Are you serious?

I SAW a bit of Khomasdal Stadium in the Theatre of Dreams during Sunday’s Manchester derby. Just there by the corner-kick spot. Who could’ve imagined that our own grazing field is a more than able match for Old Trafford?

That aside, and in the light of the appalling refereeing decisions in both the UEFA Champion’s League semi-finals, I will not be writing about our thrilling (not) football match coverage like I was supposed to. Instead, I’ll have a dig at the ref issue.
Comic refereeing has been a constant feature of the 2008/09 season.
What happened in the Barcelona/Chelsea game is a dress rehearsal for the season-ending calamities still to come.
More obvious and gratuitous ball handling is only on show at Michael Jackson concerts.
If UEFA do decide to rid themselves of referee Tom Henning Ovrebo, he can take a few pay cuts and parade his hideous ogre skills in our league. I’m sure he’ll feel right at home.
Seems where there’s Chelsea and a Norwegian, there most certainly is controversy. Remember Anders Frisk. He refereed a game between Barcelona and Chelsea at the same stage in 2005, probably wished he hadn’t, and had to quit football after receiving alleged death threats from murderous Chelsea FC fanatics.
I’m not implying the Shrek look-alike should go though. Maybe he needs to lie low in the comfort of his swamp till this blows over! Being a ref is never an easy job, no matter which part of the globe you are in.
Your only as good as your last ****-up ! There’s some good news for Norwegians though. They’ve just won the UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking, based on all UEFA competition matches played at club and national-team levels between May 1 2008 and April 30 2009. It should be consolation enough for now.
We all know that every game contains several wrong refereeing decisions – some of which can even change the end result.
The referees cannot be looking at ten places at once, but that shouldn’t keep them from doing a proper job. Maybe it’s time we brought in the video thing.
This would produce correct decisions, which no one could dispute. Whether it’s penalties, goals, red cards, cheating or diving or whatever. Correct decisions would also lead to less aggression, frustration (and even possibly hooliganism) on the terraces because everyone would know that the refereeing decisions on the field are always correct.
German fans have themselves a fairly catchy repertoire for delinquent referees.
They chant ‘Schiri, wir wissen wo dein Auto steht!’ (Oi ref, we know where you parked your car).
The Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) suspended four referees recently for alleged poor officiating at domestic league matches.
In the past two years, nearly two dozen top Bulgarian referees have been banned for making mistakes.
Two former officials said last year there was widespread pressure on match officials to manipulate games in the Balkan country.
Maybe we should have Bulgarian refs for the upcoming FIFA Confederations Cup.
Just so FIFA knows, the refs at Africa’s Confederations cup better not mess with our football because, ‘Schiri, wir wissen wo dein Auto steht!’. God forbid!
sheefeni@namibian.com.na