World Cup Referees In 'We've Been Training Properly' Shocker

Think back to the 2002 World Cup Finals. In particular, those matches involving South Korea. Far be it from me to suggest bias in the refereeing, but some of those decisions (especially in the Italy match) were a little dubious, to say the least.

This time around, FIFA are promising that this kind of thing won't happen again. They are actually training their referees properly for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. And - even better - they are training them in groups, each of which is, [drum roll please] the same nationality.

This means that the referees, linesmen and officials for each game will have worked together extensively before and will all speak the same language. While I have to give kudos to FIFA for implementing this, I have to ask. Why the hell hasn't this been common practice for previous World Cups ?

It hardly takes the brighest of minds to figure out that if all the officials view the game in the same way; speak the same language and have worked together before, you will get a higher standard of officiating. At the very least, there will be consistency.

Well, better late than never, I guess. And if it results in better refereeing in Germany this summer, then it's all good.