20 SWERUS Quiniou

 

Joël Quiniou entered his third and final World Cup with somewhat mixed memories of football's top competition. After a performance widely considered weak in a very challenging Scotland - Uruguay game (his record for the earliest WC dismissal still stands) in 1986, he was appointed to two very sonorous games in 1990, before only finishing his tournament with the Third Place Playoff, though he was linesman in the FR Germany - England Semifinal. How would he fare this time?

Frenchman without doubt started very well in the United States. He was in charge of an important Sweden - Russia game which was challenging, not in keeping the overview, but in the frequency of crucial decisions he had to take. Let's analyse them!

Key Match Incidents

3' - Penalty (holding) given to Russia

Simply a correct decision, clear holding offence, good alertness from the first whistle (shown as well by the correctly detected handling in 1'). Nowadays one can analyse about a sanction (borderline but more yellow than red for me), but it was a different optic then.

39' - Penalty (holding) given to Sweden

The symmetry should not go unnoticed here - I am quite sure that Quiniou would not have given this penalty were it not for the penalty given to Russia. There is a holding offence on the attacker as he misses a relatively easy chance to score a goal, but it appears fairly trifling, especially as the attacker does not appeal to the referee after he misses his shot. To be honest my preference would be for play on. Supportable call.

49' - Second Yellow Card (Tackle) to Russia no.3

Sergej Gorlukovič was correctly ejected - I would assess this needless studs rake as excessive force, but in the end it is no matter given there is some room for doubt regarding a straight red, he was correctly dismissed in any case.

52' - Serious Foul Play by Sweden no.6?

The studs contact on the head would definitely be worthy of a red card, a call that I would back personally. However, given the rather accidental nature of the foul, a yellow card seems about right here for me. 

57' - Serious Foul Play by Sweden no.10?

Bad tackle by Martin Dahlin, actually a very bad tackle the dangerousness of which can only really be detected on the second replay. The studs contact made is worthy of an ejection in my opinion. However, in 1994, I think Quiniou made the right call - yellow card sufficed here.

86' - Foul against Russia no.15

Quiniou disallowed a goal for Russia which would have halved the deficit to 3-2, and he was correct to do so. A clear charging foul by Dmitri Radčenko, which was correctly identified by the French referee. 

Balance

There is rather little to say about the rest of the game, Quiniou whistled well with his very good unobtrusive, unfussy style. As said above, the very early caution for handling was spot on. Quite challenging games for both linesmen, at least when they were controlling the side that Sweden were attacking into respectively. Very important call by Mohammad Fanaei at 56', it seems he just about got it right.  

Joël Quiniou - 8,4 Mohammad Fanaei - 8,4 Abdulmajid Hassan - 8,4 Neji Jouini FRA, IRN, EGY	Sweden 3-1 Russia Group Stage
K. Andersson (42') - Tackle Schwarz (52') - Tackle Dahlin (57') - Tackle	Gorlukovič (1') - SPA (Handling) Charin (34') - Delaying the Restart
	Gorlukovič (49') - Tackle