Email
Print
Digg This
By Brian Homewood
RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Brazil's refereeing crisis continued on Tuesday as two leading officials were dropped after controversial decisions at the weekend.
The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) banned referees from giving interviews and using mobile phones at halftime while former World Cup official Jose Roberto Wright complained of a drop in standards.
CBF refereeing director Sergio Correa Silva said that referees Luiz Antonio da Silva and Paulo Cesar Oliveira would both take a break.
"We had two big problems," he said in an interview with Radio Tupi. "Luiz Antonio will do some recycling and will referee in Serie B and C. Paulo Cesar will not referee in midweek."
Oliveira was in trouble over Gremio's equaliser in the 1-1 draw at Fluminense.
Fluminense goalkeeper Fernando Henrique comfortably collected a cross but the ball was knocked out of his hands by the arm of a Gremio forward and fell to midfielder Patricio, who scored.
In the other game, Internacional beat Atletico Paranaense 1-0 with a late penalty, awarded by Da Silva for an incident which replays suggested happened outside the area.
The crisis has been bubbling for most of this year.
In February, Rodrigo Martins Cintra was suspended for sending off the wrong player in a Paulista championship match between Corinthians and Rio Branco.
POSED NUDE
In May, lineswoman Ana Paulo Olveira -- who also raised eyebrows in June by posing nude for Playboy magazine -- was banned for three matches for her performance in the Botafogo-Figueirense Copa Brasil match.
The same month, Carlos Eugenio Simon was chased off the field by furious Atletico Mineiro players after turning down a late penalty appeal.
The CBF issued a lengthy circular to referees on Monday, demanding straight red cards for violent play and a clampdown on players waving fake yellow cards in the air, among others.
It also banned interviews and halftime phone calls.
"It's irritating to watch games with so many fouls awarded," added the circular. "The good referee should be aware of simulation and players falling over without a foul having been committed."
Wright, who officiated at the 1990 World Cup, said the decline was a general tendency.
"There has been a drop in the standards of Brazilian refereeing," he said in an audio video with the newspaper O Globo.
"(Referee) Leonardo Gaciba failed a fitness test for the World Youth championship and that is a sign that something is wrong."
"You don't make a referee overnight. Chaos has taken over."
