U-17 World Cup: FIFA head of referees Busacca stands by referee

FIFA head of refereeing Massimo Busacca on Monday put his weight behind American referee Jair Marrufo after German coach Christian Wueck hit out at the latter's performance during their FIFA Under-17 World Cup quarter-final match against Brazil.

Germany lost 1-2 on Sunday after taking the lead to bow out of the competition.

The coach was livid with the refereeing at the post match press conference saying just before Paulinho scored the winner, substitute Jan Boller was hit on his face by a Brazilian player which went unnoticed. He said that before the tournament, they were told such offenses would be punished.

"I mean normally I don't talk about a single situation. Everybody saw the competition and all of you saw the performances, even yesterday. If you saw also yesterday, you can judge alone. I don't want to say anything," Busacca told reporters on the sidelines of the referees' training session here.

"I know what we are doing and I also know what happened yesterday in the game because (we watch) video everyday. But honestly, it's not my habit to find excuse in life. If we commit mistake, for me it's easy to admit and say we were bad.

"But probably it was not the case for everybody. So we have to admit that you can have situations but not complain so much. We are very happy about the performances today," the Swiss former referee who officiated three games in the 2006 senior World Cup and one in the 2010 edition, said.

Probed further if the German coach crossed in line by not respecting referees enough especially at a youth tournament, the 48-year old said: "It's not in my habit to criticise. Normally I respect. When someone wants to say something that is not related to football, again he has the opportunity do it.

"I am always think in life we have to learn to lose and to respect. Mistake is human and part of the game. What we are doing, we are doing it in a honest way. Referees are honest. They do what they see not what they think.

"Yesterday the referee gave his 100 % and we are very happy with his performance. What others want to say they can. I am always looking to me and I also know my family has taught me to lose when is the case," he said.

He even took a dig at Wueck, saying it's easy to talk from behind a microphone.

"It's very easy to take a microphone and talk. I can take the microphone and explode. It's not in my habit. I am not talking about me but my team. We always look at our house not house of others."

Wueck had said on Sunday that the referee made the difference in the result.

"Did you watch the game? Did you look at the eyes of Jan Boller? It was a clear foul on him and they were not penalised. We have no problems in losing. But not in this way. The difference was the referee in this match."

--IANS

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