Brazil in the World Cup 2010

Besides having a tradition of bringing good teams to the World Cups, Brazil has also some tradition in bringing respected referees to the Cups. In 1982, the referee of the final match was Arnaldo César Coelho, arguably the best referee ever in Brazil (today, Coelho is chief comentator of powerful TV Globo); in 1986, the referee was José Roberto Wright (who today is also comentator for Globo, but with a smaller presence).

Since then, Brazilian referees have not had an important role in the World Cup, for mostly two reasons. One is that the Brazilian team has had an important role in the Cups, and FIFA wisely avoids conflicts. And the other reason is that Brazil has stopped producing high standard referees.

The referee sent to the Cups of 2002 and 2006 was Carlos Eugênio Simon; besides being a referee with post-gradutation in Sports Cience, Simon is a journalist.

Simon never had the same respect as Coelho and Wright had in the past. And this lack of respect came from journalists, players, coaches and fans. In several occasions, Simon had to step forward to defend himself; one such occasion was the match Italy x Ghana in the World Cup 2006, when Simon failed to point a penalty against the Italians. The movie below shows some controversial matches involving Simon.

Last weekend, Simon saw a fault at this play and called off the goal:

Palmeiras’ President said that Simon was a thief. Simon said he would bring the President to court.

Meanwhile, the Brazilian Confederation suspended Simon citing “a repetition of mistakes”.

Which referee will Brazil send to the World Cup in South Africa?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 8:20 am and is filed under people.