What you missed while this traitor to the human race was throwing jellyfish at kids on the beach…
- Salem Saad, striker for the United Arab Emirates side Al Nasr, died after collapsing on the pitch during training. He was 31.
- FIFA won’t sanction a replay of the France-Ireland basketball game, in spite of the fact that Thierry Henry totally admits to the handball.
- Not even Sweden, his home country, is backing up referee Martin Hansson.
- Giovanni Trapattoni, however, hasn’t said his team was robbed (possibly because, had Robbie Keane put away the two clear chances he had, Ireland wouldn’t have had this problem).
- Robbie Keane, however, has blamed pretty much everyone who works at FIFA and UEFA headquarters for the Irish being knocked out…even though the only teams they’ve actually managed to beat in World Cup Qualifying were Cyprus and Georgia.
- Portugal, Greece, Slovenia, Algeria, and Uruguay also qualified for the World Cup yesterday.
- Harry Redknapp has hit out against the “weak” players and their “idiot” agents who go behind his back to talk to Spurs chairman Daniel Levy.
- The Cameroon national team would like David N’Gog to consider playing for them; ideally, he’d dive right in and play during the African Cup of Nations.
- Kieran Gibbs should be ready to face Chelsea later this month.
- Japan, the first Asian team to qualify for the World Cup, was not named one of the best teams in the Asian conference.
- The Columbus Crew will face Mexican champions Toluca in the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals in March.
So I’m reading about the France heist and thinking about the ref situation-
NFL: 22 players, 7 officials, all of whom can call penalties and provide input. Pass or kick may travel 50 mph or so.
MLB: 10-13 players, 4-6 officials who can make calls, ball travels 80-120 mph.
NHL: 12 players, 2 officials who can make any call, two more who assist and can make some penalty calls. Puck travels upwards of 100 mph.
NBA: 10 players, smaller court, 3 referees with full power to call fouls. Ball could be passed probably 30-40 mph at times but game mostly moves at running speed.
International Soccer: 22 players, largest field of any full speed sport, kicks can travel 60 mph or more, one official with any real power, 2 line judges who do almost nothing, one of whom is guaranteed to be 50 yards from most action.
And we’ve now seen countless times, with that New Mexico chick being a good, albeit not international, example of how little a ref can keep track of on a soccer pitch. Doesn’t it seem like its time to put a couple more full blown refs on the field who can make calls like the obvious handball from yesterday? Seems like the game is taking a huge integrity hit every time this kind of thing happens.
The funny thing is, Thierry Henry would’ve run directly into that fifth official FIFA has in the Europa League; it would’ve prevented this incident.
What are the chances that pilot program is approved in time for South Africa? To me, it’s a lot like replay in baseball- to hell with your “tradition,” get things right.
I thought that the ultimate goal was to have it available by then, actually, but I could be wrong. Trying to find something now.
For another obit on Salem Saad: http://urdead2me.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/rip-salem-saad/