In Germany over the weekend, an experienced FIFA official, Wolfgang Stark, admitted to journalists waiting outside his dressing room after the match that he got it wrong when he gave a penalty and ordered off Dortmund defender Marcel Schmelzer during the first half.  The decision changed the game. The mea culpa changed nothing.  Borussia Dortmund, unbeaten in its previous 12 games in the Bundesliga, the German Cup and the Champions League, lost, 3-2, at home to Wolfsburg. And Dortmund, Germany’s champion for the past two seasons, has now quite possibly lost its title to the resurgent Bayern Munich.  While that controversy was going on in the Bundesliga, Arsenal benefited from two penalties in winning its home game, 2-0, against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.  Both penalties were dubious calls. Even Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, called one of them “a little bit lucky.” And that, from Wenger — or from most modern coaches — is rare.  The referee at Arsenal, Mike Jones, did what referees in the Premiership are advised to do. He kept silent.  But the status quo between players, managers and match officials in the global game has become a Faustian pact. It is built on distrust. Players, we know, will swear that they never touched the ball with their hand, never touched an opponent. And players will go down in the penalty box, touched or not, if they think they can deceive the arbiter and gain an unwarranted penalty kick.  What they all know — players, officials and managers alike — is that every league match is televised these days. And every incident will have TV replays giving angles and perceptions the human eye cannot always see at full speed.  The postgame hiatus comes down to this: Was Stark wise to admit his oversight in Dortmund, or was Jones wiser to purse his lips and walk on by the waiting media pack? Either way, the decisions are not redeemable. The first, and last, rule in the book is that the referee’s decision is final.  FIFA, however, can do something about the diktat that amounts to triple jeopardy for a defender in Schmelzer’s situation. He was deemed to have handled the ball on his goal line. That, under the current rules set by FIFA and the international board, is a compulsory red card, a penalty, and an automatic one-match ban.  Schmelzer may not suffer the third part of that punishment because the Bundesliga will, in the light of Stark’s confession of error, rescind the ban. However, he still missed two-thirds of the game Saturday, he still suffered an erroneous penalty that tied the score, and he had to watch as his team, so totally dominant in the opening half hour, wearily suffered a loss that changes its season.  There were 80,000 judges on the ground, overwhelmingly Dortmunders, who did not see what Stark thought he saw in that 36th minute. There were at least 14 TV cameras, and it took only one of those to show in slow motion close-up that Schmelzer stopped the ball with his thigh. True, the ball did then rebound to slightly brush his hand. But that was involuntary, as the referee later admitted. “I’ve looked at it again,” Stark told reporters. “It was an error of perception on my part.  “I’m sorry, that should not happen,” he said. “The penalty and the red card were a mistake on my part. That’s annoying.”  Annoying, too, was the way in which every Wolfsburg player within shouting distance of the referee called for the penalty, and the expulsion. Some, perhaps, were as fooled by the moment as Stark was. Others probably were not, and the lack of a handshake between the team’s coaches at the end suggested the ill feeling that emanated from that instant.  That is another manifestation of modern times. Players do not arbitrarily cheat on one another, on the opponents, on the officials. They are coached to do it.  Wenger is often a coach, and sometimes a television commentator, who laments the inherent dishonesty of players who simulate fouls against them, and he is a ferocious complainer against deliberate foul play.  That is because, usually, Wenger is a champion of the beautiful style he preaches. Arsenal, however, is having a difficult season. Its team is struggling, and its own fans are questioning the coaching philosophy after Wenger’s 17 years at the club. So, doubtless he was relieved and grateful for the two-goal victory over West Bromwich Albion. But the first penalty in the game looked more than suspicious.  Santi Cazorla, the little Spaniard whose quick feet and quick thinking have given Arsenal much pleasure even amid the struggle of past weeks, was the culprit. He darted into the penalty box, he tumbled spectacularly, and he “won” a penalty that his countryman, Mikel Arteta, struck straight down the middle of the goal.  The problem was that nobody had touched Cazorla. Steven Reid, the nearest defender, had been careful not to tackle him. The referee, Jones, was fooled by the fall to ground.  “Cazorla told me he was touched,” Wenger said after the game. “I don’t know, I haven’t analyzed it yet. But we deserved to win this match, we created chances.”  Created, and missed. The second penalty came when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was definitely fouled. However, the Arsenal winger had pushed over an opponent to win the ball before he got into the box.  Some years ago, UEFA invited a journalist to a conference with elite referees. Should referees, like players and coaches, give postgame interviews? After a mock question and answer session in which the reporter asked questions based on views the refs had not seen, it was decided that referees had nothing to gain from cross-examination.
Two games this weekend -- one in Germany, the other in England -- saw questionable refereeing decisions affect the final outcome.