Former FIFA referee Lwandile Mfiki impressed by Qatar World Cup officiating
Former FIFA referee Lwandile Mfiki has commended the officiating by referees at the recently concluded 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
However, the Qatar World Cup was not short of controversy.
Spanish referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz dished out a record 18 yellow cards and one red card during the heated quarterfinal match between Argentina and the Netherlands.
The goal scored by Japan against Spain in the group stages remains a controversy even to this day.
Just before the goal, the ball seemed to have crossed the touchline and gone out of play.
And with the various angles and replays, it did look like the ball had crossed the touchline: out of play. The entire ball needed to cross the touchline for it to be deemed out of play.
Argentine referee Facundo Tello also came under fire following Portugal’s 1-0 defeat by Morocco in the quarterfinals.
These are just some of the few decisions that made headlines at the World Cup with the application of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) also leaving much to be desired.
WORLD CUP OFFICIATING IMPRESS MFIKI
Mfiki, a former professional referee, is also of the view that the football mother body, FIFA could have done better in terms of public education on how some of the protocols work.
“The standard of refereeing at the World Cup as expected was at a high level,” he said.
“However, I felt that FIFA failed to educate the public about the protocols of the VAR.
“There were some instances in the use of the VAR that kept people confused. Although it was correctly used and decisions were correctly taken, the general public was left confused on how it was used.”
ON VICTOR GOMEZ PERFORMANCE
“Gomez performed above expectations. For this World Cup, we were expecting that he would get at least one game but he did two. Not just any game but two critical games and for him and his team they performed very well in those games.”
ON WHAT MFIKI PICKED UP
Mfiki was highlighted the lack of proper communication from FIFA with regards to the World Cup.
“I wish people at FIFA could communicate more on how decisions were taken,” he added.
“Secondly, a tournament will always have special instructions, if you look at how referees were reluctant to issue yellow cards at the tournament.
“So that was a special instruction for the duration of the tournament. so, players and team managers should not be confused to say at the world cup this was not a caution, it was a caution but there were special instructions.”
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