So, West Brom have received an apology from the chief of referees, Mike Riley, for the controversial late penalty that robbed them of a win at Chelsea, but shouldn’t referees apologise more often?
Any ref who ever booked a player for celebrating a goal by removing his shirt should crave our forgiveness. Howard Webb should certainly say sorry for having a bald head and trying to look cool and hard, when all referees should look like frustrated bus ticket inspectors. And there’s a few other things they should apologise for.
Here’s my personal top five.
5. Frank Lampard’s Ghost Goal Against Germany
Lampard smashed a screamer of a shot against the German bar in the 2010 World Cup game in South Africa. The ball bounced down off the bar and so far across the line that it was almost in Namibia. Strangely, it remained unseen by Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda, only 15 yards from play, and his assistants.
All of them should send written apologies to the FA and to their optometrists. Lampard’s goal would have made it 2-2 and had England won, it might have been Sir Francis Lampard married to Kate Middleton by now.
4. Clive Thomas Disallowing Zico’s Goal
Welsh referee Clive Thomas confirmed that all referees are killjoys at heart when he blew the whistle for full-time between a corner being taken and Zico scoring with a header in a 1978 World Cup match between Sweden and Brazil. The ball must have taken all of a second to travel from the corner spot to Zico.
Thomas was technically in the right, but then so are most traffic wardens. That jobsworth spirit lives on among the men in black, as in the case of Dougie Smith, who booked Gazza for humorously waving a yellow card that he had dropped at him.
3. Thierry Henry’s Handball Against Ireland
The 2009 World Cup qualifier play-off between Ireland and France was into extra time when a Malouda free kick reached Thierry Henry at the back post. Henry controlled it twice with his hand, patting the ball like a basketball player, before crossing for Gallas to score.
All that was missing was Thierry spinning the ball on his finger and putting it through Richard Dunne’s legs. Every Irish player spotted it, but Swedish referee Martin Hansson and his team missed it completely and France went through to the World Cup finals.
2. Fergie-time Steve Bruce Goal
In 1993, Steve Bruce scored against Sheffield Wednesday in the sixth minute of Fergie-time to effectively win the title for Man United. John Hilditch started the game as a linesman, but had to replace the injured referee Mike Peck. It was Hilditch who awarded seven minutes of injury time, allowing Bruce to steer home Pallister’s deflected cross with a thumping header and end 26 years of hurt for United.
As Wednesday manager Trevor Francis quipped, it was scored ‘in the second leg’. Had Hilditch and his team been just a little less generous, we would have been spared all those endless replays of Fergie jumping up and down and Brian Kidd running onto the pitch and falling to his knees. Not to mention twenty years of gloating from diehard United fans in Cornwall.
1. Maradona’s Hand of God
When the ball looped into the air off Steve Hodge’s thigh, it was a straight challenge between England keeper Shilton and Maradona in the 1986 World Cup quarter-final. The Argentina captain plainly punched the ball into the net, but somehow convinced Tunisian referee Ali Bin Nasse that he had headed it. Not even the fact that Shilton is about ten feet tall and Maradona is severely vertically challenged could convince him otherwise.
Shilton running out of goal with his arm in the air and pointing to his hand didn’t help him either. The ref should have booked Maradona for deliberate handball, but then compounded his error by failing to disallow Maradona’s second ‘goal of the century’ on the grounds that he beat too many England defenders. Apologies please for making Maradona a hero in Scotland and allowing Maradona to coin the phrase ‘Hand of God’.