This could be bigger than the Supreme Court’s ruling in 2000 that stopped the counting in Bush v Gore. FIFA have ordered a game between Uzbekistan and Bahrain to be replayed after the referee made a mistake. Uzbekistan were awarded a penalty, the penalty was scored but the Japanese referee ruled that another Uzbek player had illegally encroached while the penalty was being taken. Instead of re-taking the penalty as the rules require, the referee awarded a free kick to Bahrain.
Surely this must open the floodgates to litigation in world football. There are so many disputed calls it’s hard to know where it will end. If I were a lawyer I’d be thinking about expanding my practice.
