5 ARGCIV De Bleeckere

The Belgian referee shared his World Cup début with the national team of Côte d’Ivoire, who showed a spirited performance that was ultimately not enough to prevail against clever and effective Argentinians. The result was a mostly entertaining, football-focused clash in Gelsenkirchen that offered now greater challenges for the Belgian referee team.

Especially in the first half, Frank De Bleeckere was rarely required, but showed good management skills when needed. His assistants were more challenged though. Particularly AR1 Peter Hermans was in focus twice, first for not raising his flag when a header by Ayala had seemingly be fumbled across the line by Ivorian goalkeeper Tizié. While replays tend towards supporting Argentina claims that the ball had crossed the line completely, they are ambiguous enough to support Hermans. The AR was fully correct in keeping his flag down on Argentina’s second goal. AR2 Walter Vromans gave a good onside in the first half and correctly cancelled an Argentinian goal late in the match for an obvious offside position.

Returning to De Bleeckere, it comes as little surprise that the first booking was for Delaying the Restart after Saviola had obstructed the execution of a quick free kick. Such a booking was dictated by the tournament guidelines. Apart from that, the Belgian was always on hand to strictly punish any attempts of reckless play, which he did with three bookings. One could argue at least one of them was harsh, but I would support him in his choices – there were no critical scenes apart from that and while competitive, the match was very fair.

However, one scene in added time requires a closer look. The Argentine goalkeeper Abbondanzieri had repeatedly taken his time to execute goal kicks or free kicks, while Ivorian captain Didier Drogba took it upon himself to ensure a quick restart by collecting the ball and delivering it to him. De Bleeckere had mildly warned the Argentinian keeper earlier, but when in added time he again was in no hurry to restart the play, Drogba picked up the ball and threw it towards him, hitting the keeper in the chest area. De Bleeckere only yellow carded him. Looking at the scene itself, I would also support him in this case: while born out of frustration, the intensity of the throw was still enough to justify assessing the action not as one of violent conduct.

A potential penalty for handball in the first half would surely be assessed differently today while in 2006 I believe “play on” was the correct and fully accepted decision.

Overall, a good performance by Franck De Bleeckere on his début.

Frank De Bleeckere - 8,4 Peter Hermans - 8,4 Walter Vromans - 8,5 Éric Poulat Vincent Texier BEL, BEL, BEL - FRA, FRA	Argentina 2-1 Côte d'Ivoire Group stage
Saviola (41') - Delaying the restart Heinze (49') - Reckless sliding tackle Lucho González (81') - Reckless sliding tackle	Eboué (61') - Reckless play Drogba (90+1') - Unsporting behaviour