Referees all at sea yet again

FOR me, last week was really special. I hired a large yacht and, along with all the Hearts team, we sailed around the Mediterranean. We embarked from Monaco and went along the French coast visiting places like St Maxime and St Tropez, before striking out to Corsica.

It was fascinating but it wasn't just a pleasure boat trip. Everywhere we docked had football grounds and the players trained twice a day - in the morning and in the late afternoon - ahead of our Champions League qualifiers.

We lived aboard the vessel - and everyone loved the experience. I speak from personal experience as a former submariner but it is good for team spirit living at sea. People get to know each other better and it's important to really know who you're working with. It will reinforce the unity among us: crews of sea vessels are the most united collectives of all. Also the marines are the bravest troopers in any military force. So my hope is that the combination of all this has made for very good pre-season preparations. It was the first time we did this but I hope we'll do it again next year.

Naturally, we all watched the World Cup games together - on a big TV screen on one of the decks. There were quite emotional moments when we admired goals being scored or when we got outraged at the refereeing.

I didn't particularly want to raise the latter subject again but it seems inevitable because the referees at this World Cup do such outrageous things. In the past, scandals with refereeing happened quite seldom. Now we can expect them almost every match. For example, it was plus 35 degrees when England played against Paraguay but the referee wouldn't let the players drink water during breaks! He took away the plastic bottles from them, and threatened with yellow cards. That was something totally irrational.

The Holland v Portugal game was another more glaring example of how a referee can utterly spoil the game. Instead of stopping it for a minute or two and giving the captains of both teams a good warning, Valentin Ivanov, the Russian referee, made a spree of issuing yellow then red cards. In the process, he put everyone on the pitch through unnecessary stress including himself and he actually provoked more harsh tackles. The earlier lapse by English official Graham Poll - the famous three yellow card incident - was by comparison only a mistake and nothing else.

A disappointment to me at this World Cup has been the Asian teams. But from my point of view, both Japan and in particular Korea fell victim of their successes four years ago. They'll learn their lessons - mainly of how to win not only at home - and I'm sure both will be formidable forces in the next campaign.

I quite liked the team from Ghana. They played well and to me they deserved to be in the last eight. Even playing against Brazil they looked all right.

Brazil's second goal was scored from an obvious offside position. Before that, we could hope that Ghana might equalise (and they almost did!) and who could have predicted the final result in that case? At the same time I can't say I didn't like the Brazilian team performance. The thing is that you expect high quality football from Brazil while Ghana's fine way of playing was a pleasant surprise - a rarity at this World Cup.

Interesting things do happen though. It was fun to learn that it was possible to drop out of the World Cup competition without conceding a single goal in four games like the Swiss team. Or to come through to the last eight without scoring in three games out of four like the Ukrainians did.

Another remarkable feature is how well stars like Portugal's Maniche - who is currently without a club - has played. Or Zidane, who proves again that really talented players can perform well despite their age. Such footballers should play until they're 40. It's quite possible if a player takes good care of his own fitness, if his team has top professional medics to look after him, and if his training is organised properly.

Yet, as a whole, the level of football most teams have shown in the 2006 competition is not as high as I expected. I have yet to watch a match that I'll remember for years afterwards.

Teams playing in Germany think too much about the result. You may say that at all World Cups or Euro Championships the teams are obviously preoccupied with winning more than with the beauty of their football. But the best and most memorable matches were different: the game prevailed over the result, players forgot about strict schemes drawn by managers and just gave way to their best skills.

But there are still games at this World Cup which may yet turn into real feasts for us football fans.

At the moment I have got tickets for both the semi-finals - I don't know if I'll get to the final too. I hope to really enjoy watching these games but in Germany I have a specific task in addition to this. I'll be looking at the stadiums. The arenas in Germany are the best that the world of football has to offer. I'll be looking for ideas to apply when we start the reconstruction of Tynecastle with the aim of turning it into such a place - which is what our club and its fantastic supporters deserve.

Taken from the Scotsman