While England were far too passive after going 1-0 up through Anthony Gordon in their 2-1 World Cup semi-final loss to Argentina in Atlanta, droves of fans and pundits alike have also expressed grave concern for the way in which the match was officiated. Compilations and clips have been doing the rounds on social media highlighting what appears to be a lot of missed calls for Argentina players fouling England players aggressively, furthering the conspiracy discussions of Argentina and Lionel Messi
being too highly favored and protected at the tournament.
Officiating controversies have been at the heart of so many of the matches we’ve seen in the United States, Mexico and Canada and Argentina do seem to be at the winning end of most of the decisions, but it doesn’t take away the brand of football they’ve been playing. Egypt’s third goal being disallowed in the Round of 16 for a soft foul well before the goal occurred, Argentina taking a free kick before the Cape Verde keeper had his wall set in the Round of 32, and Messi getting away with his stomp on Algeria’s Aïssa Mandi in the group stages are just a handful of the most circulated narratives being constantly written about and reposted, but they’re certainly not the only ones under the proverbial microscope.
Former Premier League referee Graham Scott was on talkSPORT’s Hawksbee and Jacobs show the morning after England’s loss to Argentina, and he had some less than favorable things to say about Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane with regard to the way he interacts with match officials.
“It really annoys me watching our players trying to chip away at the ref because that’s not going to work. I’ve been on the receiving end of it from these people. It just annoys you [as a referee]. It doesn’t get you what you want [as a player]. It doesn’t achieve what you’re hoping it will achieve. And, well, the Argentinians seem rather more effective at it – so what can we learn from that? It’s also understanding about how different referees operate. So, do we actually watch the ref? Do we analyze them before the game? Do we think, ‘Right, he’s going to let this go’? We [referees] can exploit that as well, potentially, but also, be ready for that onslaught because it’s coming,” Scott ranted.
For Kane in particular, he feels the sarcastic questions lodged at officials can certainly be taken as rather irritating depending on who it is. “He’s very repetitive. And it is the sarcastic leading question of ‘Is he going to be allowed to do that all day? Are you going to give us anything? Do you know there are two teams out here…?’. And it just irritates you. [I used to think], ‘I wish you’d just go away’ and then… if anything, when the 50-50 call comes in, ‘No, you’re not getting it, because I’ve taken against you as a person now’. It doesn’t work, Harry, and I’d love to speak to him about it because he could be effective, sure, but what he’s trying now doesn’t work,” Scott stressed.
In overall context, there’s certainly an argument made as it does seem there’s far too much leeway to letting players persistently pester officials throughout matches and there’s an outside perception that a higher echelon of players have far more influence when they do it — which is true to an extent. Captains are supposed to be the spokesmen of sides when tight decisions are being discussed and players don’t get reprimanded enough for constantly chirping in the ears of referees, but it comes to higher boiling points with stakes as high as the World Cup semifinal between two nations like England and Argentina that have a lot of history against one another.
From the England perspective, they always knew how Argentina were going to play against them, so relying on trying to point out perceived injustices to the center official isn’t always the most effective strategy, especially is you consider that other referees might share a similar view to Scott’s.
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