Red Card Jorge Larrionda Knocked Out From World Cup
Just as the Big Bad Wolf paid the price by getting axed in the famous story about the Red Riding Hood, the Big Bad Jorge Larrionda has finally paid the price of bringing the game of football into disrepute!
Larrionda was among the four referees who were not selected for the quarter finals round and beyond by FIFA after they were found at the centre of embarrassing World Cup blunders, and were asked to pack their bags, in a literal sense. He was joined in this journey back home by Roberto Rosetti, the Italian official who allowed Carlos Tevez's header to stand, despite the Argentinean striker being offside against Mexico in the round 16 match.
Two more referees, Stephane Lannoy of France and Mali’s Koman Coulibaly also missed out on the 19-man list for missing the obvious. While the French referee missed the double handball of Brazil striker Luis Fabiano against Ivory Coast, Coulibaly disallowed Maurice Edu's late strike which could have helped United States achieve a win over Slovenia.
The three referees might have been first-timers when it comes to being careless, but this wasn’t the first such embarrassing moment in the life and times of Uruguay's Jorge Larrionda. For the referee from Uruguay has ‘been there, done that’ before! He's the same guy who was instrumental in France’s qualification into the final of the 2006 World Cup because he gave them a penalty in the semi final, and denied one to Portugal as the French beat them 1-0.
His real ‘claim to fame’ is his red card marathon World Cup match between Italy and the United States in 2006, in which he gave away as many as three red cards, including two to American players, and earned the nickname Red Card Larrionda.
Although he has been around for more than a decade and officiated in the high-voltage 2006 World Cup semi final between Portugal and France, he has never been on the favourite list of either the players or the officials. He has made countless controversial decisions during matches especially involving the United States, making his bias obvious.
He was also one of the very few referees to have been dropped from the list of World Cup officials. Just two days after his selection for the 2002 event, Larrionda was suspended for 6 months by the Uruguayan Football Association for "irregularities that were denounced by other referees", a charge that was not specified.
However when he was back, he was back to his ‘worst’. Not only did he disallow a goal by Colombia against Brazil in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers but also failed to see a goal where the ball penetrated the goal line, though replays indicated penetration by at least half a meter.
What one fails to understand is why the FIFA officials named him for 2010 World Cup, after his achievement in the last edition. During the Italy, US match he became only the fourth referee to send off three players in a single World Cup finals match, in addition to his four yellow cards.
Four years later, he was under criticism for not awarding a penalty kick to Serbia in their important match against Australia. Any other referee would have given the Europeans a penalty kick following the handball by Tim Cahill in the Australian penalty area. Then again, not every referee is like Larrionda.
The goal that never was would have put Serbia through to the next round, just as the one by Frank Lampard would have re-ignited the flame in the English forwards. Sadly, both the occasions were marred by poor refereeing and had FIFA been serious in having a great World Cup they would have reprimanded the official, not just asked him that his services were not required.
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