Read the opposing arguments from Babe Ruthless and Sports Geek.
There are two things that sports fans in America hate.
The first thing we hate is poor officiating. Blown calls by officials, especially at pivotal moments in high-profile matches, fall under the classification of intolerable by the American sports fan. As painful as it may be to lose justifiably at the hands of an opponent on the field, it is nonetheless acceptable. However, when victory is UNJUSTLY robbed thanks to the mistake of a trained professional who is supposed to PROTECT the integrity of the game, it is an outrage.
The second thing that American’s hate in sports (for the most part) is a boring game with no scoring and no resolution. To the average sports fan, offense equals points, and points are what equal excitement.
One of the biggest criticisms that sports fans in America have for soccer is the lack of scoring that takes place. For fans who enjoy seeing basketball scoreboards lit up with triple-digit figures in just 48 minutes of actual competition, a 90-minute marathon that ends in a 0-0 tie is just something that we as offense-crazed junkies simply cannot fathom.
What do you get when you put those two things together? The World Cup!
Now that more Americans than ever before are caught up with World Cup fever, the biggest story from the tournament has been the horrible officiating of the FIFA crews, wrongfully perpetuating low scores by disallowing perfectly legitimate goals.
It is no wonder that soccer is not more popular in the United States. Even the goals that ARE scored aren’t allowed to count! If this is the very best that soccer has to offer – artificially manufactured scores from a competition that fails to recognize and fully reward the best play – then maybe soccer is not as good as it is cracked up to be.
In a sport that is already criticized for having too little scoring you would think that the FIFA directors would want to do everything in their power to make sure that every possible point is LEGALLY put on the board, especially during the biggest tournament of any sport in the entire world. Instead, what we have learned is that they are actually content to let the on-field officials strip goals away on a whim.
Forgive my American egotism, but at least OUR sports organizations (the NFL, NBA, MLB, etc.) take active measures to ensure that the game is decided by the PLAYERS on the field as much as possible. I know I am just a dumb American who doesn’t understand soccer, but isn’t that why the game is played, to see which TEAM is better? Instead, the FIFA officiating crews have usurped the player’s right to play the game, and their opinions have determined the outcome far too many times.
And it is not like this is a rare occurrence that happens only once in a very great while.
The United States alone fell victim to two such instances within a five-day span, once versus Slovenia and the other against Algeria, both of which could have cost the American side the opportunity to make it out of its group. In both cases, the United States scored perfectly legitimate goals, but was not rewarded. Instead, the goals were not counted because some official simply SAID that a rule was broken. They couldn’t TELL you which rule was broken, there was no EVIDENCE of a broken rule, and review of the tape confirms that both goals SHOULD have counted. Still, the American side was not rewarded.
The U.S. was are not alone, either. Many nations have suffered injustice at the hands of this horribly mismanaged and poorly implemented system. Yesterday featured two MORE games that were both marred by game-changing blown calls.
While trailing 2-1 against the Germans, England scored a goal which would have tied the match. The ball hit the cross-bar, bounced INSIDE the goal (again, review of the tape CONFIRMS this fact), then was grabbed by the opposing goalkeeper and quickly kicked away. That goal was not counted, and Germany remained ahead on the scoreboard 2-1.
In the second match, the refs got it wrong the other way by actually allowing a goal that should not have been. Argentina scored a goal from a player who was BLATANTLY offside, but the officials counted it.
It seems like the only goals that count at the World Cup are the ones that are scored while VIOLATING rules.
In fairness to the World Cup officials, this is not a new problem in soccer. During World Cup qualifiers, for example, Ireland was eliminated from qualification thanks to a blown call by the officials. In that case, French striker Thierry Henry committed an intentional handball en route to assisting a game-winning goal that cost the Irish an opportunity to play in South Africa.
Once more, a team was cheated out of what they had rightfully earned, all at the hands of officials who perpetually get it wrong.
I don’t mean to diminish the role that the officials play on the field. With 22 different players running around, kicking each other and then theatrically flopping to the ground (there is an ad before the video starts… be patient, it’s worth it!) as though they had just broken every bone in their body, all hoping to draw a penalty, officials have a very difficult role to fill. Added to that responsibility is the fact that the entire world is literally judging their every decision.
Their task is not an enviable one, and I do not blame the individual officials for the problem that exists. Instead, I blame FIFA.
Those within the FIFA organization KNOW the kind of scrutiny that the games are subjected to, and they KNOW the difficulty that the officials have to fairly call a match, and yet they still send their crews out to the wolves, armed with nothing more than a whistle and two plastic cards.
I have written it before, and I will write it again – if the technology exists to support the officials in their mission to PROTECT the integrity of the game, then it MUST be used. Failure to do so results is willing permission of one of the greatest injustices that can occur in sports, which are supposed to be governed by the principles of FAIR play.
While the problem of poor officiating extends to all sports, the frequency and apparent tolerance of it at the World Cup has made a mockery out of what is supposed to be the greatest sporting event in the entire world.
Posted by Bleacher Fan 
