Give your whistle to your guide dog, ref!

I've been trying to avoid getting angry about the 'refereeing' of Australia's World Cup matches so far.

After all, Australia won the match against Japan despite a massive refereeing blunder gifting Japan a goal. And Australia lost against Brazil because of missed chances in front of goal, not the 25-9 free-kick count that went against them.

Besides which, there's something a bit "bad-sport" about whinging about the ref.

But you have to wonder when you read about the carryings on of mega-c*nt Markus Merk, who officiated the Australia-Brazil whistle-fest earlier in the week:

Merk for allegedly [told] Kewell he would not play against Croatia when responding to the abuse, leaving the official open to accusations of pre-meditation in reporting Kewell.

"He basically said: 'Your World Cup is over', and that Harry would not play again," said a teammate, speaking on condition of anonymity.

So, he had it in for Kewell. But that's not the worst part:

FIFA insiders suggest Merk changed his story when he realised his role at the tournament might be threatened after his performance in refereeing the Australia-Brazil game.

So he knew he was sh*t, and tried to cover his arse by reporting Kewell. Niiiiice.

Kewell is understood to have been furious after the 2-0 loss because Merk was congratulating Brazilian players on their win. Merk oversaw a 25-9 penalty count in Brazil's favour.

Yes, I can understand that - "congratulations Brazilians on that win I gifted you". Hey Merkin Merk, see those big yellow signs all around the ground? They are the FIFA FAIR PLAY signs, dickwad. Look it up, it says something about impartial refereeing.

And it's not just the parochial, jingoistic Australian press that noticed the blindingly obvious bias in the refereeing - which makes me feel less like a whinging sore loser:

Brazil, the aristocrats, seemed to be given free-kicks whenever an Australian breath blew across the pitch.

But anyway, it absolutely stinks that after all the anguish and angst socceroos supporters have been through to see their team finally get to the finals, the fate of the team could have been determined by this freak, and not the usual factors, such as Tony Vidmar (poor Tony) giving away a spot-kick or Bresciano skying the ball over the cross-bar again and again...

PS Points to Kewell for the nature of his outburst to Merkel after the match - he apparently said to Merkel "you're fucking shit", several times, which is funny because, *snigger*, two swears at once!