How many are there and why the lessening of referees in the whole cup this year?  It would seem that a variety of officials is not a good thing anymore.
215696
non.. here is the list\n23 referees chosen by FIFA\n\nEssam Abd El Fatah (Egypt)\nCarlos Amarilla (Paraguay)\nBenito Archundia (Mexico)\nCarlos Batres (Guatemala)\nMassimo Busacca (Switzerland)\nCoffi Codjia (Benin)\nFrank De Bleeckere (Belgium)\nMassimo de Santis (Italy)\nHoracio Elizondo (Argentina)\nValentin Ivanov (Russia)\nToru Kamikawa (Japan)\nJorge Larrionda (Uruguay)\nShamsul Maidin (Singapore)\nManuel Mejuto Gonzalez (Spain)\nMarkus Merk (Germany)\nLubos Michel (Slovakia)\nGraham Poll (England)\nEric Poulat (France)\nPeter Prendergast (Jamaica)\nOscar Ruiz (Colombia)\nMark Shield (Australia)\nCarlos Simon (Brazil)\nKyros Vassaras (Greece)
519756
No change.\nLike said earlier. In the last world cup, English referee Graham Poll, issued 3 yellow cards to one player before ejecting him. Along with him, the entire crew were sent home after wards, since his AR's and 4th official, who also is supposed to be keeping up with what is going on to back each other up, also missed the second yellow and Graham and the rest of the crew found out shortly after the match.
676398
Too many fouls spoils the game not to mention the effectivness of the referee. I think it has been proven too many times that when a game is stopped constantly for fouls that the referee begins to lose control of the game. That kind of frustration is neither wanted or needed on the field of battle. \n\nIt doesn't matter whose fault it is. Player or ref. What matters is how the sports governing body determines how they want the game to be played. Tight or loose. I think this years World Cup is being played way to tight and the number of yellows and reds is maring the game and making it rather boring. \n\nI would not be surprised that at some point in this tournament a major altercation, and an international incident,  breaks out as a result of the tightness of the referring.
646009
In theory the crackdown on obstruction was a good thing.  Yes, I do miss the battles in front of the net... I guess it goes both ways.  I'd rather leave all the hooking and holding out of the game--but I still think that sometimes the refs went a little overboard and sometimes they were true to form and "put away the whistle" during the game... in my opinion it all depends on how they're calling the game and which team ends up with more power plays (if it's the team you're rooting for then of course the refs are doing their job--but again that goes both ways too).
662257
I think that there is some underground organization that controls the outcome of the games.  Money has to be involved.  That is my take on the whole referee thing.
61864
One of the reasons Boxing has become a joke it's they have so many champions,but the main reason I don't follow it anymore is the bad decisions being made by the judges.Now we have officials in the National Football League that were picked to officiate the most watched sport event in the world and they in turn made so many bad calls against one team it was pitiful to watch,as a football fan it left me with a bitter taste that two great teams matched against each other prove nothing.My congratulations to Pittsburgh but the real Stealers of the game were the officials
672917
Most of the refs have been reasonable but a few of them just lost it.\nThe ref in the Portugal - Netherlands game was on of the ones that was totally out of his mind. \nI think he just gave out some of the red card to the players that shouldn't have even gotten yellow cards just because they looked at him "in a way that wasn't respectful" or something stupid like that. I think that ref needs to find a therapist and fast too. At least before he looses his job.
640241
I think the problem is FIFA, who give so many directives before such a major tournament, it confuses the referees... FIFA should say "you are here because you are the best referees in the world, keep doing what you're doing."
662401
Soccer_mind, 4 years ago Korea won Italy rightfuly, there was some minor mistakes from the ref., but that did not affect the match. However, the match between Korea vs Spain, the ref. helped Korea to win. For another thing, FIFA is not doing anything about ref., before Korea 2002 were irregularities with ref. \n4 years after 4 years we are experiencing the same unfair ref. action. Dont you thing FIFA should change thing about referees?\nand Im not agree with you about WHAT COMES AROUND GOES AROUND. Dude give me a break.\n\n\n\n\nSoccer_mind, if you know about a little about soccer history, you will see there were astronomical mistakes made by ref way before WC 2002. Plz, dont be ignorant,and study before making any judgement.
650151
I see it, but I can't do anything about it unfortunately. I just can't believe what is happening at this World Cup. Small teams really have no chance because the referees favor all the big teams. And that's all about earnings...for example how many people would come to the stadium to see a final in which Australia and Ghana play ? FIFA only thinks about money...TV rights and money from spectators, that's why with every match that I see I get more sick of this tournament.
570808
it is very hard, now some games can be bias, but for a tournament like the world cup which costs billions of dollars I don't think that cheating and preparing games is an option. But some mistakes or 'sentimental' things from the referee might occur, he's a human after all.
606261
These refs seem to 'oversee' their importance in this WC. Following todays' games, their cards galore have gone from worse to.....is there another word after worse? If there is, that is where they are now. :-)
593138
bad refereeing.. FIFA has really lost it.. they've run out of FAIR and IMPARTIAL referees, can't they see?? les bleus is not the only victim during this tournament.. i was really pissed when the ref didn't allow that 2nd goal for france.. it was SO obvious that it got in.. why aren't they using camera replays to rule the goals scored in the WC? cn't they just hv an observer at the sideline that relays the info to the ref via the headpiece thingy all of them have on? really want to file a complaint against FIFA.. poor france.. if it weren't for that bad judgement, france whould've been the top of group G.. go LES BLEUS!!!!
673915
This has happened several times throughout the history in football. These days - in additon to a referee and two referee's assistants - there is a "4 official" and a replacement. In such circumstances, the 4th official will replace the referee,with the standby replacement taking over the duties of the 4th official.\nIn the olden days, a linesman would take over the duties of the referee, and there has been cases, where they have had to request spectators who are qualified referees to make themselves known and be a linesman.
433124
The refereeing has been very inconsistent with these new rules! I'm all for cleaning up the cheap stuff and the blatant restraining penalties but I've seen lots of questionable calls on hooks, tripping and interference but then there are times, especially late in the game that they ignore obvious penalties and that needs to change!! They should also do away with the 2nd referee...that's like having 2 judges in a court case!!
640975
in some countries they are ,but in others they have to take a  second job,fifa in order to be democratic select the candidates from all the federations they have around the world ,the fifa take in consideration a referee ranking they have, and to be selected ,you have to be a fifa referee,that is a selected group ,who have the experience,the knowledge,finally they take a cooper test to see if they fit physically for the wc games.\nbut after all they are humans a basic condition to make mistakes
577627
2002 was awesome, Oliver Khan showed the world how good he was, and this year he's not even playing.\nplus the ref's have taken over the games with their crappy calls...I have yelled at my tv every single game I've watched...like today agaisnt Korea...C'MON!!! it couldn't have been more clear the scorer was offsides.... that play wasn't even close to being right on! \nThis world cup has been the talk of bad refereeing..not action packed games.