WORLD CUP 2010: REFEREES:Martin Hansson has no doubts about which refereeing decision he would like to change, writes EMMET MALONE

FIFA’S LATEST “meet the referees” event attracted a big crowd to a small school sports grounds on the outskirts of Pretoria yesterday morning, but there was no sign of the two match officials who have found themselves in the eye of a media storm since their errors on Sunday contributed to the elimination of England and Mexico from this World Cup.

The disappointment of those, particularly from the countries involved, who had travelled quite some distance to hear the explanations of Uruguay’s Jorge Larrionda and Roberto Rosetti from Italy for their actions on Sunday, was palpable as a federation official explained the officials had made a “personal decision” not to attend. Both officials were yesterday told they will not be retained for the quarter-final stages and beyond.

For some of us, though, consolation was at hand in the shape of Martin Hansson, the Swedish referee whose own handling of the game in Paris last November created a good deal of bad feeling in Ireland.

“I had a few letters, yes,” he acknowledged with a grin, “and not the kind you send when you are on holidays.”

A few had come from angry Irish fans but there had been some support too and he said that in the end he had to agree with one Irishman he had met on a plane to Portugal some time later who expressed the view: “You can have your most important game in a few years and your biggest star is injured, sometimes it rains, sometimes something else and sometimes the referee makes a mistake.”

Put simply, he concluded: “It’s football. Shit happens.”

Not that Hansson is blasé about the whole affair; far from it. The enormously amiable 39-year-old admits to having cried when he realised what had happened at the Stade de France, an experience that has left him feeling sympathy for his beleaguered Italian and Uruguayan colleagues.

“The first time I saw it was in the hotel about three four hours after the game so then I realised really what had happened. That was the first time. I can tell you that I have been referee for more than 20 years and an international referee for 10 years and if I could change one decision I have taken in all my career, I know exactly what decision I should have changed. But that is the referee’s life,” continued the Swede, who had previously overseen Ireland’s drawn game with Germany at Croke Park in October 2007.

“If we do a good performance no one turns up, if there are mistakes everyone wants to ask questions (a reference to his popularity yesterday). It is a part of football in my opinion and I have to accept that I was criticised a lot at the beginning even though later on when they saw the replay and they did the computer graphics they realised that I was blocked and could not see what happened, so it was a little bit easier then.”

However, the decision to allow William Gallas’s goal that night after Thierry Henry’s handball seems to have taken its toll on his career.

Though he was selected to officiate at this World Cup, the part-time fireman was not named among the pool of 19 referees to stay on for the last eight games.

Hansson is philosophical about it all but does feel that players have to look at themselves before blaming a referee for their misfortunes, particularly when he has been fooled by the actions of an opponent. “I think the players must take bigger responsibility in this area,” he said.

“There are simulations by players and then they show their shirt and it says: ‘I love Jesus’. That’s very strange for me.

“If you deeply believe in God or something but you can cheat the referee to win, that’s strange for me.”