Time flies in Poland and the refs are top

Well I've been in Poland for two weeks now, seen 22 games and been very pleasantly surprised by Poland, the football played at the Euros and by the incredibly high standard of refereeing it's been my pleasure to see.

Across the board I've seen consistency from the whole range of referees on show, with positive refereeing designed to keep the game flowing and the referee in the background. Referees are not being talked about. That's a real delight, especially after the first game, when Spain's Carlos Velasco Carballo made a shaky start. His was a nervous start to the Euros and Sokratis Papastathopoulos was on the wrong end of two yellow cards. The first one after 35 minutes was soft and needed little more than a talking to. The second offence nine minutes later did deserve a yellow, but by this stage Carballo had dug his grave and had no choice other than to send Papastathopoulos off.Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny received a red card in the second - a somewhat harsh decision as the attacker was heading off at right angles when he was brought down. In the past that would have been it for Mister Carballo, he would have been on his way home.  But no, he was given a second chance and acquitted himself well.
Whether or not he's included in the group staying on for the latter stage of the tournament remains to be seen, but at least he was able to salvage his competition.
Elsewhere, the Greeks have complained of a global referees' conspiracy against them. They're wrong, there's not and Sweden's Jonas Eriksson made one of the calls of the tournament in booking Greek captain Karagounis for simulation when he flicked his foot around a Russian defender in the penalty area and took a tumble. It doesn't matter that he's a national icon in Greece and that he'll miss their quarter final. He cheated.
Howard Webb had an easy first match with the second game of the tournament, a 4-1 Russian win over the Czech republic, with no huge decisions. But his authority is clear. He's a bloke who's comfortable on the field of play.
And Webb needed that composure when he handled Croatia vs Italy, a 1-1 draw. Both teams, as Graham Poll will only too painfully recall, are hard to referee and Webb's refusal to give Croatia a penalty earned the ire of fiery coach Slaven Bilic, hardly the most independent of observers.
But it's unfair to pick out Webb and his team. All the officiating so far has been top notch.