Final Matches
Frank was in charge
He reigned - there is no better expression - with a rather generous sovereignity over this clash where Dortmund looked for 30 minutes as if they could be trouble for Arsenal. But when the Gunners started to play serious, the Germans' hopes sunk like a stone with the 1-0 as a logical consequence in the second half. He let the match go as fast as possible but intervened whenever he felt it to be necessary. Two close offside calls were correctly solved (offside Arsenal 40'', no offside Arsenal 60'') and when the going got tougher he tried to talk first before getting out the cards (end of first half).
He waited just a little too long...
...to book the first two players when Schmelzer and his counterpart discussed like two kindergarden children for a throw-in which would have been the perfect opportunity to set the tone for the last 40 minutes or so. He had to book the blond German for a foul a minute later and Walcott for starting to yell at his assistant after 63 minutes. The game got rather lame with Arsenal not willing to expose themselves further with a 1-0 lead behind them and Dortmund without ideas to break the deadlock. He took no nonsense from Arsenal (yellow for Ramsey 75'' on a free-kick) and booked Benyayoun perfectly for a late tackling with both legs (77'').
The age thing...
This is a two-sided sword as the age limit on the one hand ensures that new refereees get the chance to be promoted, but often they sadly lack experience and feeling for the nature of a hot match I feel. On the other hand, the strict age limit forces experienced referees to retire prematurely as we have seen with Busacca and Bleeckere. Some even go before their last season because they don't want any pity being considered as a "lame duck" in terms of going out of their function. Taking these things into account, I would argue for a more flexible solution with the possibility to opt in experienced referees at least for two more years if they are physically fit which de Bleeckere certainly would be. This brings me to the Rafati thing...
The Rafati thing...
Babak Rafati had been taken off the FIFA list due to "age reasons" explained the German Football Association DFB after his fruitless suicide attempt on Saturday. At 41, this seems quite surprising but was in line which was long time done in the lower ranks of the referee corps where you didn't stand a chance of getting promoted when you were past 30ish. I still think that the way promotion and demotion works in FIFA and national FAs need to be reconsidered as the way we look on referees and their performances. I still think we need to give marks and point out mistakes, but being a ref myself I also had to learn that often it is not you as a person but merely the function you exercise which makes someone the scape goat.