Howard Webb admits World Cup final mistake over Nigel de Jong's kung-fu kick

England's World Cup referee Howard Webb has admitted that he should have sent off Manchester City's Nigel de Jong in the final in Johannesburg. Webb was criticised for not sending off Dutch midfielder De Jong for a first-half challenge on Spain's Xabi Alonso. Webb produced 14 yellow cards, including two for Dutchman JohnnyHeitinga, as Spain beat the Netherlands 1-0 in extra time in abad-tempered contest. Shocking: Nigel De Jong's now infamous tackle on Xabi AlonsoWebb and his English assistants, Darren Cann and Mike Mullarkey, were criticised for their handling of the Johannesburg game, but Webb said he looked back on his performance with pride.As he prepared to return to Barclays Premier League duty onSeptember 11, Webb revealed that he has received hundreds of messagesof support. Man in the middle: Referee Howard Webb was in charge of the World Cup finalDiscussing his display, he said: ''We wanted to be a steady hand but equally we wanted to do our job properly, and if there was a clear red card we would do it,' Webb said.'When I look back on the full two hours of that game, which of course I have, there is not much I would change. One of the things I would change is the colour of the card for de Jong's tackle.'Having seen it again from my armchair several times in slow motion and from different angles, I can see that it was a red-card offence. But at the time the decision not to red-card him was not based on me not wanting to send someone off in the World Cup final, it was based on the viewing angle I had.'What I couldn't see was the actual contact on Alonso through the back of Alonso with (Mark) van Bommel just to his right - the view was obstructed somewhat.'I could see the foot was high and from Alonso's reaction there must have been some contact, even though I couldn't see the contact, and being 25 minutes into a World Cup final I wasn't prepared to guess. I wasn't prepared to fill in the blanks in my head to say that was possibly a red-card offence.'I wanted to base it on what we could see, so therefore I decided to show a yellow card.' Is it EVER acceptable to play like Holland did against Spain?Ex-ref Hackett hails underfire Webb's controversial World Cup final displayEngland's 2018 bid: A nation united in pursuit of FIFA's biggest prizeSunderland boss Bruce drags in Webb to offer advice to red card offenders  

Source: Daily_Mail