Referees

Luis Suarez’s blatant handball from the 2010 World Cup continues to be a subject of debate amongst soccer’s lawmakers. Suarez committed the offense in the closing stages of a quarter-final match against Ghana, giving Uruguay the slightest hopes of staving off elimination.

Asamoah Gyan sent the resulting penalty over the bar for Ghana, and Uruguay went through to the semis after a shoot-out victory. The International Football Association Board (IFAB) is now looking into ways to prevent that situation from ever occurring again.

On Saturday, Everton beat Chelsea 2-0 in the sixth round of the FA Cup at Goodison Park in scintillating fashion. There was drama, sensational goals (OMG Romelu Lukaku), and one or two good kicks in the shin (that may be putting it lightly — at times the play on the field more or less resembled a parking lot brawl after a few too many at the company softball game). Basically it was everything you’d expect from a cup tie of that magnitude.

If you're going to attack a referee, make sure he isn't a terrifying badass first.

Otherwise, you might end up like this dude in the Italian ninth division, who picked the wrong referee to mess with.

The ref's rection reminded us of this scene in the movie Wild Wild West, starring Will Smith. He became that much scarier and tougher by not reacting.

Accrington Stanley scored against Wimbledon right at the end of the first half. But that was the problem. It was the end of the half. The half was over. The referee had blown his whistle.

The referee had blown his whistle literally a moment before the ball crossed the line, nullifying the goal. The Accrington Stanley players were understandably pissed.

Chelsea FC are no strangers to controversy and accusations of foul play, whether it's kicking ball boys, wasting time, anything Diego Costa does, racist fans...we could go on forever. Yet in their game against Norwich, Gary Cahill played a back pass to Courtois who picked it up so blatantly, it defies belief.

I'm going to come right out and say it: Andy Halliday is a bad person.

The Rangers midfielder scored a goal in Rangers' 2-0 victory over Morton, and then did something so horrible the ref had no choice but to toss Halliday out of the game.

Imagine playing a game of soccer and all of the sudden thinking to yourself, “I think the referee is having more fun than me.” Would this be a question that challenged your perception of life? Would you all of the sudden wonder, maybe I should have taken that dance class is high school? Would you declare that yes, you can wear that pink blazer that you’ve always been to afraid to wear? It is certainly a thought that has never passed through my mind, but then again, I have never played in a game officiated by Clésio Moreira dos Santos, a.k.a. Margarida.

I want to believe in the integrity of the game. I really do. I want to believe that players go out every game with the intention of winning, that managers select players with the same intention, and that referees call a fair game. Sadly I know that this is not always the case, that across the world there have been numerous confirmed instances of bribery, match-fixing, and general corrupt behavior on and off the field. But this, this is on a whole different level. You are about to watch what might be the worst referee decision ever.

The European lower leagues are full of drunken lunatics, a phenomenon that was on display recently in an incident between a fan who ran on the field and an assistant referee who happened to be a woman. We'll just come out and say it: a fan in Spain ran onto the pitch during a game between CD Abes and Gabia CF and attempted to slap a female assistant referee with his penis.