Webb says “I should have sent De Jong off”

The retired referee Howard Webb has now stated that he should have sent Nigel De Jong off at the World Cup between spain and the Netherlands in 2010.

De Jong had played a dangerous “Kung Fu” tackle on Xabi Alonso at the 28th minute. But Webb had only shown the player a yellow card.

The former referee stated that he would have sent Jong off, if he had seen what had happened clearly. He told BT Sport “I still thought I got it right on the pitch,….So I get back into the dressing room and my assistant referee has gone to his pocket and got his phone out, and his face dropped.

“I said, ‘What’s wrong?’ and he said, ‘De Jong should have been red carded, the guy from the referee headquarters is saying he should have been red carded’.

“I went, ‘You’re joking?’. I got my phone out, a mate of mine in the police said ‘Howard, it’s not a red card, it’s an arrestable offense’.

“Of course [I should have sent him off]. Even in the first minute of a World Cup final, if I’ve seen it clearly enough.”

Although the referee seems to have misjudged this situation, he has been considered one of the most high ranked referees by the International Federation of Football History and statistics. Webb has refereed a number of matches, including the FA cup final, The FA Community Shield and the Final of the Football League cup.