Larrionda & Rosetti axed from World Cup
Reuters - Tuesday 29 June 2010, 17:10
JOHANNESBURG
- The referees at the centre
of controversy in the Germany v England and Argentina v Mexico
second round matches have not been retained for the remainder of
the tournament, FIFA said in a statement on Tuesday.
Uruguayan Jorge Larrionda, who
refused to award a clear
England goal, and Italian Roberto Rosetti, who allowed an
offside Argentina goal to stand, were the two most high profile
names to leave the tournament from the quarter-finals onwards.
England thought they had equalised
against Germany in the
second round on Sunday when Frank Lampard's first-half lob
clearly crossed the line but Larrionda waved play on.
England were to lose 4-1 but at
the time of the disallowed
goal were 2-1 down, while Mexico were drawing 0-0 before Carlos
Tevez's headed goal stood although he was clearly offside.
Argentina won 3-1 and Tevez went
on to score twice in Sunday
night's game.
STUBBORN OPPONENT
On Tuesday, FIFA president Sepp
Blatter, who has been a
stubborn opponent of technology for years, said he had been
forced to reopen the debate for its use.
"It is obvious that after the
experiences so far at this
World Cup it would be a nonsense not to reopen the file on
goalline technology," Blatter said at a briefing with selected
media on Tuesday.
"I deplore
it when you see the evident referees' mistakes.
They were not five-star games for referees," he added.
Last week Larrionda also came
under fire from Serbia coach
Radomir Antic, whose side bowed out of the tournament in the
group stages.
"This is not a
dark day for Serbian football, it was the
referee and his assistants who had a dark day and their poor
decisions put us to the sword," he said after the 2-1 defeat to
Australia in which two Serbian efforts were disallowed.
Also on Tuesday, English referee
Howard Webb said he was
happy for technology to come into the game.
"I am open-minded for anything
that would make us more
credible," he told reporters in Pretoria.
Prior to the tournament Rosetti
had courted very little
controversy but in the group stages he sent off Australia's
Harry Kewell for handball against Ghana in a 1-1 draw, prompting
the player to say: "The guy's killed my World Cup."
Australia went out at the group
stage.
Out of 29 referees
who began the World Cup on June 11, 19
now remain.
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