on Joan Capdevila and Carlos Puyol.
Some players were lucky to have gotten away with yellow cards. Nigel de Jong landed a studded kick into Spanish midfielder Xavi Alonso’s chest during the first half, an action that could and should have led to De Jong's dismissal from the match.
“It was a tight game,” said Alonso after his side emerged victorious from the final. "But that challenge was really hard. It was one of the most painful tackles in my life and it was hard to play on,” he added.
While Webb could have decided differently on defender Puyol’s tugging on Arjen Robben when the Dutch forward broke free after 83 minutes, it was a very close call. Robben was furious at the missed free kick and he probably lost the decision by staying on his feet and trying to round Spanish keeper Iker Casillas rather than going down from the challenge.
Outside of the Netherlands, many will agree that Webb did well to contain the final from erupting. Several World Cup matches have been more fiercely contested.
The 2006 round of 16 encounter between Portugal and the Netherlands, for instance, produced no less than 4 red and 16 yellow cards.
Webb Defends Refereeing Performance in Final
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