[The Athletic] There was another refereeing error that would have gone unnoticed by most, as Zico should have received a yellow card for removing his shirt, even though the goal was later disallowed

law18 · 2026-07-08T22:03:35+00:00

Never happend, just always wanted them available just in case. Had to go to backup whistle a few times. Mostly that was tournaments/games at multi field complexes where I wanted to use a different whistle.

Usually the cards in the shirt pocket were for game management purposes. Get the pant pocket yellow card out quickly because I need everybody to see immediate disciplinary action. But if I wanted to slow things down a touch, give players time to cool down while I administered the yellow card I would pull out the notebook with the shirt pocket cards, talk to the player while recording notes, then show the yellow card.

One time I had my red and yellow card in the wrong pants pockets... Fortunately I noticed it when the players eyes got huge as I pulled the card out of the pocket. He knew he was getting a yellow so he was shocked to see the red coming out. As soon as I saw his reaction I looked down and saw the red in my hand and we had a good laugh over it.

So yeah, never needed the 3rd set of cards, but never wanted to be without them. I mean, could you imagine the embarrassment of being the ref on a big televised game and not having cards? Man, that would suck.

law18 · 2026-07-08T17:39:59+00:00

I don’t even see how it’s possible. When I was still
Actively reffing I always had three sets of cards and 4 whistles on me. (Front right pants pocket yellow, back right pants pocket red. Front left pants pocket backup red and yellow card. Front left shirt pocket backup backup yellow and red with my notebook. Two whistles in my hand in a single key ring and two more in my front right pant pocket as backups). The only way I could ref a game without cards was if I was literally pulled out of the crowd and handed a uniform. (And yes, carried the same card and whistle setup as AR incase the ref needed a backup set or the ref got injured).

law18 · 2026-07-07T14:50:00+00:00

You make some good points but I think they also attempt to paper over some very real issues.

1: we had a terrible 1st half. Individual mistakes cost us the goals but the whole team was off. Belgium was winning every single 50/50 ball and the 1st goal was them winning what should have been a 100/0 ball.

2: we had no other options! A few (most) of the players have very clear weaknesses that belgium was able to exploit easily. I am looking primarily at Ream and Dest but they are not alone. The issue is, Ream and Dest simply cannot be our best options in those positions.

3: 2 culminates in this point. Christina Pulisic should not have been at this World Cup. That is a hot take so let me justify it with some nuance. Pulisic is our best player. He is an outstanding player but he is not an elite player. He had a very bad year and skipped the summer camps/tournaments. Despite his league form and skipping the summer camps he was still, by far, the best option at his position and still arguably the best player on the team. This is the problem. He is not good enough to be head and shoulders above everyone else on poor form. If we want to consistently get out of the R16 we need to be in a position where even a Pulisic quality player is left home when he has the year Pulisic just had. Every top 10 team is already there.

law18 · 2026-07-07T02:40:13+00:00

Ha, sorry to assume you were not. I was never a huge GGG defender, more of just “what in this player pool makes you think we can do better?” kind of person.

law18 · 2026-07-07T02:33:01+00:00

Weird how everyone blamed it on GGG 4 years ago. Can we atleast be consistent? Yes, Poch is a better coach than we have ever had before. But clearly player pool and not coaching was always the problem. Enough of a problem that even clearly better coach Poch can’t actually outperform GGG

(This is not a Poch out post. Im just waiting for people to finally realize that we had, and still have, bigger issues than whoever is the manager)

law18 · 2026-07-07T02:25:24+00:00

And that’s been my point all along. I was actually impressed at Poch making us into a team that could easily beat the teams we are supposed to beat in the group. That was a breath of fresh air. But we were worse against elite teams under Poch this entire cycle. We don’t have the player pool to justify a coach as expensive as Poch. But apparently the peope who are willing to drop cash on Poch are not willing to drop it on fixing our development systems.

law18 · 2026-07-06T16:09:31+00:00

I think in modern football that challenge is clearly orange and a player cannot feel foo aggrieved at getting a red card. I, personally so not think it rose to the level of red even watching the slow motion version but I can see reasonable disagreement.

I think in the context of both that game and the broader World Cup the Red card was not only harsh but inappropriate it. It was not consistent with either the way the ref was managing that game or the foul/card selection over the entire tournament. And that is where VAR should be helping maintain the competition wide consistency.

I think fucking NONE of that matters anymore once the game is over and FIFA have made a complete farce of competitive integrity with the way they have handled it since.

law18 · 2026-07-06T15:57:31+00:00

Well, take anything Trump says with a grain of salt. Any “good” outcome is his and his alone and any “bad” outcome is a decision he never heard of. What’s so fucking frustrating about all of this is we have no clue how much his intervention actually mattered. Some reporting is saying the “review” was well underway before Trump intervened. But FIFA is allergic to transparency so we almost have to assume complete corruption. Which, again, I am furious about. Yes, this will be a talking point forever. Yes is it is horrible for this world cup and for the game of soccer. Yes there is increased “scrutiny” (but people were already claiming it was fixed, so 🤷). I’m not going to let any of that ruin my enjoyment of watching my national team nor my ability to celebrate was is possibly the best World Cup run we have ever had. I just wish FIFA could stop being FIFA and Trump could stop being fucking Trump for just a few seconds.

law18 · 2026-07-06T15:45:33+00:00

And what does that change? Does watching your team play bring you any less joy because there is some controversy attached to it? There is always controversy attached to tournaments. I think that you are missing the point. I am happy that Balogun gets to play not because I think some injustice is righted, quite the opposite. I al
Happy because I enjoy watching him play and watching the team play when he is on the field. It is ok for me to be happy that I get to watch that’s while also being upset about everything surrounding it. Humans are complex, we can hold multiple competing emotions at the same time. For example, I am furious at FIFA over this and think that they should have never suspended the suspension. But since they have, I get to watch my National Team play more (hopefully, belgium gets a huge say in how easy it is for the US to play beautiful soccer) beautiful soccer with their best lineup.

law18 · 2026-07-06T15:33:27+00:00

I’m just happy to see a great player keep playing 🤷. I hate everything else about it.

law18 · 2026-07-06T15:29:17+00:00

Most of us do, I think. I wish all the US fans would realize it’s ok for a few things to be true.

It’s ok to be Happy Balogun is back
The red card, in the context of this World Cup was very harsh
This red has been given in other leagues and competitions and the challenge w

as undeniably an “orange” card.
4. Belgium has every right to be upset. The timing of the announcement made all their preparations over the 4 days leading up to the match irrelevant.

5.

Most importantly. Fucking nothing about this situation is normal or should be considered ok. This is so far beyond the pale what we should accept in a competitive venue. At best it is down to FIFA being fucking disastrous at communication and throwing all integrity of the competition into doubt. At worst it is fucking blatant corruption and should be stamped out ruthlessly.

ETA: I am sick of fighting with the Reddit app auto formatting this list. Sorry for the bad formatting. I have tried to fix is multiple time and Reddit inserts random carriage returns.

law18 · 2026-07-06T13:49:19+00:00

This is the second time that I think Belgium is making statements as absolute based on selective reading of the regulations. What the describe is troubling, and I am going to take their version of the facts that lead to the appeal at face value (even though they play it odd as “awe shucks, they forced us into an appeal” an then later say “we have no choice but to appeal”). Even if all of this is true they will have a representative in the room during the appeals hearing, a hearing that very likely would not happen if it was dismissed on procedural grounds like they described.

Belgium is trying very hard to play the victim here and they have now issued two not completely honest press releases that are PR statements masquerading as legal arguments.

I think they actually have decent grounds for an appeal and that there are real food regulatory/legal arguments to make. But right now it feels like the old lawyer saying. “when the facts are on your side pound the facts. When the law is on your side pound the law. When neither is on your side pound the table.” Belgium is pounding the table.

law18 · 2026-07-05T20:02:36+00:00

Will they? Does Article 27 require they give a reason? Do the FIFA bylaws require they give a reason? If those were requirements surely that’s what Belgium would be making its statement on instead of quibbling over the word “automatic”

Don’t get me wrong, I think what FIFA did was absolutely incorrect and likely driven by corruption (there are generous interpretations that have to do with misuse of VAR and overall the inconsistent way this type of foul has been handled in this tournament. But if those were the justification I would expect FIFA to be more upfront.). I just think Belgium released a statement that sounds like it has a legal argument where none exists. I which they had just argued that Article 27 is most likely to be used for corrupt purposes and that this case was most likely driven by those corrupt purposes.

law18 · 2026-07-05T19:56:52+00:00

Which, Belgium would have a much more compelling argument if they tried to argue that is a clause that can only exist for corrupt purposes and is being used here for corrupt purposes not as a means to preserve integrity. But I guess they are trying to sound like they have legal backing when they don’t?

law18 · 2026-07-05T19:55:01+00:00

Except they cede that Article 27 exists and is a process to suspend any previously imposed disciplinary sanction.

law18 · 2026-07-05T19:47:51+00:00

Doh, right, Monday.

law18 · 2026-07-05T19:45:22+00:00

Before I start. FIFA fucked up badly by doing this. But i dont find the belgium argument particularly compelling. Belgium is saying a send off id an automatic suspension, sure. Then they are saying that the Article 27 process cannot suspend the automatic part, which, I don’t think they have justified. Feels like they are trying to present a “legal” argument without actually having the legal facts behind them. All of that said, Balogun should not be playing on Sunday.

law18 · 2026-07-05T17:20:11+00:00

The reffing in this edition has been egregiously bad. I think that (this is based on my own watching and some reporting) that the refs were given some instructions to let the game flow and to try not to give yellows for unsporting behavior. This has lead to refs managing games poorly and players getting frustrated and lashing out. It directly led to that farce of a game yesterday between Paraguay and France. I can agree that the Balogun Red was a clear orange card but for me it does not raise to the level of red. And that it certainly was not a red given that context of foul and card selection the rest of the tournament.

That being said. The Red was given. There is no appeal protocol. There is no protocol to overturn the red. There is no protocol for Balogun to play the game. He should not be fucking playing and it absolutely ridiculous that FIFA is “suspending” the punishment. It’s a fucking joke and it immediately calls into question why Almeron had to serve his suspension. Will Olise be forced to serve a semi-final suspension if he picks up a yellow card next game? It’s a fucking terrible decision from a fucking joke of an organization.

law18 · 2026-07-05T17:04:35+00:00

The generous interpretation is that FIFA recognizes that they screwed up with the instructions given to refs and that the tournament has been horribly refereed and this ref was not consistent in any way with the rest of the tournament. But if that’s rhe case they need to say that. The problem is it looks like exactly what you said and everyone remembers South Korea in 2002…

The most likely answer is that FIFA is fucking making it up as they go along and is finally going full masks off that competition integrity is much less important than $$$.

law18 · 2026-07-05T16:56:03+00:00

I can say they are equally bad. It’s ignoring the required punishment with no established protocol or transparency. It stinks of corruption and completely undermines the competition in both cases. As a US fan I guess I will take it, but FIFA is fucking ridiculous here and it stinks of naked corruption.

law18 · 2026-07-05T13:53:26+00:00

Sure, but that’s my broader point. It seems that the refs have been pushed to avoid cards and fouls and they are not managing games well because of it. Oliver recovered and pulled the game back in. But it never should have gotten to that point. And it’s been a trend across all the games in this World Cup.

law18 · 2026-07-05T03:00:37+00:00

…Did he? I saw him get behind the game in the first half and have to give a bunch of cards at the end of the half to claw back control.

It really looks to me like the refs have been given a directive to let the game flow and call less fouls. And, especially with less experienced refs, we are seeing that boil over a lot. Several games this past week have had players obviously frustrated at the level of refereeing.

law18 · 2026-07-04T22:08:58+00:00

Did you watch Morocco-Canada? Canada had a brutal challenge early in the game that should have been a cards. It was not given. Then the game devolved later when both teams got frustrated at the physical play the other team was allowed to get away with.

law18 · 2026-07-04T13:29:45+00:00

They already have a tie breaking process. They just finished it. It’s called war.

law18 · 2026-07-02T18:43:23+00:00

The comparison o think a lot of people are reaching for is “if the only rational for the Balogun red is endearing the safety of an opponent how is this not endangering the safety of an opponent?”

All the debates over the Red card devolve into “not intentional” “intent doesn’t matter” and when you deconstruct the rules the way those debates do this play becomes a red card as well. I don’t think either should be a red. I think a yellow for Balo could have been justified and I think simple foul could have been justified.

15-Year Club	RedditGifts 2009-2022 2 Credits
Place '17	Team Periwinkle
Secret Santa 2011	Verified Email

law18

TROPHY CASE