19 BRACMR Brizio Carter

 

Arturo Brizio Carter was the first referee to handle a second match at World Cup 1994 and the only referee to do so before the final round of group matches. His game pitted a strong looking Brazil and a conflict-consumed Cameroon; the 3-0 scoreline belies a relatively tricky game to officiate, at least in the opening stages. 

With his characteristic excellent law-enforcer style, as he did in the opening game, Brizio Carter did a good job. As in Germany - Bolivia, the Mexican referee red carded a player out of the match (this game turned on that call): for my money, the decision was (at least) supportable. Some really interesting crucial situations to determine for Brizio Carter, which is where we start.

Key Match Incidents

13' - Penalty to Brazil?

Brizio Carter was certainly in doubt no as to how he judged the situation - he decided that the Brazlian player took a swan dive and gestured very clearly as such, and told him to get up.

This is a very specific type of situation where the defender's movement does not constitute a foul as of itself, but the attacker can simply do nothing other than 'dive'. Other examples are the decisive penalty in Italy - Australia 2006 and this recent situation. So I would actually support a penalty being given here, but I think that play on is the most adept call. 

48' - Penalty to Cameroon?

Yes, most definitely, a very clear penalty to be given that seemed to be missed by everyone, referee included! To add - in my view that is a crystal clear case of Serious Foul Play.

The ball is kicked forward quickly and looks as if it is going out, so it is well possible that Brizio Carter stopped running for it. In addition, on an expectation-perception-recognition level, one is not looking for such a tackle in the penalty area (can anyone remember a penalty and red card for a pure 'normal' SFP being given?) and probably one slightly panics and thinks "oh well he's played the ball".

I can't imagine that any referees would have given a penalty and I doubt any referee ever would have given a red card in addition, but this remains a clear and important mistake; if Brizio Carter decided correctly and Cameroon scored the penalty, they would have been level and playing against ten players!

CRUCIAL MISTAKE

64' - Red Card to Cameroon no.3 (Serious Foul Play)

The decision that changed the game - Cameroon shortly afterwards went two-nothing down and from there it was gone for them. Was the decision correct?

I'm not totally convinced - on balance, I would say the decision was supportable. My preference would be for a (dark) yellow card, as I would see the tackle as just very reckless and not too much danger to his opponent's safety (no studs contact). However, a rewatch a live sequence shows the tackle was indeed quite wild and flying, which constituted the sort of tackle FIFA were supposedly trying to remove from football matches. 

Rigobert Song was pretty unlucky - without doubt, there were much worse tackles which escaped the ultimate punishment from referees at World Cup 1994. On the other hand, he can't complain too much for making such a tackle at this tournament given FIFA's very public directives. Maybe he was sunk in the end by his teammate who second before flew in to a reckless tackle from which Brizio Carter played advantage, and Song met a Mexican man with his hand very likely on the trigger.

Balance

Brizio Carter missed a clear caution at 5' - replays show that the reckless contact was not visible from the Mexican referee's angle. His rival for the final Peter Mikkelsen, who was fourth official here, could have informed him to that effect, but perhaps the Dane calculated that not doing so improved his chances for the final! It was not really acceptable that he gestured for the clearly injured Cameroon player to get up, Brizio Carter ought to be careful with that mimic and not use it as a matter of course.

The yellow card he had to give at 37' showed that while FIFA had the right idea with their directive that any player who got on a stretcher and got off it should be booked, in practise it lead to some farcical situations, this case being one. 

With his excellent physical condition, Brizio Carter despite his policeman-style of refereeing showed a brilliant ability to guide players through the match. He and Mikkelsen both quite brilliantly did this in their games so far, and these two men through nineteen matches are in my eyes very clear frontrunners for Match 52.

Without wishing to show any disrespect to any official who reached the absolute pinnacle of officiating in the World Cup finals, the nature of Douglas James' attendance seems in keeping with other questionable selections made in 1998 and 2002 as well. He made two clear and important mistakes in the first half. Carl-Johan Christensen was a bit unlucky making a tight mistake in the second half. 

Arturo Brizio Carter - 7,9(4) Douglas James - 8,0 Carl-Johan Christensen - 8,3 Peter Mikkelsen MEX, TRI, DEN	Brazil 3-0 Cameroon Group Stage
Mauro Silva (45') - SPA (Handling)	Tataw (8') - SPA (Pushing) Kalla (37') - Simulation (Injury)
	Song (64') - Serious Foul Play