Howard Webb: I Should Have Sent Off Nigel De Jong In World Cup Final

Ollie Irish

26th, August 2010

5 Comments

Hadouken!

IN a revealing interview with the Guardian, ref Howard Webb admitted that he should have sent off Nigel De Jong for a reckless high tackle on Xabi Alonso in the 2010 World Cup final.

“Having seen it again from my armchair, I would red-card him,” Webb admitted, which I think is very big of him.

“The trouble in the actual game was that I had a poor view of that particular incident. I was looking through the back of Alonso and though I could see the foot was high, I could not be certain of the extent of the contact.

“It wasn’t that I didn’t want to send anyone off because it was a World Cup final, though I was mindful of the fact that the game was the pinnacle of the players’ careers as well as of mine. I just wasn’t prepared to take a guess 25 minutes into the game.”

Fair comment by Webb? He was subjected to a lot of flak (too much, in my view) over his card-happy display in the final, but I think the players – especially the cynical Dutch – made it an extremely difficult game to ref.

Posted in FAIL, International football, World Cup

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5 Comments

  1. JS. says:

    Alonso should obviously have gotten a yellow card, just like Drogba got after getting kicked in the chest by johnny evans.

  2. Chris says:

    I’m firmly in the ‘they left him no option’ camp when it comes to Webb’s WC Final performance, although kicking a man in the heart should obviously have been a red-card offence.

  3. Ryan Kam says:

    I’m still amazed he didn’t crack a rib. I’m convinced he was a test subject in the Weapon X program.

  4. Les says:

    Was in Spain cheerin on howard Webb in the final and still think he was the best man on the pitch

  5. Olivier Keegel says:

    “I should have sent off Nigel de Jong”.

    Sure, and you should have sent off Puyol, and you should have given a corner to Holland, and you should have… should have… should have…

    You shouldn’t have been there at all!

Leave a Reply to Les