Adios, Herbert, you won’t be missed

By: Brian | June 6th, 2007

One of the worse referees in the history of football bid a fitting farewell to the game on Saturday with a controversial call that resulted in a spectator attacking him. By no means am I condoning the actions of said spectator, but I can see why he’d be angry. The call was wrong, ridiculously wrong, but it’s no surprise when it comes to Herbert Fandel. Awarding a penalty for an off the ball foul that did not hinder the opposing team is a judgement call that goes beyond the rules of the game, but when it comes to rules, Herbert apparently has no regard for them. This wasn’t the first time that Herbert has shown suspect judgement which could easily be perceived as favoritism. Let’s take a look at his shady past:

2000 - Italy vs. England - Under-21 Euro - calls a controversial penalty against England for Italy that effectively seals England’s fate in the tournament.

2000 - Brazil vs. Cameroon - Olympics - Cautions Cameroon captain Geremi twice in the span of 13 minutes, sending him off, then in injury time, with Brazil still unable to score, Fandel sends off Aaron Nguimbat with a straight red, effectively reducing the Cameroon squad to 9 men and allowing Brazil to equalize in the 94th minute. Cameroon persisted though by scoring in extra time, despite Fandel’s clear bias.

2002 - England vs. Italy - International Friendly - calls a controversial penalty against England in the 91st min that costs them the match. Against Italy? No way.

2004 - FC Porto vs Man U - Champions League - sends off Roy Keane with a straight red in the 87th minute, effectively ending any chance of Man U coming back and ending their European Cup hopes as well.

2004 - PSV Eindhoven vs Arsenal - Champions League - While allowing Mark Van Bommel to make Scholes-like tackles all over the place, Lauren and Veira both get double bookings which essentially leads to a 1-1 draw and allows PSV to get the point they need to advance to the knockout stage, despite getting their asses handed to them 4-1 by (the team that lost out by 1 point) Panathinaikos FC in their final match.

Not to mention his unbiased showing against Man U in Rome this year, that’s called sarcasm by the way, and in this year’s Champions League final where he called nearly twice as many fouls against Liverpool as he did Milan, awarded at least three goal kicks to Milan that were clearly corner kicks for Liverpool, ended both periods of injury time early, and allowed an intentional handball (admitted by Inzaghi himself).

So farewell, you no class, piece of shit bastard. Football has no place for scum like you.

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