{"id":3028,"date":"2021-12-17T12:29:08","date_gmt":"2021-12-17T12:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=3028"},"modified":"2021-12-17T12:29:11","modified_gmt":"2021-12-17T12:29:11","slug":"respect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2021\/12\/17\/respect\/","title":{"rendered":"Respect"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (February 21st<\/sup> 2015)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reputations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CIMG9735\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Carlos Velasco Carballo rapidly established himself as Spain\u02bcs top referee since deciding to concentrate on officiating in 2010. He had built up a reputation as a firm but fair referee \u2013 one who managed to combine a disciplinarian streak with letting the game flow. This was quite an achievement. It was not unusual for there to be several yellow cards and the odd red card too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armed with the appropriate FIFA badge, Velasco Carballo refereed his first international in 2008. His first season refereeing past qualifiers for the Champion\u02bcs League coincided with a meteoric rise. In that season he was awarded the 2011 Europa League Final in Dublin. Radamel Falcao Garc\u00eda Z\u00e1rate \u2013 then playing for Porto \u2013 set a Europa League (UEFA Cup) record for goals scored in the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a niggly match settled by a solitary goal scored by Falcao and liberally peppered by fouls and cards. 42 fouls resulted in eight yellow cards. This was a typical Velasco Carballo performance. The following season, he continued where he left off. Velasco Carballo refereed 19 Primera Divisi\u00f3n matches and brandished 16 red cards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was Spain\u02bcs representative at Euro2012 ahead of the more experienced Alberto Undiano Mallenco. He refereed the opening match in Poland against Greece. Sokratis Papasthapoulos was controversially sent off, having received two unfortunate yellow cards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stock<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CIMG9677\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Velasco Carballo\u02bcs stock plummeted at the World Cup in the wretched quarter-final between Brasil and Colombia. Some say the occasion got to him, but that does not explain his performance. It wasn\u02bct just the record tally of fouls \u2013 54 \u2013 some of which were appalling. Flagrant encroachment at a free-kick was not only unpunished, but rewarded. It was a performance that defied explanation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He permitted over 40 offences before brandishing a yellow card in that match in Fortaleza and the first was for a comparatively trivial offence compared to what had gone before and later. FIFA insists that there was no directive to referees to show leniency when it came to showing cards and refused to criticise Velasco Carballo\u02bcs performance in Fortaleza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CIMG9671\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Diego Maradona and Falcao were scathing in their criticism, but they weren\u02bct to know that Velasco Carballo had officiated against type. It remained to be seen how the Spaniard would perform post Fortaleza. If FIFA was correct and there was no directive then Velasco Carballo must have chosen to abandon his previous style and referee in an alien fashion, which he would no doubt stick to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Renaissance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

His reputation had taken a mauling during the World Cup. But the signs were there after the World Cup that Velasco Carballo had refereed that match in an alien manner. Last December he refereed Eibar versus Valencia. There were 21 fouls, but 10 yellow cards, four in the last ten minutes. His first match of the new year took place on January 3rd<\/sup> between Sevilla and Celta de Vigo. There were 45 fouls. Velasco Carballo showed nine yellow cards and one red.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was nowhere near as dirty a match as that infamous quarter-final. A league match between Real Sociedad and Villarreal last month had 24 fouls. He brandished ten yellow cards and a red card too. Just over a month ago he refereed a local encounter Levante versus Elche. Velasco Carballo showed a red card to David Navarro after just 6 minutes. He also showed six yellow cards. There were 26 fouls in the match. Clearly, this was not a referee who would not use his cards if the offence warranted it in Spain. What about in European competition?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He officiated the match between Schalke04 and Maribor in September. There were 24 fouls and five yellow cards were shown, all in the second half. He refereed FCK versus Bayer Leverkusen last August. Each side committed 12 fouls. He showed six yellow cards. Anderlecht\u02bcs home defeat by Arsenal resulted in just three yellow cards with 27 fouls. Ajax beat the Cypriots APOEL comfortably at home in December. The 4-0 drubbing had 16 fouls, 8 each. Two Cypriot players were the only ones booked. It was hardly a dirty match deserving a flurry of cards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His latest international after the World Cup was a Euro2016 qualifier between Iceland and the Netherlands. Iceland won 2-0. There were 23 fouls and only one booking \u2013 Nigel de Jong in the last ten minutes. But all of these statistics don\u02bct necessarily tell the whole story \u2013 not all fouls deserve cards. I have seen only two of his matches since the World Cup \u2013 Sevilla versus Celta de Vigo and last Thursday\u02bcs Europa League tie at White Hart Lane. His performances were true to form. Fortaleza was an aberration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Return<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CIMG9735\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fans of los Cafeteros present at White Hart Lane would be forgiven a double take or two at his performance on Thursday night. It was the same referee who lost control of the quarter-final between Brasil and Colombia. There was never any danger of a repeat dose tonight as long as there were no ludicrous directives. It soon became clear that there were not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just three minutes into the match those familiar with the style and performances of Madrid-based referee Carlos Velasco Carballo \u2013 remember him \u2013 saw a familiar sight. The real Velasco Carballo jogging over to Spurs\u02bc right wing with intent. Gonzalo Rodr\u00edguez brought down Andros Townsend. It was a bad foul that deserved a booking and got one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Velasco Carballo had made it clear where his line was and the match quickly settled down. There was no danger that this would degenerate into foul fare. The referee was in control. The whole match had 24 fouls and just three yellow cards. The referee\u02bcs authority was never in doubt and it flowed. There was no need for more cards. This is the real Carlos Velasco Carballo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (February 21st 2015) Reputations Carlos Velasco Carballo rapidly established himself as Spain\u02bcs top referee since deciding to concentrate on officiating in 2010. He had [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3028"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3028"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3029,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3028\/revisions\/3029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}