Gautam Ganguly
The curtains of the quadrennial, widely viewed FIFA World Cup tournament, 2022, popularly described as the 'greatest show' on earth, have been drawn providing enormous entertainment and excitement to the connoisseurs of the game across the length and breadth of the world.
Interestingly, the final at Qatar World Cup evoked an unfamiliar, hitherto unknown human emotion. Instead of the customary polarization of supporters vying for two opponent teams in the final, almost the entire sporting world nearly stood on one platform supporting the fighting Argentina unequivocally. It is worth remembering that under-rated Saudi Arabia had shocked the football fraternity by beating the much-vaunted Argentine team led by legendary Messi in their first encounter. Thereafter, Messi, probably, playing his last World Cup, had galvanized his team to stage one of the magnificent 'U-turns', marching ahead gloriously to reach the final and emerge victorious eventually.
In the din and bustle of monumental euphoria generated by the World Cup-2022, it is intriguing to notice that the vital role of referees and the assistant referees, who have virtually controlled the high-voltage matches with remarkable poise and alacrity, have not got the deserving attention and recognition. It may sound hackneyed to mention that performance of the umpires and referees make or mar a game. The success and quality of high-voltage World Cup games depend as much on the celebrated players as the referees and adjudicators.
Empirical experiences reveal that while a bad decision of an official during a match gets immediately highlighted by the media, critics and experts evoke a tumultuous reaction from players and supporters, hardly any appreciation follows and credit is given to the referees when an exhilarating game concludes without blemish.
The Qatar World Cup has made an indelible imprint in the history of the World Cup by promoting the cause of women's empowerment and gender equality. Breaking the bastion of long-held male domination, FIFA
took the salutary step to select Stéphanie Frappart, the lady referee from France and her assistants, Brazil's Neuza Back and Mexico's Karen Díaz, to
adjudicate the match between Germany and Costa Rica. The lady officials went above their female identity and supervised the game superbly and flawlessly.
Kudos to FIFA for its progressive views!
It would not be an exaggeration to state that the recently concluded World Cup is the gallant story of the emergence of a new football powerhouse, besides being, simultaneously, the graveyard of celebrated teams and stalwart players. The under-rated teams have performed
superbly elevating the quality of most of the games right from the 'group stage' in this World Cup. To recapitulate, Japan had sent shivers down Germany's spine beating them, well and truly. If anyone thought that Japanese victory against
German was a fluke, Japan went on to beat Spain, the world champion in 2010, and nearly caused an upset to Croatia in the nail-biting quarter-final match. Morocco became the first African team to reach the semi-final having beaten and caused the mother of all upsets. In short, upsets galore.
Needless to say that such scintillating games were played without much fiasco due to efficient, neutral, unprejudiced adjudication.
FIFA in its bid to make the game more exciting and devoid of controversy arising out of wrong decisions introduced 'goal-line technology' in 2014 learning a lesson from an incident when a ball had crossed the goal line in the match between England and Germany but was disallowed in 2010.
Responding to the growing need for intense commercialization of the game coupled with the burgeoning increase of TV audience across the world and increasing application of technology, FIFA took the boldest step to introduce the 'Video Assistant Referee system in the Russian World cup, in 2018. "The Video Assistant Referee system, known as VAR, is football's first use of video technology to reach more correct decisions." Needless to say that 'VAR' has met with resounding success and contributed immensely to making the games absorbing and competitive. Except on fewer instances, this World Cup has not ignited any major controversy due to wrong decisions by the referee. To quote FIFA President, "VAR is not changing football, it is cleaning football, and this was our overriding aim when we started the VAR project."
Pierluigi Collina, the famous ex-referee, as the chairman and Massimo Busacca, the director of the referee's committee, had
selected 36 referees, 63 assistant referees and 13 members of video assistant referees who did a yeoman's job to make the World Cup absorbing.
FIFA's claim that a new era has dawned in this World Cup
in "refereeing and 'Var'" is vindicated by the fact that 'red cards' and fouls per game have come down to three and 27 in 2022, four and 25 in 2018 in comparison to whooping 16 and 35 respectively in 2006.
Experts have opined unanimously that the final in Qatar between Argentina and France has been the most exciting, absorbing and nail-biting match witnessed so far. Much of the credit for this magnificent final must go to T Szymon Marciniak, a tough, reputed referee from Poland. Incidentally, Marciniak is the first referee from Poland to get the honour to whistle in the final of the FIFA World Cup.
Gianni Infantino, the President declared proudly at the conclusion of the world's biggest sports extravaganza,
"We said we wanted this to be the best World Cup ever and it's been the best World Cup ever. A crucial role in this achievement was played by the referees who excelled with performances of the highest standard."