My first reaction on hearing that a Japanese alliance of sports associations would hold a study weekend on international refereeing was that it was "too little — too late."

After all, that very day a Cuban taekwondo fighter at the Beijing Olympics, Angel Valodia Matos, had kicked a Swedish referee in the head. In the annals of international sports refereeing, surely we had risen to a nadir of sorts.

Not that the Swedish referee in question would have attended this particular study event (on the last weekend of the Olympics) at the National Training Center in Akabane, Tokyo, or that his attendance would have saved him from his moment of "ouch." But who knows, as this study session included a seminar on "international communication" in sports, maybe it would save him or others from such unsporting excesses in the future.