By Chris Wright
“Whereas I believe your decision to be misguided, I commend your integrity”
The Brazilian officials that are to take charge of England’s opening World Cup game against the USA have taken a crash course in English profanity, so they can identify when both sets of players are verbally abusing them – and punish them accordingly.
Referee Carlos Simon and his two assistants, Altemir Hausmann and Roberto Braatz, have studied a list of 20 swear words ahead of Saturday’s Group C opener – with Braatz confirming;
“We have to learn what kind of words the players say. All players swear and we know we will hear a few. Of course, we can’t do this in 11 different languages but at least we have to know the swear words in English.”
FIFA have denied any connection to the actions of the Brazilian trio, amidst speculation that football’s governing body had passed a 20-word ‘swear list’ around every group of officials involved in the World Cup;
“No such list has been distributed to the referees. It’s all total f**cking horsesh*t if you ask me.”
The last bit of that quote may have been lost in translation.