As Claudio Gentile, one of the hardest defenders Italian football has ever produced and a World Cup winner with the Azzurri in 1982, once famously remarked:

"Footballers are footballers. We tackle hard and win the ball. If we wanted to dance, we would have become ballerinas."

RIGHTLY PUNISHED

Clearly, there have been some bad fouls but it is a remarkable fact that after 50 matches only one stands out for its blatant crudity and cynicism -- Italian defender Daniele De Rossi's elbow into the face of U.S. striker Brian McBride.

He deserved to be punished severely and was, receiving a four-match ban from FIFA's disciplinary committee.

But some punishments handed out by referees border on the farcical.

English referee Graham Poll has rightfully earned the wrath of FIFA president Sepp Blatter for handing out three yellow cards and one red to the same player in one match -- but those were errors of a technical nature.

Far worse, perhaps, was the over-reaction of Brazilian referee Carlos Simon to an incident in Saturday's second round match between hosts Germany and Sweden.

Sweden's ferocious-looking defender Teddy Lucic, already booked after 27 minutes, was red carded eight minutes later for holding back Miroslav Klose with about as much malign intent as a pussycat toying with a ball of wool.

As Switzerland's Vogel says, what will football turn into if challenges like that are punished?

Despite pre-World Cup warnings referees also allow too much holding at free kicks and corners to go unpunished, yet immediately flash a card for a late tackle not intended to maim instead of waving play on.

There is no doubt some referees make the right decisions one match and the wrong decisions the next. Generally speaking, though, they are fitter, younger and quicker and seem to be employing some discretion in their decision-making.

The World Cup will never return to the days of 1970 when not a single player was sent off in the entire tournament.

For purists more and more red cards distort too many matches even though, according to FIFA, it keeps them cleaner. The balance is not quite right yet.