There has always been shouting against referees. In 2015, Levir Culpi spent the second round of the Brasileirão shouting that the championship was tainted. In 1982, Grêmio complained about a ball taken from inside the goal by Andrade’s hand, in the third game of the final against Flamengo. In 1980, 1981 and 1987, Atlético placed the blame for the defeats against the red and black team on the refereeing. In 1971, Armando Marques canceled out a header by Leivinha against São Paulo and, in 1973, he gave Portuguesa the title after missing the score in a penalty shootout. In 1963, Milan complained that there was no penalty from Maldini on Almir, which resulted in Santos’ second world cup goal.
Enough bad memories, or let’s go back to 1902, Germânia x Mackenzie, the first official championship game in this country.
The biggest crisis in Brazilian arbitration is not this. It happened in 2005, when two referees confessed to participating in attempts to manipulate results. Edílson Pereira de Carvalho and Paulo José Danelon, excluded from football, were never arrested. For more than ten years, referees entered the field for matches in Brazil greeted by shouts of “Edílson.” The name became synonymous with thief.
Almost twenty years later, serious investigations by the Public Ministry of Goiás denounced seventeen players and there is no evidence of any referee being involved.
The president of the CBF, Ednaldo Rodrigues, declared last week that he cannot say that the arbitration is 100%. It really isn’t. There is an urgent need for the professionalization of a group of referees and support, which the national commission chaired by Wilson Seneme does not offer.
At the end of Sunday, Abrafut (Association of Brazilian Football Referees) had to file a lawsuit with the Superior Court of Sports Justice (STJD). The commission did not make any statement about the integrity of its framework this weekend. The result is that the whistlers are increasingly under pressure and this only serves to increase the risk of error.
