Cognitive Dissonance, or In Defense of Koman Coulibaly....

The soccer fans in the audience are probably puzzled at the alternate title of this entry and may find themselves in severe discomfort in a few paragraphs. To those people, I beg you to hear me out.

Koman Coulibaly is a soccer official from Mali. He was the central player in what will live to be the most controversial of several debatable calls in the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa. On Friday, the US looked to make history, becoming the first team to ever come from a 2-0 deficit to win a match in the World Cup on the strength of a Maurice Edu finish of a well-served free kick by Landon Donovan. But an instant before Edu touched the ball over the outstretched hands of the Slovenian goalkeeper after knifing unmarked through the defense, Coulibaly's whistle sounded.

The official game feed flashed "USA: Offside" under the score bug, and the official play-by-play feed said that Edu had committed a foul.

In the stadium and in watch parties around the world, USA fans went from jubilation to absolute shock and outrage, as anyone watching the game saw multiple Slovenian defenders draped over USA attackers, and realized that the Americans had just been screwed out of a (semi-)deserved three points. (More on the parenthetical in another blog post...)

Coulibaly didn't respond on the field to questions from a remarkably reserved US side, and to date we still have not heard an official explanation of what he saw that warranted a foul. Even though a number of World Cup referees will be available to the media on Monday, the official party line from FIFA is that there will be no comment on specific decisions. Some have suggested that the foul was whistled on Carlos Bocanegra, and others have suggested that Clint Dempsey was at fault. Reports have also indicated that Coulibaly's whistle was in his mouth the entire time, suggesting that he was looking for a foul from the get go. The performance even earned the number one spot in the "Lowlights Countdown" on ESPN's Winner's Bracket.

Despite the likelihood that there will be no official explanation forthcoming, Yahoo.com has reported from FIFA sources that the full performance review will be expedited for Coulibaly's match and that his tenure at this World Cup is likely finished.

The dismissal is certainly deserved and the continued focus on the play is nice, but in fairness, I cannot put any fault for this situation on Coulibaly. After considerable time to cool down, and aided in part by the poor U.S. performance in the first half and more in part by the fact that the Yanks are still in full control of their destiny, I hereby resolve Coulibaly of any blame for his failure.

FIFA is entirely at fault here. By failing to adequately prepare referees from less experienced confederations for the largest stage in the world, FIFA fails the game and fails these officials.

The commitment to equitable representation at the World Cup is admirable. The game of soccer is truly an international game, and it is crucial that all member federations have the chance to compete at the highest stage, both as players and as referees. Over the past couple of decades, we have seen the fruits of this, as the performance of African and Asian teams have impressed over the past several tournaments. Far from being the perpetual minnows to be gobbled up by the "traditional soccer powers", there have been a number of upsets that would simply have been unthinkable. However, the officiating has not kept pace, despite the fervent wishes and best intentions of FIFA.

Coaches know that for players to improve, they must be challenged and pushed beyond their comfort zone. For teams, this is relatively easy, as they can schedule friendly matches with teams with whom they are moderately overmatched, take part in other tournaments, or look to foreign managers (cf. Hiddink, Guus) to train their squads. But for referees, there is no such avenue for professional improvement.

If FIFA is truly interested in seeing growth in its officiating corps, it should make a greater commitment to giving developing referees the chance to oversee high profile matches where less hangs in the balance. In addition to offering an incentive to host federations who are willing to bring in referee crews from outside their country or even confederation for friendly matches, FIFA should make maximum use of the Confederations Cup.

The warm up tournament for the World Cup Finals is an excellent opportunity to give a referee a high-profile match with all of the pomp and circumstance - and nervous moments - that surround the game. What would be the harm in bringing in developing referee trios and pairing them with successful, knowledgable referees from larger confederations as fourth officials to serve as mentors? Referees in CONCACAF, CONMEBOL and UEFA have many more opportunities to preside over games of highly-skilled, experienced squads than are available to referees from CAF, AFC, and OFC.

By giving developing referees an opportunity to take on high-profile matches without the added pressure of determining a team's chances of continuing in the largest and most-important sporting event in the world, FIFA can really achieve the full representation that they so clearly desire and still satisfy their credo of Fair Play.

And they can ensure that failures like that of Koman Coulibaly are less likely to happen in the future.