#asian-referees

#asian-referees

The highest reported number of players sent off in a single football match is 36 in the Argentine Primera D game between Club Atletico Claypole and Victoriano Arenas refereed by Damian Rubino (Argentina) at the Estadio Rodolfo Capocasa, Claypole, Argentina, on 27 February 2011. All 18 players on each side (11 on-field players and seven substitutes) were sent off following what the referee described in his post-match report as a 'Generalised Brawl'.

AC Milan are internally very discontent with the officiating during Saturday night's game between Inter and Juventus, a report claims. After beating Pisa on Friday night, Milan were hoping for a favour from Juventus on Saturday, and they were very close to getting one but for Piotr Zielinski's last-minute winner. However, it was a game full of controversial decisions, all of which seemed to go in the Nerazzurri's favour.

Serie A's referee designator Gianluca Rocchi said match official Federico La Penna was clearly wrong in showing Juventus defender Pierre Kalulu a second yellow card during Saturday's loss at Inter, and apologised over the incident. Kalulu was sent off after Inter's Alessandro Bastoni tumbled to the ground and immediately gestured towards the referee demanding a card, indicating that Kalulu had grabbed his shirt to bring him down. Television footage suggested there was no contact between the players.

Image source, Getty Images Football's lawmakers will consider widening the remit for red cards when a goalscoring opportunity is denied at a meeting on Tuesday. However, Arsene Wenger's "daylight" offside proposal is set to be kicked into touch in favour of a different idea which is fairer for defences. Goalkeeper tactical timeouts, time-wasting and video assistant referee (VAR) tweaks are among other items on the agenda.

At the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d'Ivoire, officiating was at its finest, with the Confederation of African Football's video assistant referee operation setting standards that were the envy of the Premier League and several other European leagues. Sadly, refereeing standards took a nosedive at this tournament, which many associate with the abrupt dismissal of the Ivorian Noumandiez Doue as head of Caf's refereeing department on the eve of last year's African Nations Championship.

Every player at this summer's World Cup will have their own physically accurate AI avatar that will be used in taking VAR decisions. The innovation, which will involve every player being digitally scanned and leaves the possibility of size mattering in future offside calls, was part of a package of technological measures announced by Fifa's president, Gianni Infantino, as he made a keynote appearance at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas.