The Guardian | Wednesday June 21 2006 9

De Rossi offers Merk angers Fifa as Kewell apology to Fifa is cleared of verbal abuse over elbowing

Jan van Happen Merk failed to caution Brazil’s second goal scorer Fred after the Lyon striker Glen Corry removed his shirt in celebration and also Harry Kewell will be available for Aus- failed to issue Kewell with a red or yellow tralia’s final group game against Croatia card after his confrontation with the The Italy has tomorrow after being cleared of offensive player. It is understood Merk had initially written to Fifa’s disciplinary committee behaviour by Fifa, who acted quickly to taken a hard line on Kewell but then later to apologise for elbowing the United quell the first refereeing controversy of softened his view, leading Fifa to describe States forward Brian McBride in the face. the tournament. Fifa’s disciplinary com- his report as “inconsistent”. De Rossi was given a red card after mittee cleared Kewell of any wrongdoing Merk has been involved in other high- leaving McBride bloodied and requiring after the German referee profile incidents. Most recently, in August, three stitches during Saturday’s 1–1 draw. claimed the Liverpool player had verbally he sent off Lionel Messi controversially In the letter, De Rossi takes full abused him following the final whistle in after only 90 seconds of his Argentina responsibility for his action, saying that the 2–0 defeat by Brazil on Sunday. debut. Jose Mourinho labelled him the he had apologised personally to McBride The disciplinary committee told Foot- worst referee he had seen after Porto’s after the game. He went on to apologise ball Federation Australia (FFA) yesterday Champions League semi-final first leg for damaging football’s image. that it had received contradictory versions against Deportivo La Coruña in April Fifa will also consider the Uruguayan of the incident from match officials. 2004. was fined £4,000 referee ’s report on the Whether Merk will be allowed to officiate in September 2000, found guilty of spit- incident and television replays. The red in the second phase remains to be seen ting at Merk and sarcastically applauding. card automatically rules out De Rossi from but Fifa said that it had “no issue” with “The FFA and Harry Kewell are very tomorrow’s final group game against the his performance. appreciative of Fifa’s careful considera- Czech Republic. But Italy’s coach Marcello After the hearing, Kewell emerged from tion of our submission and are pleased Lippi has indicated that he is anticipating the team’s hotel near Friedrichsruhe that no action will be taken in relation to a ban of more than one game. Fifa’s deci- to sign autographs and pose for pho- this incident,” said chief executive John sion is expected on Friday. tographs. “The result is brilliant and I O’Neill. “As Harry said himself, the inci- Meanwhile Italy’s captian Fabio Can- couldn’t expect anything more,” he said. dent arose in the heat of the moment.” navaro believes the Azzurri needed to “I had prepared myself for the worst.” Australia’s assistant coach return to traditional Italian football if they Fifa are understood to be furious with said he believed referees were unfairly wanted to succeed in the World Cup. Merk for allegedly telling Kewell that the persecuting Australia. “Brazil would be “We have to start to be the cynical player’s World Cup was over as he and the the first to admit that we are not dirty,” Italians,” said the Juventus defender. match officials left the pitch. The com- he said. “We have a reputation and an “The secret to going a long way in the ment, heard by a number of Australia’s unfair reputation.” tournament is to . . . rediscover some of players, left the referee open to accusa- Australia’s prime minister John Howard the typical defensive approach found in tions of premeditation in naming Kewell welcomed Kewell’s escape. “The good Italian football culture.” in his post-match report. Had Kewell been news is that Harry Kewell is going to be Italy go into tomorrow’s game in found guilty he would have been banned able to play,” he said. “I think it would Hamburg needing a point to secure their for a minimum of two matches. The Aus- have been a terrible shame otherwise. I passage to the second round. They lead tralians were also at odds with Merk over mean, if we’re going to win this, we ought the group with four points, one more than his refusal to explain to the captain Mark to win it with all our top blokes available. the Czechs and Ghana, with the United Viduka during the game why he was con- If we’re not, well, it’s better that we don’t States bottom on one point. Harry Kewell expresses his anger to Markus Merk at the final whistle Tom Jenkins sistently penalising Australia. with all our top blokes available.”