FIFA is trying - Players beware, your World Cup could be over almost as soon as it begins.
The 22 referees at the tournament in Germany have been instructed to come down hard on the foul play that has become the scourge of modern soccer. Elbowing, reckless fouls and other violent conduct will result in a red card, disciplinary action and missed matches.
Collecting yellow cards also is going to be easier for players: Acts of unsportsmanlike conduct such as shirt pulling, holding opponents and deliberately stopping opposing players will result in automatic yellow cards.
some say it's a quixotic challenge -- to rid soccer of the bad habits that are ruining many games.
Soccer's decision makers approved modifications to rules that come into effect July 1, but decided the changes will be brought forward to introduce them at the June 9 tournament kickoff.
"The World Cup is the perfect platform to send out this message to the whole world of football, as people all around the globe will follow the 64 matches in Germany," FIFA president Sepp Blatter said.
One change being introduced is probably the most problematic: The refs are under instruction to implement more forcefully the law that bans players from "diving," or simulating fouls.
Soccer administrators fear the sport is being made a mockery by the sight of crafty players deliberately tricking referees into thinking they have been fouled. Referees do not have the benefit of sophisticated television technology, which outs the players after the match is over.
Coaches frequently have complained about inconsistent refereeing at the World Cup. The protests reached a crescendo at the 2002 tournament in South Korea and Japan, where teams such as Italy and Spain felt several bad decisions ruined their chances.
The World Cup represents the pinnacle of a referee's career, as well as those of the players. Their hopes of progressing to work one of the elimination games, or even a final, depends on how firmly they implement the laws.
There is no doubt that national and regional refereeing standards differ. A challenge that will earn a player a stern admonition from a referee in the English Premier League might well cost him a red card in Scandinavia or North America, where the laws are enforced more literally.
Referees from Mediterranean countries tend to look more leniently on "technical" fouls such as shirt-pulling and diving.
At this year's tournament, the 22 referees will hail from 21 countries. The referees are the most senior in the world. Players may peak in their early 20s, but referees are often 10-20 years older.
This year they will need to be at their physical best. Although half a dozen referees are being kept in reserve in case of injuries, only 22 will be on duty. Thirty-six did the job at the last tournament.
In Germany, the youngest will be 32-year-old Mark Shield of Australia, while the oldest will be Russia's Valentin Ivanov, who has crept in under the age limit of 45.
Age is considered a virtue at this level, where the pressure on officials from players, managers, a baying crowd and a hostile media can be intolerable. Match officials are given special training in the psychological aspects of being the most despised person around.
Shield will be officiating at his second World Cup. He was also the youngest at the 2002 tournament.
"Certainly there is a lot of pressure in some ways, but what I took from the 2002 World Cup was the realization that from a referee's perspective it is just a red team against a blue team," Shield said.
For many of the referees, making it through a yearlong process that whittled the number down from 46 a year ago is the biggest achievement.
"The selection process has been incredibly long because it started in February 2005 and finished last month with a series of physical, medical, psychological and language tests to ensure we can speak and write in English," 42-year-old French referee Eric Poulat said.
"In between, we have been assessed in our league matches and in internationals, so being chosen for the final list is a big moment for me."
ITALIAN SOCCER ENGULFED BY TURMOIL
Italian soccer was engulfed by turmoil Saturday when a World Cup referee's accreditation was withdrawn after he was implicated in a game-fixing scandal, and star goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon was questioned by prosecutors for suspected illegal betting.
The scandals were denounced by the Vatican as an "offense to sports" and an "offense to the joy of childhood."
Buffon's team, Juventus, said the goalie "presented himself of his own volition to magistrates," but didn't say what he told prosecutors. Italy's World Cup team will be announced Monday, and his status is in doubt.
Italian media quoted Buffon's lawyer as saying his client had gambled only on soccer games that didn't involve Italian teams, and he had stopped when that practice was banned last year.
The Italian soccer federation said it sent letters to FIFA and European soccer authorities to rescind the accreditations of referee Massimo De Santis and linesmen Alessandro Griselli and Marco Ivaldi, plus those for Paolo Bergamo and Pierluigi Pairetto, who were to assign game officials at the monthlong World Cup in Germany, which begins June 9. De Santis won't be replaced at the tournament.
"Instead of 23 referees, there will be 22 referees," FIFA spokesman Andreas Herren said.
Bergamo and Pairetto, who had also been vice chairman of UEFA's referees committee, assigned referees to Italian games last season.
Prosecutors in Naples, Rome, Parma and Turin are conducting investigations ranging from game-fixing to illegal betting.
Naples prosecutors said Friday they are investigating four Serie A clubs -- Juventus, Lazio, AC Milan and Fiorentina -- for alleged game-fixing which could implicate "top names."
Juventus seeks its second straight league title today, the season's final round. The team's entire board resigned Thursday, including managing director Antonio Giraudo and general director Luciano Moggi, who are being investigated for allegedly trying to influence referee appointments.
The Italian soccer federation, whose president Franco Carraro resigned this week, is conducting its own investigation.
U.S. STARTS WITH PLAYERS MISSING
Two players were in Germany, two just had landed at the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., airport and another planned to head back to England in a week.
But U.S. men's soccer coach Bruce Arena said he wasn't too worried about being short a few players at times during the 11-day World Cup training camp that began Thursday in Cary, N.C.
"It'll make a difference," he said, "but not considerable."
Arena said the early focus during camp will be pushing the players a little harder to improve the overall fitness level and then moving on to "building on our team concept."
"We know all these players, and they know what we're about and how we do things," he said. "It's just refining it and getting them back together and becoming a team again."
The team was missing a few pieces, including one of its stars, Landon Donovan. Donovan and Chris Albright landed in North Carolina on Thursday after playing in a match for Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy on Wednesday night. Steve Cherundolo and Kasey Keller will join the team today, after the end of the German Bundesliga season.
The team also briefly will lose defender Eddie Lewis when he returns to England for a crucial May 21 match that could land his club, Leeds United, a spot in the English Premier League.
"It's not really that long that the team is together before the tournament starts, so I think every day, in a lot of ways, counts," Lewis said. "We've always been a cohesive group; we've always had team chemistry, so being together as a group is going to help that."
After camp ends, the 23-man team will play three tuneup matches in the United States, and then head to Germany for the World Cup, which begins June 9.
The Americans play their opening match against the Czech Republic, which is ranked No. 2 in the world. The Americans are ranked fourth, the highest ranking they've held, which translates into high expectations.
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