Football / World Cup USA '94: Fifa defends refereeing standards

FIFA yesterday defended the refereeing at the World Cup, but admitted that its clampdown on foul play had encountered a number of problems in some of the later second-round matches.

As football's governing body cut the roster of referees who will officiate the rest of the World Cup to just nine - one of them being England's Philip Don - Guido Tognoni, Fifa's senior spokesman, said: 'Basically we are pleased. A lot of the bad old habits have been cut out. We were very happy after the first round. But admittedly the last few games have shown one or two problems.

'There were too many yellow cards in the Mexico-Bulgaria game, where the referee (Jamal Al-Sharif) showed some early and then had to stick to his standards. It was puzzling in the Italy game that (Gianfranco) Zola was sent off yet a few minutes later (Paolo) Maldini stayed on.

'We have to accept that even the best can make mistakes. (Kurt) Rothlisberger (the Swiss official who infuriated Belgium) is one of our most highly regarded referees but he had to put his hands up to a mistake, that's why he has gone home. Now we have made the cut, you can see the referees we regard as the best.'

Fifa claims its clampdown has almost eradicated violent play, increasing open play to more than 60 minutes per match and Tognoni defended the policy of picking referees from every country.

'In an ideal world you would have your referees from all the established countries, the likes of England, Germany, France, Italy, Argentina, Brazil,' he said. 'But one of the philosophies of the World Cup is to spread football around the world and that applies to referees as much as teams. That can make it difficult to get a general standard.'

Argentina's coach, Alfio Basile, yesterday offered to resign. 'Our hopes were set on bringing the title home. I live here and know that in Argentina it's no good being second best,' Basile said after arriving home from the United States. The management team are expected to step down and River Plate's coach and the 1978 World Cup-winning captain, Daniel Passarella, is Basile's most likely successor.

Tab Ramos, whose skull was fractured by the elbow of Brazil's Leonardo, said yesterday that doctors have told him to spend much of the next four to six weeks in bed. Of the incident, the American midfielder said: 'I heard this noise in my head that was like a train going through, and all I thought was like, 'Oh my God, I'm going to die right here,'.'

REFEREES RETAINED FOR WORLD CUP QUARTER-FINAL STAGE ONWARDS: R Badilla (C Rica); J Torres Cadena (Col); P Don (Eng); S Puhl (Hung); P Mikkelsen (Den); A M Bujsaim (UAE); F Lamolina (Arg); N Jouini (Tun); J Quiniou (Fr).