Conspiracy talk and claims of bias do real harm, fueling abuse toward referees and making an already tough job even harder.
After Argentina’s 3-2 last-16 win over Egypt, Pierluigi Collina, who leads World Cup officiating, publicly backed his officials, stressing their honesty and independence.
Egypt had alleged that referee Francois Letexier and his team intentionally favored Argentina, as if they’d been told to ignore their instincts.
Collina was right: that kind of storyline can lead to threats against a referee’s family. I’ve witnessed it before.
I’ve been fortunate not to experience it personally, perhaps because I’m an assistant rather than the referee in the middle.
We worked the 2010 World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands—an immensely proud moment.
It was a brutally difficult match to manage. Fourteen yellow cards were shown, Johnny Heitinga was dismissed, and Nigel de Jong might have seen red as well.
Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk was highly critical afterward. That’s part of the territory, even when you’re making honest calls.
Sometimes it goes further. English referees Michael Oliver and Anthony Taylor have faced threats in past years.
That’s completely unacceptable, and it’s made worse by baseless murmurs that question a referee’s neutrality.
I support England, I love England, and yes, we lost to Argentina.
In my view, the referee allowed a bit too much in the first 25 minutes. But our absence from the World Cup final isn’t down to the referee.
So it’s exasperating to hear the conspiracy chatter.
Few jobs put a single person under that kind of pressure.
Referees make decisions worth millions, often in a split second.
Of course mistakes happen on the pitch. That doesn’t make them part of a plot.
In the group stage, I thought Germany’s goal against Ecuador should’ve been ruled out for a high boot. Ghana could have had a penalty against England after Ezri Konsa’s mistimed challenge. And when Brazil led Scotland 1-0, they had a goal wrongly disallowed.
There have been 103 matches so far—about 10 Premier League rounds. Inevitably, there will be errors across that volume of games.
Slavko Vincic will referee Sunday’s final.
It’s the summit of his career; you could see how much it meant when Collina announced his name at the briefing.
Having had the privilege of officiating a World Cup final, I can promise you Vincic won’t care who lifts the trophy.
Like every referee, his only hope is to leave the field without any incorrect decision that changes the outcome.
That’s all that matters to him.
These conspiracy theories are nonsense.
When you’re out there, the only thing on your mind is getting the decisions right.
Darren Cann spoke to BBC Sport’s Dale Johnson.