>>>>
>>>>Do you think the referee made all the "money" calculations in a split second of deciding on penalty kick? Seems like one of those conspiracy theories <g>
>>>
>>>No and thats a silly conclusion to draw. What my post implies is that the referees are instructed to favour the most popular teams in ambiguous situations which can affect the outcome of a game. The ref does not have to do "money calculations"!?
>>>
>>>The logic is quite simple - World Cup and FIFA are for-profit businesses. They will want to maximize their returns. Nothing wrong with that whatsoever. We all do that in our own businesses. Therefore they will want to maximize the number of viewers which in turn affects advertising and marketing revenues and related aspects. And yes referees at that level are more than sufficiently expert to be able to make split second decisions like that.
>>
>>I agree with you on the fact that FIFA (as any organization) wants to maximize the profits. However, I disagree with you that the ref is "instructed" to favour one or the other team.
>
>Dmitry, please quote correctly - I do not say that referess are instructed to simply favour one team over another. My position is that referees are biased to favour one team over another in ambiguous, i.e. debatable, situations which can materially affect the outcome of a match. They will not be so blatant as to express favour in a situaton which is clear for all to see or for those incidents that are not material to the outcome at that moment in time.

Jos,
I thought I read in your reply to me the word "instructed.". If I saw the word there by mistake (must be early signs of senility <g>), I apologize.