grella cries foul over referees

Grella cries foul over referees
From Robert Lusetich in Kaiserslautern
June 28, 2006

HERE is a statistic that will haunt Australia: it was whistled for 98 fouls in its four World Cup matches, the highest number of any team at Germany 2006, and received only 56.

The 42 free-kick discrepancy is the largest of any team at the World Cup and the largest since the statistics started being kept, in 2002.

"We're a small footballing nation in FIFA's eyes," assistant coach Graham Arnold said. "and as Vince Grella just said, if they don't want us to be here or don't want us to go through then just tell us beforehand and then we won't get so hurt."

"I think one of the things this World Cup is going to be remembered for is the refereeing performances. Out of the four games, we haven't had a fair go at all," Grella said.

Before the tournament began coach Guus Hiddink suggested wild allegations by Japan, Brazil and Croatia that Australia players were dirty would affect the way his side was refereed. Yesterday, Grella was willing to concede there may have been a prejudiced view of the underdog Socceroos.

"Maybe," Grella, who received a yellow card for telling the referee that an Italian player was pulling on his shirt, said.

"I think that the people who said it should really wash their mouths out. I would say they have conditioned the referees because a lot of the fouls we were seeing were harsh."

Not for the first time at this World Cup, poor refereeing blemished a game. It ended Australia's inspirational campaign in Germany.

Spaniard Luis Medina Cantalejo yesterday awarded the injury-time penalty that put Italy into the final eight, after Lucas Neill slid in front of Fabio Grosso, who fell over the Australia defender.

Earlier, in the second half of a dour match, Medina Cantalejo sent off Italy's Marco Materazzi for fouling Marco Bresciano because he ruled Materazzi was the last defender as Bresciano dribbled toward the goal.

That decision also appeared harsh, as other Italy defenders were converging on the Australia midfield player.

The Socceroos believe they bore the brunt of poor refereeing in each of their four matches.

They thought goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer had been fouled in the lead up to Japan's first goal in their opening win at Kaiserslautern.

In the 2-0 loss to Brazil, German official Markus Merk called 25 fouls against the Australia side compared with only nine for the reigning world champion and, after the match, told an irate Harry Kewell that his World Cup was over.

Merk has not been seen since, other than as an assistant, and FIFA did not punish Kewell for his post-match, finger-pointing.

In the 2-2 draw with Croatia, which saw Australia through to the second round, England's Graham Poll virtually ended his World Cup career when he made a number of errors, including giving Josip Simunic three yellow cards before finally sending him off. He claimed the second had been for Australia's Craig Moore, and not Simunic, it was revealed yesterday.

Other matches not featuring Australia have also been surrounded by refereeing controversies, most spectacularly the 1-0 win by Portugal over the Netherlands, in which Russian Valentin Ivanov issued a record-breaking 20 cards, four of them red.

But Australia felt particularly harshly done by.

"I'm furious, it's unbelievable, the luck we've had with refereeing this World Cup," Tim Cahill said.

"Everything's been against us and we've worked hard to make everything work for us.

"Everyone says, 'Well done, Australia's done well, (you deserve) a pat on the back, you've proved everyone wrong', but we haven't, because we should still be in this World Cup.

"I went up for a header with Materazzi, he came down clutching his head. He's six-foot seven and I'm five foot nothing and I got the yellow card and I'm the one with the broken jaw nearly.

"It's there for everyone to see what's happened today. Lucas hasn't touched (Grosso), he's just fallen over.

"One decision's changed everything, it's changed Australian football ... it's changed our lives."

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I tend to agree with Grella about the referees, to me they did seem to be very biased against the "Socceroos"