Kewell cleared

Harry Kewell could have been banned from playing for Australia against Croatia in the most important match of Group F, but FIFA have cleared him after his vigorous remonstrations with the referee following Australia’s loss to Brazil.

Kewell’s anger at German referee Markus Merk was clearly because of the 25 fouls awarded to Brazil, compared to Australia’s nine. Kewell shouldn’t have gone at the referee, and is probably lucky to escape any disciplinary measures by FIFA.

According to the BBC, FIFA decided not to suspend him “because of the inconsistent nature of Merk’s report, according to communications director Markus Siegler.”

I also heard on late TV news tonight that FIFA were themselves unhappy with the way Merk refereed the game, but that was on a commercial network and I haven’t yet seen it mentioned anywhere else. It seemed to be that if you were Australian and you dared to touch a Brazilian, it was an offence. Brazil, however, were not subject to the same rules.

Another reason for Australian ire was the fact that Mark Viduka was not given any opportunity to get an explanation for decisions from Merk. As captain, Viduka is entitled to have decisions against his team explained to him by the referee, but Merk refused to talk to him throughout the game.