I have been a World Cup official – I promise you there is no choice

Conspiracy theories and accusations of bias cause real harm and lead to abuse of referees. It can be difficult to deal with.

Pierluigi Collina, who oversees all referees in the World Cup, had to defend the referees after Argentina’s 3-2 victory over Egypt in the last 16. He emphasized their integrity and independence.

Egypt has strongly suspected that referee Francois Letexier and his team deliberately favored Argentina. That somehow they were commanded to go against their instincts.

Collina was right when he said the narrative could lead to threats against the referee’s family, and I’ve seen them before.

I’m very lucky that it didn’t happen to me personally, but I think that’s because I’m an assistant referee and not a referee.

We hosted the final between Spain and the Netherlands in 2010. A proud day for all of us.

The game, which Spain won 1-0, was very difficult to manage. There were 14 yellow cards and Dutch defender Johnny Heitinga was sent off. Nigel de Jong could also see red.

There is a lot of criticism of Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk. That’s what you have to face just to make honest decisions.

Sometimes it’s worse than that. Our England referees at this World Cup, Michael Oliver and Anthony Taylor, have received threats over the years.

It is absolutely unacceptable and is amplified by these baseless statements that question the referee’s impartiality.

I support England, I love England, and obviously we lost to Argentina.

The referee, in my opinion, was polite in the first 25 minutes. But in the end, the reason why we are not in the finals of the World Cup is not because of the referees.

Really, it’s frustrating when you hear about conspiracy theories.

I can’t think of many other jobs in the world where one person has that much pressure.

The referee makes decisions worth millions of pounds – and they get one second to react.

Mistakes were made on the field, of course. But they are not conspiracies.

In the third group stage, I think Germany’s goal against Ecuador should have been disallowed because of a high foot. Ghana could have been awarded a penalty against England due to Ezri Konsa’s foul play. Even when they were 1-0 against Scotland, Brazil scored a goal that should have been allowed to stand, but it was disallowed.

There have been 103 games so far. That’s 10 rounds of Premier League football, right? So, of course, there will be mistakes made. It’s almost impossible to get through that many games without one.

Slovenian referee Slavko Vincic will officiate Sunday’s final.

It will be the peak of his career. You only need to look at how he felt when Collina read his name in the referee’s forum one day.

Having been lucky enough to host a World Cup final myself, I can assure you that Vincic will not care about either team winning.

He will be hoping for what all referees aspire to do, and that is to leave the field without any wrong decisions affecting the result.

That will be all he cares about.

All these conspiracy theories are bogus.

The only thing on your mind, I assure you, is getting the decisions right.

Darren Cann was speaking to BBC Sport’s Dale Johnson.