England’s World Cup semi-final against Argentina will feature plenty of focus on the referee who FIFA have announced will officiate Wednesday’s match in Atlanta
Alan Shearer is concerned about the potential for refereeing decisions to cost England against Argentina(Image: The Rest is Football)
Alan Shearer is worried about refereeing decisions in England’s World Cup semi-final against Argentina. The former Three Lions captain has gone as far as to say that he would not be surprised to see one or two red cards during the match.
FIFA have announced that Ismail Elfath will referee the game, alongside assistants Corey Parker and Kyle Atkins, in an all-American trio. Maurizio Mariani and Daniele Bindoni, both from Italy, are the fourth official and reserve assistant referee, respectively.
Elfath has already shown one red card during this tournament. Shearer can now foresee at least another being brandished in Atlanta.
“It would worry me re decisions,” he said on episode 35 of The Rest is Football. “I do think because there’ll be a bit of spice, it wouldn’t surprise me if there were a red card or two as well.”
Shearer has expanded on those comments to Betfair. He highlighted that several contentious decisions have gone in Argentina’s favour during this tournament.
The player-turned-pundit said: “I’m slightly concerned that a refereeing decision or VAR could cost us against Argentina because I think the narrative from the referees and the VAR from the start of the tournament to now has changed massively.
“I did that France game when (Kylian) Mbappe was fouled, and the ref went to the screen, was told to go to the screen, and he stuck with his decision when I thought it was a clear penalty.
“And that has totally changed over the last 10 days, two weeks, the longer the tournament’s gone on.
“And I have been amazed at some of the decisions that Argentina have had, particularly that one against Egypt where their Egyptian goal was pulled back and cancelled out. I thought that was nonsense. It is a bit of a concern when playing them.
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VAR also intervened during their quarterfinal against Switzerland, re-awarding a yellow card shown for a foul by Leandro Paredes to Breel Embolo after he was found to have dived. That was the Swiss striker’s second booking of the match, leading to him being sent off five minutes after Argentina’s opponents equalised.
Lionel Messi also avoided being shown a red card in Argentina’s opening match of the tournament after standing on the back of Algeria player Aissa Mandi’s leg. If that had been adjudged serious foul play, he would have missed their last two group-stage games.
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