World Cup Review: How would you rate officiating at Qatar 2022?

Pepe pictured complaining to the referee after Morocco dumped them out of the World Cup. (Photo credit: GOAL)

The FIFA World Cup has come and gone and for the first time in twenty years, the trophy has returned to South America with Argentina rising above a resurgent French side on Sunday at the Lusail Stadium in Qatar.

We take a look at some talking points from the tournament that no doubt rank among the best ever with the Arabian country showing the West how it is done. How would you rate the officiating at the event?

There was a bit of confusion on the opening day when a goal by Enner Valencia was chalked off for offside but replays and the interpretation shown on TV as assisted by a special technology that effectively tracks the offside calls, onlookers eventually understood the decision.

The officiating would rank above average despite protests from Portugal and Argentina in two separate games. Portugal’s case was based on the fact that all the officials of their quarter-final game against Morocco were from Argentina, citing the rivalry between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in their argument.

For the eventual champions, they worried about the famous La Liga referee that handled their same-round clash against the Netherlands which they eventually won on penalties after losing a two-goal lead to be forced into extra time.

One thing however stands out in both games, there were no decisive or pivotal calls that went against either Argentina or Portugal; in fact, you can arguably conclude that the referees handed the fifty-fifty calls to the Argentines and the Portuguese side in those games.

No team can pin their ouster or underperformance on the officials at the tournament and this is laudable compared to how it was in times past. Qatar got a lot of things right, officiating is one of them and many will talk about it for a long time.