We witnessed a lot of referee errors in the World Cup 2002. Ask any football fan from Spain or Italy and you will find out why. This year, though, FIFA really took charge and told the referees that they will be under closed watch.

Fifa issued warnings to its elite pack of whistle-blowers that they will be summarily punished for gross errors in Germany by not being picked for any further World Cup matches.

The world governing body has also made clear “only human” is an excuse it does not want to hear after blunders in 2002 left a bad taste — especially in Italian and Spanish mouths.

Unfortunately, with all these measures, FIFA’s decision still bring controversy since there are a lot of great referees that are not on the World Cup list and, instead, we can see referees from countries that never had a football culture. You cannot really compare referees from Europe or South America with referees from Oceania or Asia. I am not generalising, but this is a truely big problem.

Steps to improve referee performance include doubling their salaries to $40,000 from the last World Cup and cutting the number of referees to 22 from 36 — to give those on hand more time in action and, theoretically, help them stay sharp.

Tough fitness requirements were enforced and those who fell short on sprint and endurance were unceremoniously dumped.

All were also required, for the first time, to demonstrate proficiency in English — both written and spoken.

Another first: refereeing trios will be from the same country or at same confederation this year.

I might be a little bit harsh, but I really do hope that we will not see mistakes that would change the face of a game.

Source: supersoccer