FRANKFURT, Germany – Spare a thought for Valentin Ivanov, who lives in Moscow, loves music, plays volleyball … and is currently refereeing soccer games at the World Cup in Germany, though his employment in that area may have come to an abrupt end on Sunday,when he was in charge of the game between the Netherlands and Portugal.

Or maybe not in charge.That is the accusation, that he “lost control” of the game, a tempestuous affair that saw Ivanov hand out 16 yellow cards and – a new World Cup single-game record – four reds.His performance has been brutally criticized by both coaches, by the players, and by the big man himself, FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who had this to say: “I consider that today the referee was not at the same level as the participants, the players. There could have been a yellow card for the referee.”

From the Dutch coach Marco Van Basten came the accusation that “the referee made a mess of it,” while player Mark Van Bommel – who had been yellow-carded after only one minute of play for a foul on Christian Ronaldo – said the referee was guilty of “crucial mistakes that shouldn’t be made at a World Cup.”

But a close look at the 16 cards given out by Ivanov – and I have studied all of them – reveals every one of them to be a correct decision. In this opinion I am supported by the Italian sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport, which also found all of Ivanov’s decisions to be justified.

So where does the blame for this ugly game lie? Very definitely NOT with referee Ivanov. He did what he could to keep up with a situation in which far too many of the players on the field were intent on mischief, by fouling, time-wasting, or provocation.When that many players are behaving badly, soccer simply collapses. It is just not possible for the lone referee, even with the help of his two assistants, to control the situation.

To talk of Ivanov “losing control of the game” is nonsense.The responsibility for the ugliness of Sunday’s game lies squarely with the players and with the two coaches. The nastiness came early, and it was the Dutch who started it: two bad physical fouls on Ronaldo in the first five minutes, both punished with yellow cards by Ivanov.

In hindsight, he should have given Khalid Boulahrouz a red card. But few referees would red-card a player that early in a game. And one doubts whether it would have made much difference. The damage to Ronaldo was already done when Boulahrouz’s studs slammed into his thigh; Ronaldo limped off the field for good after only 32 minutes.The question has to be asked: was the assault on Ronaldo part of the Dutch game plan?

The Portuguese were certainly inclined to believe that was the case, and they were justified in doing so.The fouling continued, from both sides, though the number of fouls called by Ivanov – 10 against Portugal, 15 against Holland – was no more than an average total.

What would Ivanov’s critics have had him do differently? Be more draconian – give out more cards when he is already being criticized for giving too many? Or be more lenient – in other words, ignore offenses committed by players who knew perfectly well what they were up to?

Ivanov was unlucky to find himself in the middle of one of soccer’s nightmare games, where player and coaching discipline falls away (or is deliberately flouted) and chaos ensues. The World Cup has occasionally seen games like this – the so-called Battle of Bern in 1954 between Hungary and Brazil, and the equally infamous game between Italy and Chile in 1962.

They are rare, fortunately, but to blame the referee for them is absurd. Basically, the sport itself is at fault, as it is not equipped to deal with such widespread indiscipline on the field. Beyond that, it is the responsibility of the players and their coaches not to lose control. In the Portugal vs. Holland game,both teams were guilty of serious disciplinary lapses and acts of such stupidity that left one struggling to make sense of it all.

Costinha, for instance, the first of the Portuguese to be red-carded, was given a yellow by Ivanov for a wild tackle in the 30th minute. Eight minutes later, Costinha committed another bad physical foul, but Ivanov let him get away with it, no second yellow. So, right before halftime, Costinha deliberately handled the ball … and duly got his second yellow and was ejected. Is that Ivanov “losing control, or Costinha being dangerously thoughtless?

I do not believe that any other referee could have done much better than Ivanov. The cards, so to speak, are stacked too heavily against the referee in these wild-west games,and it is simply unfair to blame him for the shambles.

The sport gets nowhere when it cannot identify its problems. No doubt FIFA would greatly prefer such games not to be part of its great four-yearly soccer festival; so let FIFA work out a method that either increases a referee’s ability to assert control or, more fairly, holds out the threat of severe punishment for the players and coaches involved.

Portugal, of course, will suffer, because they have lost two key players for the quarterfinal match against England (maybe three, should the injured Ronaldo not recover). But the Dutch? The trouble on Sunday started early in the game, and it was Dutch violence against Ronaldo that set this game on its ugly course. Coach Marco Van Basten, who managed to sit innocently on the bench throughout the mayhem,and the villainous Boulahrouz both deserve special punishment for playing a major role in one of the World Cup’s more disgraceful episodes.

pgardner@nysun.com