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Sunday, June 08, 2008

FatRef off to the Euros

A sudden career change has struck FatRef. From writing about the European property market, he has been appointed International Sports Editor of the Associated Press news agency.
As well as daily trips from the Garden of England to Camden Lock, the new job means I'll be off to Vienna to join colleagues at the European Championships, where I'll be sure to be taking a close look at the refereeing.
Last night's first match was not a thriller, but it highlighted a cracking piece of work by the assistant in allowing the only goal of the game.
The Swiss defence tried moving up as a line as a Czech player headed the ball back into "the mix". One attacker, in an offside position, stayed still while an onside attacker drifted through with the ball and shot home. It was a tricky one that international linos are expected to get right, but still the lino deserved to raise a glass to himself after last night's match.
Italian ref Roberto Rosetti had a couple of strong handball decisions to rule on and both times ruled that the Czech defender had not handled, at least deliberately. The Czechs, however, will be counting themselves lucky today that at least one of the penalties wasn't given as they could both have been penalised.
One incident saw the ball bouncing off a defender's raised hand while in the other a defender cramped his arm in by his side to block the ball's passage.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Blumming Brilliant, what a great time to start a new job like that. Very Jealous.