World Cup’s final referee: Most difficult two hours in my life

Twelve yellow cards and one red Howard Webb has shown in Sunday’s big World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands. It was quite a tense match with both sides running desperately towards the trophy they have never had the chance to win. Plenty of less or more serious fouls plus other incidents also happened. There were shown five yellow cards only in the first half an hour while other seven were about to be given.  English referee Howard Webb declared these days he had the toughest two hours to charge in his career.

Rotherham’s 39-year-old policeman also added: “It was the most difficult two hours of my career. I am physically and emotionally drained but FIFA have been very supportive – not just about the final but our performances throughout the whole tournament.” English Premier League referees boss Keith Hacket backed Webb as he got plenty of critics right after the game: „It is unfair that Howard is being criticised because, overall, he had a superb game technically.”

„Sadly, there were far too many players who showed no respect for the authority of the referee and it was not a good example of how the game should be played or how players should behave. You expect players to respond to a referee – and cautions normally serve to calm players down. But in this game, yellow cards had little effect on some players who continued to test his authority. Tactically, the Dutch were trying to stop the game and upset the opposition. There were many incidents of group dissent and group fouling tactics.”

„Yet, out of all the referees at the World Cup, Howard was the ideal appointment. Had a referee with lesser experience or with less man-management and communication skills been in charge of this game, we could have had a very different scenario on our hands – it could well have deteriorated into mass confrontation.” It is also the last Englishman to referee a World Cup final (in 1974 between the same the Netherlands and West Germany) Jack Taylor who also backs Webb: „dread to think what certain referees from certain countries would have made of it. Some would have been in real trouble because one particular team created a lot of problems. A lot of referees would have finished in total disarray.”