How on earth was Martin Hansson chosen by FIFA to be a World Cup referee?
While infamously known for letting Thierry Henry get away with the “hand of fraud” that led to France clinching a spot in the World Cup, Swedish referee Martin Hansson has consistently shown just how unsuited he is for refereeing at the highest level.
The latest team to suffer (though not even nearly as badly as Ireland) from Hansson’s ineptitude was Arsenal as they took on Porto in the Round of 16 in the Champions League. Hansson rightfully awarded Porto an indirect freekick after Arsenal keeper Lukasz Fabianski had a moment of total incompetence by picking up a Sol Campbell backpass. However, the Swede allowed Porto to take the ensuing quickly and score the second goal despite taking the ball from Fabianski’s hands just a moment before, leaving the keeper out of position, and blocking Sol Campbell from getting to Falcao, who scored the match-winner. (Full highlights of the match are embedded after the jump)
While I am usually the first one to recognize just how difficult the task of being a top-flight referee, the fact that Hansson seems to just lose control of games makes me wonder how exactly FIFA thought that this guy is suitable to perform all of the duties expected of a referee at the highest stage. With so much riding on every decision Hansson will make in South Africa, can we really expect him to command respect from the best players in the world?
Ironically enough, Arsene Wenger was critical of Hansson’s decision to award France THAT William Gallas goal that was assisted by Henry. The Arsenal gaffer thought the Swedish referee should have gone to Thierry Henry himself to clear the matter up.
“He had that resource, which he didn’t use. What is terrible for the referee is that he gave the goal knowing something was not regular, yet he had no help. Because of the unanimous reaction of Ireland he knew something wasn’t right.” said Wenger.
What do you guys think? Is Martin Hansson worthy of being among the world’s elite referees, or should he be confined to refereeing games in Sweden’s Allsvenskan league?
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