THE BRAZILIAN referee appointed for England’s opening Group C game against the USA was suspended last season by his national federation amid accusations of bribery and incompetence.
Carlos Eugenio Simon, who has officiated at the last two World Cup finals, was stood down by the Brazilian football confederation for the final six weeks of the domestic campaign after a build-up of perceived errors culminated in the president of Palmeiras denouncing him as “a crook, a scoundrel and a shameless bastard”.
Some 12 months earlier Flamengo had been so incensed by the sending-off of their striker Diego Tardelli in a critical game against Cruzeiro – the forward appeared to be fouled for a penalty, only to be sent off for diving – that they wrote to the Fifa general secretary, Jerome Valcke, with an accompanying DVD, demanding Simon was dropped for the tournament in South Africa. Their defeat by Cruzeiro had cost them a place in the following season’s Copa Libertadores.
Simon (44) retains the support of Fifa although his propensity to court controversy could unnerve Fabio Capello. The Brazilian authorities felt compelled to sanction him last November after he disallowed a Palmeiras goal, scored by Obina, in their 1-0 defeat by Fluminense, the official judging the scorer to have fouled an opponent in the build-up. The Palmeiras president, Luiz Gonzaga Belluzzo, duly went public with his frustrations at the referee’s performance.
“He’s a crook, a scoundrel . . . just a shameless bastard,” Belluzzo said at the time. “He must be in someone’s pocket. If I met him in the street, I would slap him. What he did was unbelievable and he was helping Fluminense. He should be driven out of football.”
His comments were noted and, after a dialogue with the national referees’ association, Simon was eventually suspended by the Brazilian federation for “a repetition of mistakes committed during the competition”.
The Tardelli incident may have counted against Simon – who refereed England’s opening group game against Sweden at the 2002 World Cup finals in Japan – in that judgment with the Flamengo vice-president at the time, Kleber Leite, having been moved to put together a DVD of the official’s apparent errors to submit to Fifa. The footage began with the opening titles: “Please, Fifa, check this out.”
An extract from the accompanying letter read: “The video evidence collected and hereby submitted – attesting the unambiguously inconsistent, unfair and inequitable technical performance of Mr Simon – provides the Fifa referees’ committee with a factual account to illustrate the risks of retaining (Simon) in the list of referees for the 2010 World Cup. Flamengo has done this for the sake of good order and for the good of the game.”
England’s preparations for Saturday’s opening game will continue with a practice match against the local league side, Platinum Stars, this afternoon in which Capello intends to play those to be involved against the USA for at least 45 minutes.
The exception to that rule may be Ledley King, who could be rested along with his Tottenham team-mate Michael Dawson, who arrived on Saturday as a replacement for Rio Ferdinand.
The injured England captain, meanwhile, will watch Saturday’s game in Rustenburg before returning to Manchester United for treatment on the knee ligament injury sustained in training last Friday. The 31-year-old is not expected to require an operation to repair the joint.
The centre-back Matthew Upson is expected to resume training today after being absent for a second successive England session with a high temperature.
Guardian Service
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