Tour de Farce

The appointed referee for England’s opening World Cup game against Paraguay was Mexican Marco Rodriguez and the general consensus of opinion on his performance was that he gave a display that was quite unlike anything most of us have seen before.

Someone pointed out that with his penetrating eyes and slicked back hair he looks a bit like Christopher Lee, which is a bit scary but not half as scary as his arbitrary decision making, his total inconsistency, his alarming unpredictability and his extreme fastidiousness.

This man is dangerous. He is capable of affecting the outcome of a game in a most unfortunate and unjust way.

Where do they find them? And what are they doing at the world’s greatest football tournament?