Howard Webb



Howard Melton Webb (born 14 July 1971[1]) is an English football referee who officiates in the Premier League and has been a FIFA-listed referee since 2005. He is counted amongst the top referees of all time by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS),[2] and has refereed the final of both the UEFA Champions League and FIFA World Cup, being the first person to referee both matches in the same year.[3]

2010 FIFA World Cup Final

On 8 July 2010, FIFA announced that Webb would referee the final between the Netherlands and Spain.[42] He was assisted by Darren Cann and Michael Mullarkey during the final in Johannesburg's Soccer City stadium.[43] He was the first English referee to take charge of a World Cup Final since Jack Taylor in 1974 – in which the Netherlands lost to West Germany.[44]

In the game he issued 14 yellow cards, one of which became a red since it was John Heitinga's second, more than doubling the former record of six for World Cup finals, set in the 1986 final.[45] The match was seen as a highly difficult match to referee.[46][47][48] After the match he was criticised by the Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk, the Dutch players, and was even booed by the Dutch fans as he and his fellow officials collected their World Cup medals.[49] However portions of the world's press condemned the Dutch for their rough play,[50] and some pundits opined that Webb was generous to the Dutch for not showing any red cards to their players until ten minutes before the end of extra time.[51] The Spanish press criticised Webb's performance, complaining that he failed to properly control the game and take enough action against several of the Dutch players, notably citing Nigel de Jong's high kick on Xabi Alonso.[52] Dutch legend Johan Cruyff criticised both his countrymen's rough tactics,[53] and Webb for not dealing more harshly with them.[49]

FIFA President Sepp Blatter defended Webb and noted that it was "not easy" to control such a match, saying "It's not up to me to judge the performances of the officials, I can only say it was a very hard task that the referee trio had on the field of play". Former Premier League referee Jeff Winter stated of Webb's performance "I thought he had a superb game. I find it very difficult to remember a more testing game than that at any level. I thought the players' behaviour and discipline were abysmal. From a referee's point of view, if the players don't want to be controlled it's virtually impossible to control them. Had it had been a referee without his experience of the European game, they might have lost control within the first 30 minutes."[54] Respected analyst Alan Hansen defended Webb and condemned the Dutch, saying that: "Howard Webb tried to make the game flow but on this occasion he was left with no choice

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