Prior to last night’s announcement that
Harry Kewell would not be suspended for his public tantrum over Markus Merk’s
refereeing of the Australia v Brazil match, there was almost unanimous support for the view that he
would be banned for the Croatia game.

Chris Bambridge, an Australian referee who
officiated at the 1986 World Cup, yesterday said:
“From what I saw on the television, if he had have approached the referee in
that manner … during the game I would very strongly suggest it wouldn’t have
been a yellow card, it would’ve been a red one, again because it was such a
public display of dissent unfortunately.”

Speaking on Melbourne’s SEN radio last night, SBS’s chief football
analyst Craig Foster said that FIFA had been cracking down on umpire abuse in
recent years in a bid to stamp it out at the local level. With Kewell’s
outburst coming on the biggest stage in football, in front of millions of
viewers and 60,000 fans in Munich, he expected FIFA to take a dim view of the incident.

So how did he get off? Well, it appears
Kewell was saved by a technicality. FIFA communications director Markus Siegler delivered the news last night: “As far as the player from
Australia, Harry Kewell, is concerned, the FIFA disciplinary committee decided
to close the procedure due to inconsistent reports by the referee.”

While Siegler
would not elaborate on the inconsistencies, it has been suggested that Merk simply didn’t understand what Kewell was yelling at him, and when
responding to the outburst, Merk threatened Kewell with a ban against Croatia, a comment FIFA is thought to be furious
over.

Meanwhile, in a
huge blow for England, Michael Owen could be out for the remainder of the
tournament after suffering a serious knee injury in the first minute of England’s 2-2 draw against Sweden, with coach Sven-Goran
Eriksson downbeat about the
striker’s World Cup prospects. If there’s an upside for fans, it’s that
talented but untried youngster Theo Walcott may be called on to fill the gap.