38 FRADEN Collina


France defeated Denmark by two goals to one, ensuring that the hosts passed through the group stage with a three from three record. Denmark would join them in the knockout stage, their four points were enough for second place. 

After a successful first performance (NEDBEL), Pierluigi Collina was given this prestigious second appointment. The game presented Collina with a lot of both very interesting and important calls, which we can dissect below. 

Big Decisions

Pierluigi Collina had to take many of them in this match! Here are clips of them all:


Decision: penalty + no sanction

42' - Penalty box incident; DOGSO?
Decision: penalty + no sanction

53' - Serious Foul Play?
Decision: direct freekick + yellow card

62' - Serious Foul Play?
Decision: indirect freekick + yellow card

84' - Penalty box incident
Decision: play on (+ no sanction)

88' - Serious Foul Play?
Decision: indirect freekick + no sanction

89' - Second Yellow Card?
Decision: play on (+ no sanction)


My theoretical solutions:

12' - extremely tricky incident! Replays from German television suggest that the defender played the ball just after the attacker - in such case, attacker falls of his own accord, and the penalty decision is more a mistake than a right call for me, but again, extremely tough situation, decision of the ref should be supported for sure

42' - correct penalty, clear impeding / holding offence; very borderline SPA vs. DOGSO, but given that the attacker would reach the ball and have to go wide, yellow card would be my choice; no card is not acceptable

53' - very similar incident occurred in Masayoshi Okada's game involving David Batty (ENGTUN)(!); my preference would be for a red card if you determine the attacker actually had minimal chances to successfully overhead kick the ball, but a yellow is never a clear mistake (in 1998 especially)

62' - comparable incident in Nikolaj Levnikov's game assessed as a clear red card by FIFA (BRAMAR); this one is slightly less intense, but regardless, studs to the knee with high force and to the thigh with medium-high force, clear red card as I see it; referees should have the courage to take brave and unpopular decisions, not giving indirect freekicks in order to avoid that 

84' - attacker trawls his leg in order to generate the contact and then falls of his own accord, should be indirect freekick + yellow card (simulation) in my view

88' - flying fully frontal tackle with loaded studs would describe a clear red card, but it would be remise to ignore that the ball is totally played and no danger of serious injury; yellow card and a firm warning would be okay, indirect freekick and no card less so

89' - clear foul, Collina was looking the other way, right? 60-40 SPA case, so acceptable no SYC 

-> none of these situations reach the bar for a clear match error, though 62' is pretty close.  

Managing the Game

This was a game chiefly about the key match incidents; otherwise, it was a pretty fair-spirited one in general, which the referee delivered, cognisant of some mistakes. 

I didn't really appreciate Collina's disciplinary control to be honest - the only really egregious mistake was the missed reckless stamp at 57', but the lack of a clear line regarding tactical fouls (46' vs. 79') was a bit frustrating. 

However, the yellow card decision at 66' was simply great officiating, which helped keep a lid on this game. In general, perception mistakes were kept to a minimum (24', 52', 57', 89'). Even if Collina kept control in the basic sense, I don't really think he was in control of the players' actions in this match. 

Still, hardly a bad performance overall. 

Assistant Referees

Maltese assistant Emanuel Zammit did not give a convincing impression the first time he was at Pierluigi Collina's side, and the same was true in this match - offside at 9' was a really poor, if not that important decision.

Perhaps Zammit was fortunate that only that of his four offside impressions could be assessed from the non-widescreen cameras in 1998. Marc Van Den Broeck was very quiet. 

Balance

This section will be a bit longer than usual, and perhaps with a more general brief than normal, given that this is the last time we will encounter Pierluigi Collina in our (non-chronological) World Cup projects.

Having put this performance in the context of the competition, I would like to address Collina's way of taking big decisions, then his approach match control, before a kind of resume which will hopefully tie everything together. 

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German football magazine Kicker gave Collina the highest possible grade for this performance; FIFA surely appreciated it a lot too. I guess that if Italy were eliminated before the quarterfinal, and hence Collina wouldn't have been removed for that reason, the Italian referee would have gotten something really big in 1998. 

Unlucky for him, but he did of course manage to reach the pinnacle in 2002! 

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Back to this performance. Even if I'd support all of the big decisions in that they weren't CMEs (62' is borderline), what I found disappointing was the sensation that Collina was computing decisions essentially exclusively, according to what would be most widely popular. 

As I see it, the best referees straddle a middle-ground line between what is right and what is popular - we might call this common-sense. In my personal opinion, Collina focused too much on one of those notions. 

Amongst common-sense, I would argue that having the courage to take correct, brave and unpopular decisions should remain an important facet in refereeing. In refereeing, in life, knowing when to 'turn a blind eye' is a really important skill - but sometimes, I believe it is worth standing up for what you think to be fair and right, even when it would be easier not to. 

Of course, Pierluigi Collina acted according to what made him successful, and, noting the ultra-high esteem in which he is (still) held, succeeded! So, my view is rather irrelevant in the end. 

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Let's ignore big decisions for a second. Pierluigi Collina is widely considered the best football referee ever, but I have to be honest - I didn't find his way of controlling matches very spectacular, to be honest. 

Most of the Collina matches I watched had an even slightly violent feel; I didn't have the impression of a referee who was really on top of the player's actions. Especially his first match in 1998 (NEDBEL), I feel it would have been more exciting for football fans if he had adopted a law-enforcer approach to take out the rough and tactical fouls which broke up the game.  

I feel it important to draw that distinction - as I see it, Collina was not a referee with an absolutely excellent style but didn't always take very courageous decisions in the biggest moments; but even besides his big calls, personally I wouldn't evaluate his as the football refereeing style of all time. 

However it is worst kind of stuffiness to say that, objectively, that means anyone (of the many!) who says that he was the best referee ever is "wrong". Collina was really excellent at what he did, and it is with good reason that he is held in such high esteem! Just personally, I find his way of refereeing hard to celebrate. 

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As some kind of conclusion, I want these blogs to present the information and data (as I see it!), in as removed a way as possible, in order to let people make their own minds up about how great Pierluigi Collina's (and every other WC referee, for that matter) way of refereeing and performances were. 

At least in this tournament, the removal before the quarterfinals of all referees whose nation reached the last eight, saves you all another essay like this! :) 

Pierluigi Collina - 6
Marc Van Den Broeck - 7
Emanuel Zammit - 6
Vítor Melo Pereira

ITA, BEL, MLT
France 2-1 Denmark

Group Stage


24 June
Gelbe Karten 
Diomède (53') - Challenge
Vieira (62') - Challenge
Gelbe Karten 
Colding (66') - Challenge 
Tøfting (79') - Lack of Respect (Holding)

Comments

  1. Who were candidates from Africa for wc 2002?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. https://wc98refs.blogspot.com/2021/05/34-chicmr-vagner.html?showComment=1621533222996#c1824687441743596336

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    2. Your observations about Collina's approach, making rather popular decisions are correct. But that is exactly the reason why he is widely considered as the best referee of all times. Popularity within the football world bring titles, not by-the-book decisions.

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    3. It's not the 'by-the-book' thing actually I have the biggest problem with. Look at Meier turning away the Iran penalty in this tournament or Webb with van Bommel's SFP in the WC 2010 final, for instance. All (or, most?) top referees 'whistle' for themselves.

      My 'issue' with Collina is:
      1) still IMO he takes it too far, but okay
      2) in my honest judgement, he wasn't a very good football referee! Lacked sophistication in disciplinary control, allowed the players too much, his matches were too 'violent' as a consequence

      But as I said, that is just my view, everyone can have their own!

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    4. Agree, but, in my opinion, Collina was very clever and quickly realized that football is a show, so he focused more on charisma, personality, preparation - things that people involved in football, but not referees, would pick up and get easily impressed with, so he could shine. He wisely took advantage of things that would differentiate him from other referees and succeeded. It was not for decision-making or disciplinary control, but rather for playing his role according to those circumstances. Just an opinion.

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    5. You hit the nail on the head, thanks!

      Between the balance section and our discussion here in the comments, I'd say that this page is a pretty good starting for anyone interested 'historiography' of the referee Pierluigi Collina, beyond the popular 'legend' of him as a ref, both positive and negative.

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