I’ve been a World Cup official – I promise you there’s no bias

Conspiracy theories and accusations of bias cause real harm and lead to abuse for referees. It can be difficult to deal with.

Pierluigi Collina, who oversees all refereeing at the World Cup, had to issue a defense of referees after Argentina’s 3-2 win over Egypt in the last 16. He emphasized their honesty and independence.

Egypt strongly complained that referee François Letexier and his team deliberately favored Argentina. That they were somehow directed to go against their natural instincts.

Colina was right that the description could be a threat against the referee’s family, and I’ve seen it before myself.

I’ve been very lucky that this hasn’t happened to me personally, but I think that’s partly because I’m an assistant referee and not a referee.

We officiated the final between Spain and the Netherlands in 2010. A proud day for all of us.

The game was very challenging to manage as Spain won 1-0. 14 yellow cards and Dutch defender Jonny Heitinga was sent off. Nigel de Jong was also seen in red.

There was a lot of criticism from Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk. This is what you have to deal with in order to make a real decision.

Sometimes it’s worse than that. At this World Cup our very own English referees, Michael Oliver and Anthony Taylor, have received threats in the past years.

This is completely unacceptable and is heightened by these baseless whispers that question the impartiality of a referee.

I support England, I love England and obviously we lost to Argentina.

The referee, in my opinion, was a bit too lenient in the first 25 minutes. But in the end, the reason why we didn’t make it to the World Cup final is not down to the referee.

Really, it’s depressing when you hear conspiracy theories.

I can’t think of many other professions in the world where a person has all the pressures on them.

Referees are making multi-million-pound decisions – and they’ve got a second to make up their minds.

Mistakes on the pitch, of course. But they do not join any conspiracy.

In the group stage, I think Germany’s goal against Ecuador should have been disallowed for a high leg. Ghana could have been awarded a penalty against England for a mistimed challenge on Ejri Koncer. And when they were 1-0 up against Scotland, Brazil scored a goal that should have stood, but was disallowed.

There have been 103 matches so far. It’s effectively round 10 of Premier League football, isn’t it? So, of course, there are going to be errors made. It’s almost impossible to get through so many games without one.

Slovenia’s referee Slavko Vincic will officiate Sunday’s final.

This will be the pinnacle of his career. You only have to see Colina’s emotional reaction when his name was read at the referee briefing the other day.

Lucky enough to officiate at a World Cup final myself, I can assure you that Vincic won’t care a thing.

What every referee hopes for is what he hopes for, and that is to get on the field without making any wrong decisions that affect the outcome.

That’s all he’ll care about.

All these conspiracy theories are bogus.

The only thing on your mind, I assure you, is getting the decisions right.

Darren Cane was speaking to Dale Johnson of BBC Sports.