What direction is football heading in? Sunday afternoon was supposed to be a feast of world class football; a battle between the titans; Manchester United versus Chelsea. Instead, Howard Webb and his team of assistant referees were determined to leave their own mark on the game, and for that reason football was robbed of one of its great goals.

One jersey. Many problems.

As reported by our Chicago Offside blogger Irish Steve, referee Jair Marrufo has been suspended for this week's matches after Chicago's controversial comeback against Columbus. Seems Marrufo left the field carrying Chicago DP Cuauhtemoc Blanco's jersey.

In a game of football, there are 9,500 seconds or more for players to score, so why are matches so often decided by a single controversial incident that flashes by in a few seconds?

Take Manchester United's 2-1 victory over Arsenal on Saturday, for example. Never mind the fact that both teams had a handful of relatively easy chances to put the game away.

There's no doubt that the Premier League season is heating up. The last few weeks have been extremely entertaining. And, for the casual observer, it's wonderful to see the Big Four teams getting beat. But there were two incidents on Saturday that I found deplorable. The first was Javier Mascherano's horror tackle on Portsmouth's Tal Ben Haim.

¡Que?!' Temo' Under The MLS Microscope Again
Excerpt courtesy of the Columbus Dispatch:

A top American soccer referee and one of Major League Soccer's biggest stars are being investigated by the United States Soccer Federation and the league for their conduct during the Crew's 2-2 tie with the Chicago Fire on Saturday.

Football FanCast columnist Mike Harvey feels that technology in football is not the answer.

Officiating in football is headline news these days. The past few weeks left a sour taste in the mouths of many fans. FIFA is at a crossroads and how they choose to handle this problem will affect the game for years.

Referees and their assistants are lambasted, often fairly, often unfairly, for their mistakes. Refereeing is extremely difficult, especially in the cauldron of professional football, but it's linesmen who should have our sympathy, as their job is actually physically impossible...

One Cuauhtemoc Blanco and MLS referee Jair Marrufo could be in trouble.
They got caught smoozing after a game. A game where Chicago benefited from a questionable red card to come back at tie Columbus.

Multiple witnesses reported seeing Fire star Cuauhtemoc Blanco broach the entrance to the referees' locker room following the game with a Fire jersey in his hand.

The 4th Law of Soccer deals with equipment. I will spare you the "naughty" jokes from the discussion of rules related to "balls" earlier, but I will mention that the 4th Law is more important than it sounds. In fact, it sets out some interesting rules many folks have never heard anything about.

Platini's masterplan to eliminate referee associated problems has been inaugurated.The Europa League kicked with two extra match officials, one behind each goal.
They are termed "additional assistant referees" - the short form of which is AARs - which is kind of difficult to say without giving offence.

While discussing the debatable usefulness and potential loneliness of the Europa League's extra assistant referees yesterday, we got a great tip-off from Vlad in the comments. Go to just after 6:45 in the above YouTube highlights of CFR Cluj 2-0 FC København in Europa League Group L (yep, there are 12 gruops) yesterday, and you'll [.

Match Officials announced for tonight's match at Tranmere Rovers.

Mr. Booth, will be the man in charge at Prenton Park Tonight.

Russell Started refereeing in 1984 in Mansfield and progressed to the National List of assistant Referees in 1998. After only one season promoted to the SG of assistant referees until he reached the National List of referees in 2004.

It's certainly possible if this report is to be believed.
Quote: Multiple witnesses reported seeing Fire star Cuauhtmoc Blanco broach the entrance to the referees' locker room following the game with a Fire jersey in his hand. He reportedly tossed the jersey into the room occupied by Jair Marrufo and his assistant referees.

Ah, the Ref. Often the most hated man on the pitch. Certainly the only one whose performance is subject to such widely opposing opinions. After all, when every soccer match ends, fans of both squads typically walk away from the stadium cursing the ref. Of course, fans only remember the calls that went against them.

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Mr Paul Kung, someone who has been very active in the rugby community as a player, coach and administrator shares his thoughts with us, from the rugby perspective, after he read some of the recent blog entries regarding the man-in-the-middle.

A month has passed now from the famous (and for many infamous) Chelsea - Barca semifinal of the Champions League. There's been plenty of time to reflect on it, so I feel it's worth adding a few words about it.

In the meantime, Barcelona went on to become champions, beating Manchester United in the final pretty comprehensively.

Match Officials announced for Saturday's match at Huddersfield.

Mr. Clive Oliver, will be the man in charge at the Galpharm on Saturday.

Clive started refereeing in 1992 and soon made his way through local football and the Northern League to reach the National List of assistant referees in 1998.

Or two, maybe.
I was unable to see today's Ireland-France match live due to work, but it was fascinating to see soccer writers and fans and the like posting away on Twitter and elsewhere after the goal that carried the French past Ireland and into the 2010 World Cup.
And I thought to myself - how bad could it have really been?

Sepp Blatter is mad, but he isn't that mad.

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Fifa's Sepp Blatter has revealed the Republic of Ireland have requested a spot in the 2010 World Cup finals as an extra team after their play-off defeat.

The Football Association Of Ireland today voiced its displeasure that issues in the meeting with FIFA were 'singled out in public by FIFA President Sepp Blatter despite his assurances that the meeting would remain private.'
Blatter jokingly revealed at a press conference that the FAI had requested a 33rd nation place at the World Cup in South Africa.