In watching the Spain vs. Ireland game today, I noticed something curious. At one point in the game, the line referee held up the off-sides flag, and I couldn't help but notice that this flag displayed the colors of the Spanish soccer team (red & yellow). So, does this indicate that this line referee, or more to the point, this off-sides flag, is actively rooting for (and quite possibly showing favoritism towards) Spain in this game? If so, how unscrupulous is that?
Look, we all know that in the sport of soccer, seemingly biased referees may occasionally appear to favor one team or the other, throwing all the calls their way in an attempt to influence the outcome of the game; or at least, that's how it often appears to many viewers. This is simply part of the game, and until they update soccer with a pragmatic change in officiating that makes the game more fair and accurate in its rulings (this could easily be accomplished by having an unbiased official in the stands who referees the referees, watching the game and its instant replays on a monitor, and who could replace the active referee on the field if said referee made repeatedly biased or botched calls, in addition to overturning unfair and/or inaccurate calls made on the field, for example: red cards, penalty kick awards {or denials of same}, waved-off goals, etc. The trick would be finding an unbiased referee's referee, which is the problem to begin with, so maybe it's not possible to solve, so much as it would merely add a whole other tiresome and questionable level of bureaucracy to the game.), this is how it will remain, so we'll simply have to live with it if we want to watch (or play) soccer. And that's okay, I suppose, because really a lot of this perception of referee bias is likely, like beauty: "in the eye of the beholder".
But at least the referees, however biased they may be or appear, are dressed up in unbiased-looking attire! This off-sides flag today was clearly dressed-up in colors intended to send the message that this flag/these flags are indeed rooting for, if not possibly cheating for, Spain, and it's simply unacceptable! This display might even demoralize the opposing team if they noticed it, throwing the game, so it's clearly wrong even for that right there. I am a fan of this Spain soccer team myself, but even so, I do not wish to see such vulgar displays of favoritism during games! UEFA should truly be ashamed of themselves, permitting flagrantly obvious displays of favoritism in the officiating of their tournament!
Unless the red and yellow checkerboard flags are simply always used in soccer games, in which case it's not really an issue at all. (You don't suppose that's the case here, do you?) And in any case, it's immaterial, because the entire field was obviously rooting for Ireland, being covered as it was with bright green grass! (And that's a much larger display of bias.) But like I've said before: if you can read something bad into something, no matter how trivial or unintentional, it is our civic duty to do so, if merely for the sake of amusement!
(BTW: This whole post is just a silly joke, I hope you all realize.)
