The quality of refereeing at the World Cup had been a source of relief until Friday, when referee Koman Coulibaly disallowed a perfectly legitimate goal by the United States that would have given it an all-important win over Slovenia. Worse still, Coulibaly never had to account for his terrible decision, or explain it to anyone — not to the players and coaches on the pitch and not to the public at large.
Referee decisions in football, no matter how egregiously erroneous, are incontestable and immutable. Football fans the world over will always remember the outrageous error that awarded France the decisive goal against Ireland to qualify for the tournament, despite obvious handball by French superstar Thierry Henry.
A concerted effort to reform football refereeing is urgently needed. Refereeing errors increasingly mar the game on all levels — country and club, major and minor leagues, globally televised tournaments and matches, and local games alike. Since such errors have major implications for the outcome of key tournaments that define this most global of sports, their ubiquity and frequency jeopardize the game’s very integrity and thus its essential legitimacy. Such episodes, after all, are increasingly part of the public domain, given that new media have rendered the game even more global than ever.
What makes this issue so central to football’s future is that these errors do not result from referees’ negligence, inattentiveness or incompetence. Rather, they reflect the game’s speed, its players’ athletic skill, the size of the playing surface and a puzzling resistance by the game’s leading authorities to adapt 19th-century rules to 21st-century resources.
First, there is a need for video evidence. This would literally provide the game-changer in those key situations that decide a match, such as an unjustifiably denied goal, an erroneous red card, or an egregious offside call.
The game’s authorities could establish a sort of “überofficial,” who surveys video monitors, immediately overrules blatantly wrong calls and directly communicates this decision to the referee and linesmen on the field. Alternatively, each team could be given the opportunity to challenge up to two referee decisions per game, employing video replays to review rules infractions and settle disputed calls.
Second, we need to make use of the perfectly functioning electronic chip already inside the ball to settle decisively whether a ball has crossed the field’s boundaries or its all-important goal lines. Consider how an essentially equivalent technology has successfully reduced line-related controversies in major tennis tournaments.
Third, serious consideration should be given to introducing a second referee, so that each referee would be given responsibility for one half of the huge playing field. After all, the NBA uses three referees on a playing surface one-ninth the size of a football field.
Finally, the culture of secrecy and nonaccountability that permeates soccer’s major governing bodies such as FIFA and the various country federations needs to be changed. No other major team sport tolerates the arrogance of governing bodies who feel no responsibility to explain their actions.
Above all, referees must be accountable for their decisions. They must not be permitted to decide games of utmost importance in an arbitrary manner that need never be explained to anyone. ?
Many of these overdue reforms have long been promoted by leading football experts, such as the Dutch world-class striker Marco van Basten and the former FIFA referee Markus Merk of Germany. A majority of football fans around the world also supports decisive reforms that easily minimize refereeing errors. Many of them have become increasingly alienated by football’s old ruling regime and the conservative authorities that guard it.
Of course, we are fully aware that human error will never be eliminated from any sport. Nor should it be. Indeed, we actually believe that the “we wuz robbed” dimension of all sports adds to their lore and legend. But those responsible for a global product on the scale of football surely must act boldly to minimize the most egregious and avoidable errors, and thereby preserve the game’s integrity.
Andrei S. Markovits and Lars Rensmann, co-authors of “Gaming the World: How Sports Are Reshaping Global Politics and Culture,” are professors of political science at the University of Michigan. © Project Syndicate