Perhaps it wasn't as high-profile as the blown call that helped the Chicago White Sox win Game 2 of the American League Championship Series (WSJ.com), but this may have been even worse: The first Uzbekistan-Bahrain playoff game in World Cup qualifying last month was annulled because of a ref's mistake. The Toronto Star has the details; the short version is that the Uzbeks were unfairly denied a replay on a penalty kick, nonetheless won, 1-0, and then saw that outcome cancelled because of a call that went against them.

Now, if one were a conspiracy theorist, one might speculate that Bahrain's oligarchs, with their constitutional monarchy and plentiful oil-cash, could have greased the palm of the ref, Toshimitsu Yoshida, so that he make such a blatant error in their team's favor. If one were not a conspiracy theorist, then one is however left to admit that the state of international refereeing is pretty poor if the outcome of a World Cup qualifying match depends on a guy who makes a mistake like that. Soccer is not that complicated a sport; this is neither baseball (with its third-strike nuance), football, rugby, nor even hockey.

I ask: Why is the governing body of the most popular sport in the world depending on a ref who doesn't know the few simple rules? (And why, WHY did the powers-that-be ever think to hire for the World Cup a fat, out-of-shape, pig-faced and morally bankrupt Ecuadorian?)

—Carl Bialik contributed to this post.