Aston was the referee’s commissioner for the 1966 World Cup in England when it dawned on him that bookings were none too clear an issue for the watching fans, or even the players
BERLIN: “Yellow: Watch your step. Red: Stop, you are off.”
It’s a message which almost got lost in translation during Portugal’s 1-0 win over the Netherlands on Sunday which saw Russian referee Valentin Ivanov create a new World Cup record by sending off two players from either side, waving an accumulated 16 yellow and four red cards. Ivanov, who FIFA president Sepp Blatter says deserved a caution himself, would have had to rely on his little black book had it not been for a simple, but visually brilliant, idea which English referee Ken Aston had in the mid-1960s — one that revolutionised the disciplinary aspect of the ‘global game’.
Aston was the referee’s commissioner for the 1966 World Cup in England when it dawned on him that bookings were none too clear an issue for the watching fans — or even the players. He pushed for colour-coded warnings after England’s 1966 champion Jack Charlton asked for confirmation that German referee Rudolf Kreitlin had cautioned him in the infamous win over Argentina at Wembley in which Antonio Rattin was dismissed.
Aston, a teacher — and former soldier — by profession, persuaded FIFA to adopt his cards for the 1970 World Cup, convinced of their necessity after he was the man in the middle for the 1962 World Cup Battle of Santiago, which turned into a kicking match between Chile and Italy. Aston also invented coloured linesmen’s flags and the substitute number board, as well as regulating the pressure of the match ball.
But the card trick becomes a juggling act if two sides are determined to indulge first in niggly, then rather more blatant fouls — as in the case of the Portuguese and the Dutch. Ivanov’s hand went into his top pocket on average once every four and a half minutes. At least he did not make the extraordinary blunder of English arbiter Graham Poll, who faces being dropped from the tournament for giving Croatia’s Josip Simunic three yellows against Australia.
The referees’ committee meets on Wednesday to decide which officials will take charge of matches from the quarter-final stage onwards and Andreas Werz, a spokesman for the referees’ committee, said Poll’s mistake may rule him out. “Under normal circumstances, he would not take charge of any other matches at this World Cup,” Werz said. “The performances so far in the World Cup are the first factor.”
Poll said he had correctly booked Simunic, but when the Croatian number three committed another foul he mistakenly wrote down the name of Australia’s number three, Craig Moore. It was only when Simunic committed another bookable offence in stoppage time that Poll, tipped as a possible candidate to take charge of the final on July 9, showed him a red card.
But perhaps he can take heart. At the Battle of Santiago, Aston himself did not dismiss Chilean Leonel Sanchez, whose perfect left hook left Italian forward Humberto Maschio with a broken nose.
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